Innerwoven Jewelry Branding

Romina Paiva, of Innerwoven Art, wanted to solidify her macrame jewelry business’s brand on her popular Instagram, where she got the bulk of her orders, so she could get more sales, and work on branding to get into better shows and festivals, where people would be willing to pay more for the level of quality and attention to detail she puts into her designs.

Romina and Todd

Research + Process

We had a long conversation about her personal and business roots. She told me the story of her South American upbringing, her hippie lifestyle and adventure to the USA to be with her spiritual master, the origins of macrame and her connection to nature, the Earth, and spirituality she brings into everything she does.

While her goal was to get a trade show banner designed, it became clear that so much of her brand story could be brought out visually and conceptually by using Instagram or social media to project what makes her work unique, or getting into selling on Etsy to connect with their existing user base.

I began with a mood board, then I designed elements for a banner for trade shows. After the banner was printed, we went on to design some Instagram branding and templates, and a super simple website which she could use primarily to apply to higher-profile shows which would require little to no maintenance or sales work.

I then did some research around the important elements of our conversation to pull inspiration for the banner — things like old school painted caravans, and South American poster and sign design, and Eastern temples and holy places, which reflected the most important aspects of her story, and put together a concept board.

Preliminary Concept Board

Painted caravan design inspiration

I explored typographic options and chose those that seemed to reflect the round, looping patterns of her designs and the handmade, free feeling that captures the spirit of her work.

The final mandala was inspired by the large pendants she weaves and creates. She had also expressed a love for the spiral as a graphic element, which was integrated into the mandala too.

We opted for an earthy, natural palette to complement the basic palette her designs follow — earth tones and reds.

Website: http://www.innerwovenart.com

Solution

Banner for trade shows

One of Romina’s best-selling necklace styles, which the banner’s main mandala was inspired by

The final banner design utilized a large mandala that was based on Romina’s intricate work, the spiral, and other elements from painted caravans and Eastern art found during the research process.

“About Us” on their simple website

Instagram ideas + grid proposal (education + designs, standardizes logo treatment on images)

We used many of the elements from within the banner to create continuity with the website, and simplified the circle mandala to become a more minimal icon that would work at smaller sizes.

Results

Romina used her newly designed banner in trade shows across the country and had success in some of the harder-to-get-into trade shows in the Southwest, where she met her partner, Todd. We renamed the company to reflect their partnership and they opened an Etsy account.

They now run a successful Etsy shop together, where they sell their beautiful designs in addition to on their Instagram account. (They make great gifts!)

What I Learned

I learned a lot about billing and remote communication during this project. We had some printing difficulties, and miscommunication with an online printer caused us difficulties a few times before the final banner came out as planned. I learned that it is valuable to build in room for error, both in timeline and in billing, in case any difficulties arise, and how to work with clients when any mistakes do come up, and how to correct them. I also learned a lot about humility — how important it is to take responsibility when there’s a curve ball that comes up during a client project, and to learn how to give more as the greatest response to improve things out of your control to do great business!