What Illustration Design and Merch Art can do for your Small Business Brand

form an illustrator/ brand designer specializing in small business branding

If you know me personally at all you probably know that I’m a massive nerd who’s pretty much constantly reading and/or drawing. I’m that person who has to carry around a big tote bag instead of a normal purse or wallet because I need room for my sketch book, a book to read and earbuds so I can draw and listen to an audiobook at the same time. So as you can imagine I jumped at the chance when my favorite local bookstore asked me to work with them! 

Watermark Books & Cafe is a fairly established local business. They’ve spent a ton of time and effort gradually building up their small business branding, often working with a few different illustrators or brand designers to get the right work for the job and I’m really excited to be one of their go to people, especially because clients like that are usually some of my favorites to work with. 

Watermark’s got a really loyal customer base (including myself), so they were in the perfect place to think about rolling out new merch, and that’s where I came in. 

After coming up with multiple ideas and going through a few rounds of edits to better give Watermark what they wanted we landed on a design that we all really loved and were ready to debut the new art for their independent bookstore day promotions. 

I’ve worked with a lot of clients, but typically my work is remote so I don’t always get to be there in person when the art first gets seen by the public, but this time I did. And I’m not sure I really understood just how much some new art can truly do for a business until then, because it was truly spectacular! My art was initially printed on bookmarks and a puzzle, which sold out on the first day, and that’s before even counting online orders or the second printing. So they made at least 3 times my fee pretty much immediately. I still routinely get comments from their customers and staff about how much they love the art or how it continues to sell. The design is now printed on stickers and coffee mugs. So not only does the merch illustration continue to make them quite a bit of money but it also got their loyal customer base excited about the store, driving purchases more indirectly as well.

Selling merch can be a serious boost to a small business, and here’s another article with more on why: https://theseeker.ca/2024/02/the-surprising-benefits-of-merch-for-small-businesses/

The launch went so well I was actually invited to work with them again for a second puzzle design to help a second design that rolled out around the holidays! And I think I can say it’s been another success.

You can get a look at Watermark Books and Cafe here: https://watermarkbooks.com/

If you’re interested in something similar for your business you can see some of my merch art experience on my projects page: https://www.kamillaillustration.com/illustration-design-projects

Or check out my process for small business branding here:  https://www.kamillaillustration.com/small-business-branding

EMAIL ME

BOOK A CALL