Brilliant Brands Sharing Seasonal Stories
As the days lengthen and stretch into early summer, we're highlighting brilliant brands that master the art of seasonal storytelling. Discover the enchanting sculptures of Jess Wheeler, taste the true flavours of the seasons with Natoora, experience the simple joys of outdoor living at Fforest and embrace the seasonal colours crafted by The Natural Dyeworks.
These four brands beautifully capture the essence of the seasonal year and we hope they will inspire you to use the seasons in your brand storytelling.
From around the world, each in a different industry, all committed to daring to do business differently.
Jess Wheeler with limited edition Bronze Rhubarb Side Table. Image with permission from Jess Wheeler
1. “elegant, poetic and rooted in the raw beauty of nature”
Artist & Designer - Jess Wheeler
“In a world where so much of what we surround ourselves with are carbon copies, delivered in highly manufactured packages, I want to create objects where you can see the touch of the hand, that are full of wobbles and imperfections.”
Encompassing fine art, sculpture and interiors, Jess Wheeler’s playful creations draw inspiration directly from the wonders of the natural world. Jess transforms natural forms from giant cabbage and rhubarb leaves to mushrooms and ivy garlands, forging them from an ever-evolving array of materials including brass, bronze and plaster.
Finding inspiration from her own garden to her daily foraging walks, Wheeler’s latest collection, ‘Left, Right & Rhubarb’ is inspired by childhood memories of spring…
Image with permission from Jess Wheeler
“Rhubarb grows from a bright pink knuckle in the wintered soil, slowly at first and then with increasing luxuriance, announcing the new Spring. As children, our Granny would take my siblings and me to her rhubarb patch, whose leaves towered over us like fairytale parasols, to collect the bright pink stems, cook them, pickle them, share with each other.
In this collection, I’ve tried to preserve the sense of occasion, magic and playfulness that I associate with rhubarb. I cast huge leaves from life, and playfully articulate these joyous springlike forms into tactile usable sculptures.”
Natoora founder Franco Fubini with one of Natoora’s growers and suppliers. Image with permission from Natoora
2. “Microseasons to unlock flavour at every stage”
Food Supliers - Natoora
“Each fruit and vegetable has its own season, with subtle shifts that happen every day. We follow each one through its microseason — early, peak or late — noticing subtle shifts and hitting on unique flavours.”
Natoora exists with one clear ambition; to fix the food problem, working to reconnect people with the origins of the food they eat. Theirs is one of “radical seasonality,” with flavour at the heart of everything they do.
“We sought out flavour by connecting with small-scale growers across Europe. We knew that fruits and vegetables grown in their natural seasons taste best, but our mission led us to growers who also preserve local growing artistry, work with diverse varieties and enhance their ecosystems.”
From the varieties in their produce boxes to the recipes they share online, to the campaigning they do across the food industry, seasonality is at the root of their brand storytelling.
A favourite example of their creative approach to communicating their mission, is their ‘Radicchio Not Roses’ campaign, now in its third year.
Every year 250 million roses are grown for Valentine’s Day, when they are not in season. Natoora’s campaign encourages people to choose a seasonal alternative…
“Deep purple with tight, curled leaves or rosette-shaped with red speckles, bright red with crisp white veins or all hues of pink; we challenge you to find flowers more striking and vibrant than these radicchio heads.”
“At the end of their life as centrepieces, radicchio plants are eaten, not wasted. Their bittersweet complexity makes them ideal for cold-weather salads. Try with lemon, anchovy and garlic dressing or preserved lime and rose vinegar. Mix with fennel and blood orange or try it wrapped around hot smoked trout and kabocha squash onigiri (as an alternative to seaweed).”
Fforest owners Sian Ticker and James Lynch. Image with permission from Fforest
3. “the result of a dream….trying to remember what ‘simple’ can look, feel and taste like”
Accommodation, camping & events - Fforest
“A place to enjoy the simplicity, pleasures and beauty of outdoor living in an outstanding natural environment.”
Fforest is the result of owners Sian and James’ dream of ‘the simplest and purest of things wrapped up in a magical setting’.
I was lucky enough to stay at Fforest for their Gather festival with four friends and our kids. It was a magical time. We cooked, ate, played and slept outdoors, lighting fires, climbing trees, building dens, crafting, dancing, and swimming in the sea, closer to the weather, the tides, stars, the moon and each other. It’s a truly special place, that really does feel like the result of a dream.
Image with permission from Fforest
Sian and James’ connection with the land is evident throughout their storytelling, sharing the simple pleasures as the seasons shift. They host a range of events to celebrate those changes, from feasts to getaways to creative weekends.
“What makes Fforest? Care, growing, cooking, eating, learning, living, fire, adventure, community. Simple.”
The Natural Dyeworks founder Ros Humphries. Image with permission from The Natural Dyeworks, shot by Dave Bullivant.
“Hand coloured slowly with plants and care”
Homewares & Accessories - The Natural Dyeworks
“Crafting an ever evolving palette of colours through the use of petals, leaves, bark, roots & seeds”
The handcrafted, hand-dyed ribbons, homewares and accessories created by owner Ros tell the story of the seasonal year. Using ingredients foraged from the Kent countryside or sourced from food waste collected from local cafes, Ros uses the alchemy of plant-based dyes to capture the essence of the seasons.
“Our palette changes continually with the seasons, and the spectrum of colours available is dependent on the ingredients available such as nettles in spring for cool greens, coreopsis in summer for wild oranges, hollyhocks in autumn for soft blues, alder cones in winter for burnished golds.”
Working exclusively with natural fibres and dyes, Ros’ process is 100% natural. Collecting only what is needed for a single dye pot, all the products show a deep respect for nature and leave as little footprint as possible, “Waste water is reused on the garden and allotment, dye pulp is composted which in turn feeds our soil”.
Want to discover more brilliant brands? The stories continue on Instagram @simplemattersmedia and sign up for our monthly newsletter ‘StoryWorks’
Brilliant Brands Sharing Stories of Sustainability
In April, for Earth Day we’re highlighting brilliant brands who are taking real steps to find better ways to do business. From different industries and with a variety of styles, they all share their work with passion, authenticity and captivating storytelling, including a paint company, restaurant, textile designer, and transport company. We hope you’re as inspired by their work and ideas as much as we are.
From around the world, each in a different industry, all committed to daring to do business differently.
Image with permission from Atelier Ellis. Photographer Ellen Christina Hancock
1. ‘complex and deep, but also quiet and cocooning’
Paint Company - Atelier Ellis
‘the colours are deeply rooted in the natural world, as well as personal memories, marks, and fragments.’
Atelier Ellis makes quiet, beautiful, handmade paint. Everything is done with exceptional care and thought and a deeply personal touch, including their hand-painted paint charts.
There is a calm confidence to their brand presence, with words and images rich with atmosphere and feeling.
‘Inspired by the way we live in nature, cities, and society, the distinctive shades are designed to create quiet, joyful backdrops to people’s homes and lives, helping them tell their unique stories of home.’
Describing themselves as a ‘human-scale business, ’ founder Cassandra Ellis is aware of the responsibility of running a business and its impact.
“How we consume affects not only an individual’s life but also our society and the environment…I believe in true stewardship - taking care, being in service, producing what we need, and communicating the benefits clearly and simply.
Their paint, ‘True Matt Emulsion,’ is now made using a bio-based formulation, including vegetable oil, sugar, and bio ethanol. Based in Bath, 90% of their materials come from the UK, the remainder from Europe.
The ultimate stewardship is to make the best quality paint in unique colours. As an independent business, we are free to choose best practices and materials, while manufacturing in a fair and equal way.’ - Cassandra Ellis
Image with permission from Silo
‘A Restaurant without a bin.’
The world’s first Zero waste restaurant - Silo
‘Imagining a world without waste.’
A story of daring to think differently and find a better way. ‘Silo’ is the determined vision of Chef & owner Doug McMaster who believes, ‘waste is a failure of the imagination.’
‘a restaurant that doesn’t have a bin: from that simple limitation grows a big tree.
At Silo we choose to provide quality through purity, adopting a more primitive diet with techniques both modern and ancient. Zero waste Silo is a restaurant designed from back to front, always with the bin in mind.
The production of waste has been eliminated by simply choosing to trade directly with farmers, using re-usable delivery vessels and choosing local ingredients that themselves generated no waste. Any remaining scraps of food are then composted, closing the loop.’
It’s not just the food, every detail from the furniture to the plates have been made using recycled materials, developed through experimentation, innovation and of course, imagination.
As well as deliciously creative food (how does quaver and vegetable treacle sound?), there’s a book, ‘The Zero Waste Blueprint’ which is part cookbook, part manifesto.
For more inspiration, this film is definitely worth a watch…
Film by Matt Hopkins of Progress Film Company as part of their series ‘England Your England’ which focuses on individuals in society who are breaking ground from an underdog position.
Image with permission from New Dawn Traders
‘buy less, buy better, buy local, by sail.’
Food Suppliers - New Dawn Traders
‘From across the oceans by the power of the wind, we welcome a new dawn for shipping cargo under sail.’
New Dawn Traders is a Cornish company, that wants to change global trade, offering an alternative and more sustainable way to transport goods.
An estimated 90% of the world’s goods are transported by sea. For many of us, it’s only when a significant event occurs, like a ship getting stuck or a route closing because of war, that we give much thought to how the things we buy have reached us.
New Dawn Traders is working to change that.
‘We trade in wild ideas and delicacies, working with sailing cargo vessels to import produce from across the Atlantic Ocean and along European coastlines pollution-free. Inspired by people, projects, and businesses that promote resilience in local food systems….with our network of ships, producers, and allies, we are building new models for supply chains that put the planet and people first.
New Dawn traders want to reconnect with the journeys of the things we buy to encourage us to focus on what we really need and what can be found locally…playing our part in the global movement to bring food trade to a human scale & consumerism to a conscious level.
The cargos that WE choose to sail over from distant lands are of value because they are products that cannot be grown in England and are of cultural significance and curiosity – the luxuries in life that are worth savouring; like coffee, chocolate, and rum.’
Definitely an idea we can get on board with.
Visit their website to read more about their values and vision. A truly seasonal business, always planning their next voyage and awaiting a favourable wind.
Image with permission from Rootfull
‘Growing lighting fashion and sculpture with biology.’
At the intersection of science, art and design - Rootfull
‘Rootfull cultivates root textile and bridges two seemingly separate worlds from underwater to underground whilst blending artistry, material science, and sustainability.’
I gasped the first time I discovered the work of Zena Holloway and her business Rootfull.
Zena is an incredibly talented underwater photographer. As a diver, she saw the realities and devastating consequences of plastic pollution in our oceans, witnessing marine life being destroyed by climate change.
Zena didn’t look away, instead she dared to question the way things are made and from that curiosity the idea ‘took root and grew.’
She set up ‘Rootfull’ an innovative business that’s seeking to disrupt the material choices we make.
‘Rootfull is a material innovation company developing a new generation of root textile solutions for the circular economy.’
Through exploration and research, Rootfull is developing ways that we might grow new materials. Using wheatgrass seed she’s creating art, sculptures, textiles and even wedding dresses. But more importantly she’s daring to imagine another, better way inspiring more sustainable solutions that could help to slow or reverse climate change.
Want to discover more brilliant brands? The stories continue on Instagram @simplemattersmedia and sign up for our monthly newsletter ‘StoryWorks’
The Art Of Brand Storytelling With The Seasons By Superfolk
“To know, to love, to protect is a guiding principle in all that we do. We use our skills as designers to share the beauty and cleverness of our natural world. We do this in a bid to push others to get outdoors and ultimately to be moved to protect our natural environment.”
Superfolk is a lifestyle brand created by Jo Anne Butler, an artist and architect and her husband Gearoid Muldowney - a designer and maker. Their lives are rooted in the wildly beautiful landscape of the west coast of Ireland. The rich, raw colours, textures and patterns of each season are woven into everything they do and create. This connection and respect for the environment inspires and informs how they live, raise their family and work. Everything is created slowly and thoughtfully with an understanding that we are nature, not separate from it.
We’re delighted to bring you our conversation with Jo Anne as she shares the ways she and Gearoid are working to inspire us all to connect more deeply with ourselves and the natural world we’re part of.
“To know, to love, to protect is a guiding principle in all that we do.
We use our skills as designers to share the beauty and cleverness of our natural world. We do this in a bid to push others to get outdoors and ultimately to be moved to protect our natural environment.”
Superfolk co-founders, Gearoid Muldowney and Jo Anne Butler
As the seasons change, with the fresh energy of spring, we’re sharing a love story inspired by a deep relationship with the natural world.
Superfolk is a lifestyle brand created by Jo Anne Butler, an artist and architect and her husband Gearoid Muldowney - a designer and maker.
Their lives are rooted in the wildly beautiful landscape of the west coast of Ireland. The rich, raw colours, textures and patterns of each season are woven into everything they do and create. This connection and respect for the environment inspires and informs how they live, raise their family and work.
Everything is created slowly and thoughtfully with an understanding that we are nature, not separate from it.
We’re delighted to be able to bring you our conversation with Jo Anne as she shares the ways she and Gearoid are working to inspire us all to find a way to connect more deeply with ourselves and the natural world we’re part of.
Q First, to start at the beginning, tell us your story…
Gearoid and I are both designers from the west of Ireland. We met when we were both in art college in Dublin. After several years, mainly in Dublin but also in Finland and Denmark, we decided to move back to the west of Ireland. I had finished my studies in architecture, and Gearoid had started a small design business called Superfolk. Once in the west of Ireland, we decided that we would both work at Superfolk full-time and see where we could bring it. Three children, a pandemic and many years later - we are still here. We design and make homeware products, which we primarily sell directly to our customers through our online shop.
Q You share a beautiful narrative of ever-changing landscapes, wildlife and seasons through your business and products. It feels so natural and true to you - was it as easy to find and shape your story as it comes across?
I think it felt easy in that it felt obvious and natural to us. We have both always had a strong sense of home and pride of place. We also both feel a strong sense of responsibility to speak out for our natural environment and to bear witness to the destruction we are all causing to our home planet.
The key thing was for us to recognise that we are not scientists or statisticians. We are artists, designers and craftspeople. And so we thought deeply about what our role could be in helping to guide people towards more sustainable and activist behaviour.
We talked a lot about the idea that “No one will protect what they don't care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced”. So now we use “to know, to love, to protect” as a guiding principle in all that we do.
We use our skills as designers to share the beauty and cleverness of our natural world. We do this in a bid to push others to get outdoors and ultimately to be moved to protect our natural environment.
Q Is the natural world something that has always inspired you?
Yes. I grew up in a small town in the countryside, and I have always loved being outdoors and being in nature - it is where I feel most at ease and feels most natural. It was also the time I most enjoyed spending with my father - just going up the fields, swimming in the lake or picking blackberries. I knew that it was where he was happiest, too. I love the changing colours of the sky, the seasons and the weather. I can remember times when I was cut off from nature and how that felt - when I went to university in Dublin city centre and later to Arhus in Denmark - I struggled a bit with being surrounded by concrete and buildings all the time. In Denmark, I missed the absolute drama of Irish skies - the ever-changing clouds. It felt like being cut off from the energy source - I found it confusing and harder to make creative work.
Q Why is it important to you to share the story of the things you create, the inspiration, materials and process? Do you think it matters to your customers, and how do they respond?
Just as we believe time spent in nature is good for you, we also believe that making is good for us. We are so lucky that we get to spend time in the studio and workshop making. I come from a long line of teachers, and I love showing people how things are made.
For example, the printmaking we do in the studio is very simple - I love that people can watch and understand it. I love it when people comment and say - oh, I remember I did that in school. We want to inspire other people to get making also.
Most of our products are sold directly to our customers online. In some ways, the experience of browsing an object in a physical shop is replaced with the experience of connecting with the maker and the creative process. Our customers are often makers, artists and designers themselves and really connect to these stories of making.
Q Makers and artists often find it hard to ‘sell’ their work. Do you feel a tension or resistance to weaving together the creative and commercial parts of running a business, and how do you overcome it?
No, honestly, we don’t feel that tension.
Speaking just for myself, I think it took me some time to take myself seriously as a maker - I enjoyed it so much but didn’t think I deserved the titles of printmaker or craftmaker.
While we enjoy the things we are good at, we can sometimes take it for granted and not recognise our skills, or we think of it as “nothing”. Like your friend who bakes an elaborate cake and then dismisses it as just something they threw together at the last minute.
It took me a while to take seriously the thing that I enjoy and comes so naturally and easily to me. To anyone struggling with this, it is ok to charge money for the thing that you love to do. It could be that you love to do it because you are naturally good at it.
Today, I believe so much in the quality of our work, and I’m proud to represent it and share it with people. We get such lovely feedback from our customers; I know that our work has meaning and value to them.
Q You have such strong values as people and in your business. How does knowing your story help you stay committed to your purpose? Do you ever feel a temptation to compromise, and how do you resist that?
We all have a responsibility to do as we say, whether as a parent, an employer or as a brand.
On a housekeeping level, every January, we revisit our longer-term vision and check back in with our brand values. We have a series of workshops to identify any areas we need to work on and create our goals and milestones for the year ahead. If ever there is a gap emerging between what we are saying and what we are doing our customers can sense it.
Q Superfolk is so atmospheric; there’s a real sense of place and the wild landscape of the west coast of Ireland in everything you share. How do you achieve that so well and so consistently?
This is a very hard question to answer. Reflecting the weather and atmosphere of the west of Ireland is something we do instinctively - it seems to be the obvious and natural thing to do. For us, the beauty of the west of Ireland is the star of the show, and we are catching up. It leads, we follow.
We were both raised with a strong sense of pride of place. When that sense of place is baked into you at an early age, it shapes you and the things you make. It never leaves you. Rick Rubin talks about creativity as something we allow to come “through us” - I really identify with this.
On a practical brand level, there are some things that we do to help create consistency. We put our customers at the centre of what we do - when we create something new - we try to speak warmly and directly to our customers. We have brand colours that we try to stick to, use primarily natural daylight in photography, use natural materials, bring our camera with us when we head out for a walk, and have a “house style” in how we post-process images.
Q How do you adapt your storytelling to the seasons? In terms of written and visual storytelling?
We use social media, newsletters and blog posts to share the world around us. And so naturally - as the seasons change, so our stories shift and change. In Spring, we might talk about how to forage for seaweed or collect wild garlic. In Winter, we might share how to identify trees without their leaves.
Q Why do you think people respond so well to stories from creatives and makers? Is it becoming more important?
Every night at bedtime, I read stories to our three children. Sometimes, our three-year-old asks me to read the same story I have read to her maybe 50 times before. From an early age, we all learn to love stories. Through stories, we learn about worlds that are very different to ours, we learn to see things through another perspective, and, of course, we learn about ourselves through the stories of others.
Creatives and makers are lucky in that we are naturally good at creating visuals and images that help us to share and tell our stories with others. But I believe every person (and business) has a good story to tell. I think it is important that we use our skills as storytellers to help others to tell their stories too.
Q Which other brand stories do you love and admire?
From the outset with Superfolk, we have loved Yvon Chouinard’s book “Let My People Go Surfing”. We have a quote from him stuck on the wall in the studio - it reads - “the more you know, the less you need”. Recently, Gearoid had the opportunity to interview Yvon and wrote about it on our blog. Then, recently, the leadership that Yvon and his family have shown in giving away their ownership of Patagonia, dedicating all profits from the company to projects and organisations that will protect wild land and biodiversity and fight the climate crisis, is remarkable.
Closer to home, we really admire Mungo Murphy Seaweed Company. They are a mother and daughter farming abalone in a land-based re-circulated aquaculture system in south Connemara. It is remarkable what they are doing. We need more people and businesses like them who are brave enough to do business differently.
Q What’s the next chapter for Superfolk?
Next up this year, we are working on a new website and a new line of wallpaper, and as always, we are working towards our three-year vision for the company and with an eye on the longer-term picture, too. We hope to become more active in our membership of “1 per cent for the Planet”
In our personal lives - we have three amazing children, two of whom are under 3. And we are slowly renovating an old stone house to make it our family home. We want to enjoy our time with our children when they are so young - so they will always come first. Our family is what we value most of all.
Want to discover more brilliant brands? The stories continue on Instagram @simplemattersmedia and sign up for our monthly newsletter ‘StoryWorks’
Five Brilliant Brands With Love Stories At Their Heart
For February, we're celebrating brilliant brands created with love, passion and a desire to do business better. From different industries and with a variety of styles, they all share their work with captivating storytelling, including a bookshop, furniture maker and ceramics company. We hope you love them as much as we do.
From around the world, each in a different industry, all committed to daring to do business differently.
Image with permission from Salted Books. Photographer @Iamlaurengrant
1. ‘Buy books from bookshops. Not a billionaire.’
Bookshop - Salted Books, Libson
‘An English language bookshop in Lisbon.’
This is a bookshop you can judge by its tote bag - ‘bookshops not billionaires.’
Salted Books (‘because everything’s better salted’) are rewriting the script not just in their carefully curated selection of titles, which owner Alex Holder describes as “a little bit salty”, but in their brilliant messaging.
Losing track of time in a bookshop and leaving with a stack of newly discovered titles is one of the great pleasures in life. But opening an independent bookshop in 2023 takes nerves of steel, passion and pots of just-the-right-blue paint.
‘Tonnes of independent bookshops in Lisbon - we’re proud to be one of them.’
With Salted Books, Alex and her husband are doing even more; they’re pulling back the curtain on the costs of opening and running a bookshop, and it’s not all the romantic love story. With the belief that ‘a transparent economy is a fairer economy,’ they’re experimenting with ‘open accounting’ - sharing their own bookkeeping and the financial realities of the bookshop dream.
Follow all the plot twists of this story on Instagram @saltedbooklisbon. It’s one that deserves a happily ever after.
2. ‘Limited Edition Jackets, available four days a year.’
Clothing - Paynter Jacket Co.
‘We want to bring meaning back to clothing.’
A story of the desire to make the perfect jacket.
‘We take iconic jacket styles and re-make them using the best materials that we can find. All of our jackets are made to order, in limited edition batches, just four times a year. It's our way of making sure we create no waste.’
Founders and couple Becky Okell and Huw Thomas are fully committed to their values and show it is possible to deliver a no-waste business model, creating clothing that’s beautiful, functional and meaningful.
‘We make what we believe in and love. We only create formulas that we want to use ourselves in our own home for our family and for loved ones.’
Follow Paytner on Instagram and sign up for their newsletter, it’s one of the best.
3. ‘objects for life’
Ceramics - Feldspar
‘beautiful things made properly and to last.’
Feldspar is an irresistibly romantic story set in the wild Dartmoor landscape.
‘Jeremy and Cath began by making a mug for coffee - with a wonky profile to sit perfectly in the hand.’
It’s a business founded on a love of family, home and things done properly.
“Our first child, Milo, had just been born, and it sort of made sense to quit our jobs and take three months off. Jeremy’s parents lived down here, so we found somewhere to rent and spent our time growing vegetables, reading Nigel Slater cookbooks and throwing pots on a wheel that we bought from a man on the moors.”
Soon after, Feldspar was born: a ceramic and homewares company specialising in elegant, textured pieces ranging from coffee cups to butter dishes.
And a passion for preserving craft.
‘A mug for coffee…with a wonky profile to sit perfectly in the hand (mugs are only cylindrical because they are easier to make that way)…
…mould making, slip-casting and industrial bone china production are all listed as critically endangered crafts by the Heritage Crafts Association in the UK. Many of the larger potteries in England now only serve as museums and showrooms, with all of their wares being made (more cheaply) abroad. We were anxious to preserve the skills and craft required to keep bone china production going in England, and to show that it is perfectly possible to make things from start to finish in the UK.’
4. ‘An obsession with chairs’
Furniture - Wilkinson & Rivera
‘Guided by time-honoured techniques and materials, Wilkinson & Rivera create collectable pieces for the everyday.’
With roots in London and New York, the studio was founded in 2020 by Grant Wilkinson & Teresa Rivera, combining their collective experience in fine art, furniture-making and design.
The couple uses ‘age-old processes to craft enduring pieces of design’, turning hardwoods (oak, walnut and ash) into chairs that appear to ripple and move.
Based on traditional designs, their chairs are reimagined with delightful names like ‘puffed’, ‘rippled’ and ‘wilted’.
5. ‘A truly personal dance we do and ongoing labour of love’
Design - Pinch
‘For us, the worlds of work and home are delicately intertwined - balanced in equilibrium.’
An enduring love story.
‘every element of this furniture has been made with passion and from the heart.’
Pinch is led by a husband and wife partnership, Russell Pinch and Oona Bannon, creating products that are ‘characterised by a quiet and elegant aesthetic, the result of tireless refinement and an intense dedication to craft and process.’
‘We believe in poetic design and making beautiful things, pieces that endure, inspire and aspire to be inherited.’
Want to discover more brilliant brands? The stories continue on Instagram @simplemattersmedia and sign up for our monthly newsletter ‘StoryWorks’
The Art Of Brand Storytelling With Imogene + Willie
We’re delighted to be able to share the story of one of our favourite brands - American denim company ‘Imogene + Willie’.
Co-founders Carrie and Matt Eddmenson are master jean makers and natural storytellers.
Their story starts with an email sent out at 3 am telling a few hundred people about their dream; ‘We simply want to sew in the back of the store a good jean for both men and women that fits perfectly.’
Fifteen years later, it’s a story of success with two shops, a team of 75 and I+W jeans sold around the world to a loyal community of customers and fans.
But theirs is also a story of struggle, heartbreak and refusing to lose hope…
An American Love Story
‘for lovers of good denim and other treasures’
We’re delighted to be able to share the story of one of our favourite brands Imogene + Willie and to have the chance to speak to the I +W team.
Co-founders Carrie and Matt Eddmenson are master jean makers, and natural storytellers.
Their story starts with an email sent out at 3am telling a few hundred people about their dream; ‘We simply want to sew in the back of the store a good jean for both men and women that fits perfectly.’
15 years later, it’s a story of success with two shops, a team of 75 and I+W jeans sold around the world to a loyal community of customers and fans.
But theirs is also a story of obsession, struggle, heartbreak and refusing to lose hope…
‘The hopeful rise of a fallen dream’ by Imogene + Willie co-founders Carrie and Matt Eddmenson
Q: The story is so captivating because it’s honest and personal. A true love story. You share how I+W was born out of struggle and how it’s grown through risks and uncertainty. Why do you think it’s important to share the reality and did it feel scary to do so?
A: The evolution of our business is not unusual - many businesses face the challenge of staying true to their initial mission statement when up against financial and operational hurdles trying to stay afloat. We try to remain transparent when we make the wrong call, have to backtrack, etc. In 2018, at a pivotal moment in our history, we decided to scale back and start again in order to grow in a sustainable way. I have no doubt that these decisions were made with some fear of the unknown, but ultimately the gut check leads us in the right direction.
Q: In the beginning of I+W, you sent an email to friends and family with the hope of selling 250 pairs of jeans. You now have two shops, a team of 75, and sell your jeans around the world, it’s no longer just your family and friends buying. How has the relationship with your customers changed over time and as the business has grown?
A: We are grateful for the growth of our community and business, but ultimately it does mean it is harder to stay connected with everyone who is a customer now. In the early days, Matt & Carrie knew almost everyone who ever walked through the doors of our shop. Our stores remain a huge priority for this reason - interactions that take place there are the touchpoint that has remained a constant as we’ve grown. Our Customer Experience team is also hugely valuable, allowing us to stay connected one-on-one with those across the globe. They offer interactions beyond online service: they provide remote fittings, and reach out to express our appreciation for customer support. We also utilize other methods of staying in touch, including our email newsletters and social media, as well as community events.
‘In some ways, our story was all we had. It was our identity, our guiding light, our foundation on which to make business decisions. All of our marketing was (and mostly still is) us telling our own story.’
Q: How does having such a clear and strong story help with running the business in terms of decisions, marketing, hiring…working with people internally and externally?
A: In some ways, our story was all we had. It was our identity, our guiding light, our foundation on which to make business decisions. All of our marketing was (and mostly still is) us telling our own story. Our people are hired based on their ability to tell our story. Our partners and people we work with are those who know our story well enough to share it. This is how our community was built, and we owe everything to our community for holding us up for these 15 years.
Q: How do your customers respond to your story?
A: Our customers are incredibly thoughtful and attentive; they don’t miss a thing. They expect us to be transparent and communicative enough for them to make informed decisions when purchasing. They appreciate hearing our process, because it’s a way for them to relate and stay connected to us. Our customers hold us accountable if we ever don’t meet their expectations as far as quality or practices. In turn, when we DO, they spread the word of our company like the gospel.
Q: You’ve focused on doing things well and ‘forever on the quest to make the perfect jeans’. How does the brand story help you communicate that commitment to quality products?
A: While so much of what we communicate has to do with sourcing and production practices, ultimately our products need to speak for themselves and hold up to the expectations of our customer. They come to us to purchase investment pieces, ones that they can trust will serve them for a long time to come. With that, customers provide ample feedback as to fit or fabric, as well as give us their trust that our pieces are timeless designs.
Q: Your story and purpose is one of doing things well, made in the US, supporting community and people. Was it hard starting and growing a business while being uncompromising in your values? Does that get harder as the business expands?
A: It was definitely hard, and in fact, staying true to these values nearly led to our downfall. Starting the business was feasible at such a small scale with the resources available to us. As we started to grow, we were up against production and sourcing practices in the USA that were limited and expensive. Some of the biggest decisions we made surrounding how to make these factors more accessible ended up being mistakes in the long run and put us in very hard times. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to restart and learn from what went wrong about six years ago, starting a new period of growth for the business that has been more sustainable. Now that we are celebrating 15 years since opening, we are so fortunate to have been able to preserve our value set while growing and to have now reached a size that is able to support smaller businesses with the same values.
Q You share your story consistently and beautifully, weaving it into everything you create and do. How do you use it so effectively as a marketing strategy?
A: Thank you for such kind words! We strive to remain a creative-led business, which means we have creative minds at the helm of all strategy. In turn, everyone who has a hand in the process of whatever we do has a beautiful and unique way of sharing their version of our brand story. Through the passion of our team, we are a very united front on how we market the brand. Each of us is an ambassador of the brand and represents it with pride. So while we have an exceptional team in-house that focuses on conventional marketing, those for whom the brand voice and image are deeply ingrained, everyone in the company shares a collective responsibility for marketing in a variety of ways. For instance, our retail team introduces new people to the brand when they walk in our stores, our web team creates an engaging and smooth user experience on our site, our creative team tells stories through photos and videos, and our development team tells the story of textiles through the mills and artisans we work with.
Q What advice would you give to a business owner about how to create a story to share and sell their work?
A: Stay true to yourself, stay true to your identity, even when outside forces try to get you to be more conventional, follow a playbook, conform. Patagonia’s founder Yvon Choinard is known for saying, “Every time we've done the right thing it's ended up making us more money,” and I think this is an amazing principle to follow, based on what is right for you and your people.
Q Which other brand stories do you love and admire?
A: We’ve had the privilege of partnering with some of the folks we most admire in our space, such as Vidalia Mills, Crescent Down Works, Save Khaki United, and Little River Sock Mill, who are each carrying on the legacy of American manufacturing that has been fading around us over the years. Similarly, the folks at Musgrave Pencil Co. have withstood a century of industries and resources changing around them, remaining steadfast to their old traditions. And then there are people in our community, like Cameron and Whitney Weiss of Weiss Watch Company - they own some of the most state of the art technology in the country in their facility, but meticulously do everything themselves in order to offer a perfectly-made product. This list could go on and on!
Q: What’s the next chapter for Imogene + Willie?
A: As we begin to celebrate our 15th anniversary, we are simultaneously looking back and looking forward. We see this as a time of reflection, a time to celebrate how where we started got us to where we are now. With this in mind, it’s an opportunity to revisit the early days and invoke nostalgia for our community while enforcing the values we were based on. This year is all about partnerships, because no one (and no business) is solely responsible for their own success, it comes from the support of others. Looking ahead at our next 15 years, our goal is to keep this momentum going, allowing us to better the lives of our people and leave the planet in the best condition possible.
supper + song at Imogene + Willie. Gathering community around music.
Questions answered by Jackie Berkley, Director of People + Culture at Imogene + Willie
Want to discover more brilliant brands? The stories continue on Instagram @simplemattersmedia and sign up for our monthly newsletter ‘Stories Matter’.
The Art Of Brand Storytelling With Design Studio 'Joyce Of All Trades'
‘like a potter moulding clay…shaping a brand from its raw potential, transforming it into a beautiful and sustainable expression of what they do.’
Good design is more than a pretty logo, tasteful colours and trendy fonts. It’s about bringing the story and purpose of a business to life, capturing the feeling and heart of what a brand does. In this blog conversation, we talk to graphic designer Joyce Vacca about her approach to crafting brand identities that, as well as looking beautiful, work to communicate a story and feeling.
She also shares insights into running her own successful business and how she’s set up her work in a way that wins clients but also supports her well-being.
Joyce Vacca, shot by Mim Howell
Good design is more than a pretty logo, tasteful colours and trendy fonts. It’s about bringing the story and purpose of a business to life, capturing the feeling and heart of what a brand does.
Designer Joyce Vacca creates brand identities that are always thoughtful and rich in meaning. We collaborated with Joyce for the ceramics business Barton Croft, creating a compelling story to go with Joyce’s brand design, including the beautiful table illustration. Working for a pottery brand was a natural fit, as Joyce describes her work and approach as ‘like a potter moulding clay…shaping a brand from its raw potential, transforming it into a beautiful and sustainable expression of what they do.’
Like her designs, Joyce runs her own business in a soulful way, focusing on balance and well-being. In our conversation, she provides helpful insight into finding a sustainable way to be a successful business owner; wisdom many of us could benefit from at the start of the new year.
Q: January is often a time of reflection and setting goals for the year ahead. What is your advice for small businesses that want to do their best work and drive their business forward in a sustainable way in 2024?
I love the sense of newness that January brings! I think the best thing you can do is take a moment to step back and reflect before you jump into action. Reflect on the past year and ask yourself what things no longer serve you - either financially (because financial health is important) or passion and interest-wise. Priorities that you cared about a year ago may have shifted and it’s important to pivot your business efforts accordingly. I find that it’s especially important for small businesses where personal life and business are so intertwined. Life changes and so our businesses need to shift with them. Don’t be so wrapped up in the frenzy that you run in a direction that’s diametrically opposed to where you actually want to go. List the things you want to cut down or reduce but also expand on the things that get you excited and/or provide the stable foundation to allow you to go after the things that matter to you. Your plan always needs to be a blend of grounded realism and heartfelt vision.
Joyce Vacca, shot by Salsabil Morrison
Q: A lot of your work involves helping brands truly understand what their values are and what makes them unique. Do you go through a certain process with each brand to help them uncover their story?
I do and it’s one of my favourite things to lead my clients through. I have developed my own twist over the years which I lovingly call my ‘Wayfinding Workshop’. My framework takes us through your why, what and who through a series of starter questions that serve as an intentional springboard into unique (yet guided) conversations where we find the gold and connect the dots. I find the brand story always emerges in dialogue and I love the part where I can see things click in my clients and things suddenly become clear. That clarity of knowing who you are and your place is a powerful thing.
Q: How important is having a strong brand story when designing and creating visuals for a brand?
Every designer’s brain works a little differently but for me, it’s integral to the process. I love linking back visual decisions to the brand story, researching relevant cultural and historical references and pulling those through into their brand world in a way that echoes their story. You can harness our shared visual language in wonderful ways and it adds so much depth to the work! In practical terms this can take many forms, for example, I would look at typography that reflects both the tone and the context of the brand or develop icons and imagery that may have a personal connection to the brand founder but also tell the overall brand story. For a recent project, I did a deep dive into William Morris’ patterns since the client’s interior styling approach was inspired by his work, so I had a lot of fun building a vintage typography system. I always want to feel like the audience steps into a little brand universe when they interact with the brand.
Packing slip designed by Joyce of All Trades for pottery studio Barton Croft
Q: You’re someone who really prioritises your own wellbeing and creating a business that’s sustainable for you long-term. How do you manage to maintain those boundaries and ensure you’re doing work that inspires you creatively without getting overwhelmed?
It always is a bit of a work in progress. But I think it’s really important to not let your work consume your identity. Your business is something you do, not something you are. It’s something that you cultivate, nurture and steward, a little bit like a plant. Seeing my business as its own entity that I get to shape and harness has helped my mental health massively. I have discovered, I benefit from some routine although I don’t have a very fixed schedule, I try to maintain rhythms that are helpful for me to stay on track. I would also say I’m less ambitious than some business owners so that helps with not constantly feeling like I am behind on my goals and maybe in some ways that’s more sustainable. I do believe good things take time and it’s ok not to be the biggest name in the game, as long as I know I do my work with excellence and leave things better than I found them (and can make a living whilst doing so).
I also keep an eye out for my ‘give out/recharge’ balance, if I feel like work and life has been a constant pouring out recently I try to claw back some margin doing things that recharge me. So if I have a big few weeks, I schedule in a slower admin day afterwards or even just a potter around my local book shops to give my brain some space to collect itself. Sometimes that’s not possible but I found that there are always modifications for something to at least help me tilt the balance a little bit. I like to look at my energy levels distributed over the week not the day, some days just require me to be all in and other days don’t, so I try to keep an eye on the overall trend of energy expense - and being mindful of other things on my plate that also require emotional and mental energy especially outside of work, sometimes we forget to ‘budget’ for those things.
I would also say boundaries are not necessarily rules set in stone, different things work for different people.
Q: Does having a clear and strong brand story help you run your own business, for example, does it help you to make decisions and connect with Clients?
Absolutely! If you know what you’re about, you’re not so easily sidetracked by what everyone else is doing. It’s like a compass that helps you stay true to yourself and when I haven’t followed it in the past, it did not go well for me. For example, all the thoughts on boundaries that I shared with you are rooted in my brand story centred around grounded craftsmanship, design with soul and substance for artisan souls - people and brands that do things well and beautifully.
Because of that my marketing strategy is rooted in inviting honesty and an emphasis on collaboration and dialogue. My brand is never pushy, never forceful and I will not encourage someone to invest outside their means for example - I have actually talked some potential clients out of a rebrand because it was not the right move for them at the time and one of them thanked me relieved and teary-eyed, so yes I missed out on a contract but it was the right thing to do in her situation.
This also goes for my pricing strategy, I deliberately have crafted packages for people who want to do things properly and want to give their brand the time and headspace it deserves, structured in a way that allows me to do work that is thoughtfully constructed and well executed whilst being fairly compensated. I don’t lower my prices because it would mean to cut corners and that goes against my brand story, however I offer different services to meet different needs in a way that is congruent with my brand story.
So yeah, getting clear about your brand story can definitely help you make big business decisions.
Image: Tote bag designed by Joyce of All Trades for jewellery brand Studio Adorn
Q: What other brand(s) have storytelling that you particularly love? And is there a brand with a story you'd love to work with?
There are so many!!! I love the concept of Maison d’Etto, designed by Lotta Nieminen, she distilled the story and visual references into such a striking and elegant brand identity, truly one of my favourite brand identities to date. A. N. Other perfumes also have a really strong brand story that weaves through everything they do.
Personally, I am a huge fan of Joanna Eliza’s photography & videography, they have such a strong brand narrative around slow living and emotional intimacy which would be such an honour to translate into visuals. Another dream project would be some local bakeries that work with regenerative wheat and spearhead other sustainable practices, I would to collaborate with them!
Want to discover more brilliant brands? The stories continue on Instagram @simplemattersmedia and sign up for our monthly newsletter ‘StoryWorks’