Next month, Silverlight Jewellery will be undergoing a revamp. New look, new style.
Previous Silverlight Jewellery pieces have been all OOAK - one of a kind; no design repeated. They have also had a rather scattered aesthetic, including vintage and vintage-inspired pieces, steampunk-inspired pieces, bohemian, classical, and whatever else my fevered brain would spout.
The new look is one that I am very excited about. Here's a sneak peek at the new branding.
The sticker design above was created by my graphic artist,
DrRiptide. He has designed all of the web banners for the new brand, plus the new business cards, free shipping cards, and stickers for packaging. He's a perfectionist, like me, so he didn't mind me endlessly saying 'Can we change this?' or 'I can't decide ... let's come back to it later'.
As you can see, the tagline for the new brand is '
soft gothic'. 'Gothic' means, among other things, 'of or pertaining to a literary style characterised by gloom, the grotesque, and the supernatural'. I've also heard it defined as 'characterised by a preoccupation with death'.
I'm going for a softer, less gloomy but still introspective and thoughtful feel. Gothicism without the harshness, grotesqueness, or the preoccupation with death. Don't think spikes or vampires; think black and silver, wings and keys, leather and crystal, black velvet and black satin. The night sky, frosts, creaking old iron gates, black cats, stars, the poetry of Keats and Tennyson, snow, and the moon. With occasional touches of scarlet, crimson, gold, saffron, indigo, and purple, for extra drama. A somewhat bohemian aesthetic, influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and the
New Romantics, the neo-goths and the romantigoths. (Yes, '
romantigoth' is a real word! Isn't it scrummy?)
A bohemian gothic. A romantic gothic. A soft, classy, elegant gothic.
Designs will run from simple, relatively conservative pieces with just a hint of gothic charisma, so that they are suitable for wearing to work, to bold, unabashedly bohemian showstoppers that are only suitable for rock stars and those blessed people who are so secure in themselves that they can handle the gaping stares.
There will also be a greater emphasis on masculine and unisex jewellery in this brand, with some plain leather wrap bracelets and very un-girly pendants. The font I chose for the branding is intended to reflect this 'gender neutral' feel.
There will be further previews before the big launch in September ... stay tuned.
