New Look

Finally I've got some time to blog about Shark Alley's new look!

This has mostly revolved around a new shop that I've set up, which I'm so happy with.  It looks sleek and clean and helps me offer more to my customers, which is great.

 

So how did it all start?

Following a valuable business mentoring session with Craft Central at the beginning of June, I decided that Shark Alley needed a rebrand.  Since setting up in 2010, my work and style has evolved and clearer needs have been identified, so these had to be addressed with some changes.

But how to do it?  The trouble with the creative brain (well, mine anyway!) is that it just wants to make beautiful things and it can't step outside and be objective about the business of it all.  I started off gently by gathering images on Pinterest - not with any clear ideas in mind, just to sort out the things I was drawn to visually in terms of look, feel, presentation, colours, logo etc

Then one night my friend Lucy, a 3-D designer, revealed she'd had an idea for Shark Alley. We made plans for lunch and a massive brainstorming session . . .

This is NOT our brainstorming lunch, I hasten to add! 

Lucy's idea was that, given the name, Shark Alley might be an actual place, and all the animals might live there in different streets or locations off of it.  BRILLIANT!  So maybe construct a map then? I put this idea to friend and map illustrator extraordinaire Neil Gower and he suggested that maybe there should be more of a reason for it to be a map. so it shouldn't appear too contrived  As Lucy and I brainstormed, suddenly the idea popped into my mind - TREASURE ISLAND!  Treasure, 'cos I make jewellery, RIGHT?!  This really got things going as we discussed look, feel, colours, logos etc and did lots of drawing and scribbling of notes, then I went back to the studio and started working on putting these all together in some sort of coherent form.

Inventing the environments was the next challenge. Originally I was very into the idea of constructing these from cardboard, which could also feed into an interesting display at craft fairs.  A very frenzied Sunday afternoon was spent on the floor surrounding by a sea of cardboard trying to make it work.  Should they be flat or standing?  How would I photograph them with the products?  It just wasn't working and I was so upset and frustrated.  How could I do this all by myself?  Too much!  I threw the cardboard in the recycling and started aimlessly scribbling in my sketchbook.  As is often the way, when the brain is in neutral, the ideas will come.  I had started drawing simple graphic shapes . . . hmmm, maybe this could work?

 

These shapes helped make the final choice of the environments, as it was important to be able to suggest them just by using a simple and easily-recognisable image. So they became; Mountain, Garden (flowers), Lagoon (waterlillies), Forest (trees), Bay (shells) and Lake.

Eventually the map was roughed out in Illustrator, with everything laid out nicely.

After lots of fine-tuning, the map was finally created in Photoshop, using scans of torn paper collage, brown paper and cut-out product photos.  The shark fins are a nod to the old Shark Alley logo.

The new logo is based on a quick sketch I did after the brainstorming session.  Nothing was ever better than this first one, so I ended up using it. It also inspired the shape of the island.

(Anyone notice a vague similarity to my favourite place?)

The map was the main header on the website, but I also needed headers for each category.  These originally featured four images, but they were just too much for the eye to cope with with all the products on the page as well, so I put together a simpler version instead.

All the Shark Alley products needed to be re-photographed as well, and from different angles.  I settled on brown paper as a background, as it is a good neutral colour and helps define the white stars on some of the necklaces.  Making these work on white backgrounds was always a nightmare of Photoshop jiggery-pokery!

The brown looks different for each product on the page, but I like it.  I think it fits in well with the natural theme.

 So there you go!  The new little world of Shark Alley. What do you think?  It was unbelievably hard work under the time constraint I stupidly gave myself (I wanted it done before The Handmade Fair), working evenings and weekends and having to do everything myself.  So many times it felt impossible and there was a lot of self-doubt along the way (Should I do THIS? Is THIS any good? etc etc). I'm reminded of this little gem.

www.sharkalley.co.uk