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Emma Connolly | Episode 517
Emma Connolly is a potter who lives and works in Bedfordshire in the UK. Emma attended pottery classes at night school later in life before setting up her studio in her garden. Emma hand builds organic pieces leaving all the marks made during the process. Emma’s designs are inspired by the seasons and each piece has a scene carved by hand or by pressing botanicals into the clay.
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How would you define brand?
It is your personal unique take on your business, I guess, in branding a business. For example, my pieces are very organic and all about simplicity. They are very consciously made and because of that I wanted every aspect of that to show up. So the things I’ve done, my packaging, I have gone for eco-friendly as possible. So I hand stamp by business cards, I pack my things in hay, so I cut out plastic and everything is done in brown boxes on craft brown paper. It is all very natural. My colors are predominately the white clay and the green design. My font is quite simple and clean. I alternate shots of my work. I will have a very moody shot next to a light shot. It is all about the textures so I will photograph pieces on natural pieces of wood with elements brought in from the garden and it all ties in cohesively.
Why does style matter in branding?
If you haven’t quite got it down and it doesn’t explain who you are, then you can’t expect your customers to come and find you or buy from you. You are appealing to the person who is going to buy your things. So far, I get emails back saying how they loved how simple the design brand is and how they love unpacking something that is in straw the smell of it. You aren’t doing it just for sales but so you can connect with that person. They want to buy it from you for a reason. The product is one but the whole brand is another. So they want to buy a piece of you in other words.
Why do you pack in hay?
I wanted to find something that wasn’t loads of plastic because obviously we are trying to get away from plastic here. And I wanted something that was going to be really environmentally friendly and people then could give it to their rabbit, if they have got a rabbit, or they could just compost it. That is just going to compost down with a cardboard box. I wanted their to be no waste left over after they had got the vase.
Do you process your photos?
I do. I put them through Lightroom. When you take photos they don’t generally mimic the colors and bring out the textures like your eyes actually see it. Sometimes they do but like I said the light is forever changing and because I do lifestyle shots I go back and I just make sure that I tweak the color and the definition so when people see an image of it they know if when they buy it and get it home it is going to look like the photo. It also brings it to life a little bit as well. I can stylize a little bit and make the background a bit blurry and just making that the full front. It is inviting.
Do you curate your Instagram feed?
Yeah, I do. That is something that I learned just over the years, I guess. I am a little bit over the top about it. It isn’t curated at the moment becasue I am joining in with and Instagram hashtag where you are posting something every single day and they ask for different shots. So my feed this month is going to be a little bit all over the place. but it is good because people are actually seeing behind the scenes which I don’t tend to share a lot of. After I am done I will get back to curating. It’s like window shopping isn’t it. When people click over and see those squares it has to look nice.
You decided you didn’t want to sell through Etsy. My question is why?
I have got nothing against people who do sell on Etsy, but I just wanted to set out on my own. I didn’t want to be on where people are looking at my work and then other people’s work were popping up. As to say, you could buy this. Which is what Etsy does, or did. I don’t know if it still does actually. I just wanted to have my own thing. It didn’t look right either because like I said, going back to the whole branding thing, my website is very simplistic and I just feel like I have more control. It is a very simple storefront but i just prefer the look of it and the way I can fiddle about with it.
Book
The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin
Contact
Instagram: @emmaconnollydesigns