Independent Shops

Small Independent shops

 Sighh Studio

https://sighhstudio.co.uk/

Set up by owner Polly Vadasz, Sighh studio is based in Manchester. They design feel-good products that are equal parts pretty and practical. They strive to make products that make great gifts or to keep for yourself! They design and sell all sorts of products from stationary to cards to tote bags.

Sighh Studios sells products more orientated to home design, organisation and feel good slogans. She makes mirror decals with positive empowering messages, all sorts of planners and organisers, keyrings, magnets, mugs, earrings and of course the staple of an illustration shop, prints and cards. The colour scheme of the shop and products is mainly shades of pink and pastels like orange and yellow.

 Sighh Studios origin comes from when Polly was 16 years old and was selling artwork through Instagram. After some wonderful feedback on her college Graphics work, she decided to put one design on ten phone cases. After they sold out in the first month, she got twenty more cases. Slowly but surely Sighh Studio began to grow. Years of experimentation, product testing and customer research have made the business what it is today: a brand that’s packed with personality, function and form.

 As Polly grew her brand on Instagram, she feels its only right that her followers play a big part in the design process. She frequently uses Instagram stores to share behind the scenes of home life, studio life and design processes. She makes these engaging by using questions and polls and telling stories. She even shares her recipes in video form of her cooking whatever she’s making that day. Instagram Stories are a great way to interact with followers and customers in real time. It also means one person can ask a question and everyone viewing the story can see the answer/ response so this is great for shop or product questions. She also uses stories for feedback on new ideas and opinions on ongoing designs.  I hope to utilise this tool to its fullest for my own shop. The aim is that this will boost my followers and interaction on the platform, in turn the algorithm will hopefully push my account and posts out more.

 One of the next steps for her shop is to go wholesale! This means she can have the products wider spread around the country in independent shops. As well as this, Polly is slowly expanding her team from what was once just her to a studio with a team all working hard together to make things happen. As the brand grows even more, she hopes for the space to become a place for young, emerging talent to gain work experience, share ideas and learn the ins-and-outs of running a business.

 I reached out to Sighh Studio with a few questions but have not received a response yet.

HRSNR

https://hrsnr.com/

HRSNR is run by Harrison, a 23 year old illustrator from Worcester. He has been drawing for as long as he can remember and in 2018 created an Instagram account to share his art on. After progressing through lots of styles, he is now primarily focused on parody and mashup cartoons and some blackwork illustration.  A few years on he has reached over 23k followers! I have followed his account since 2018 and have loved seeing his illustrations develop and his shop grow. I have made numerous purchases from him over the years and love every single item I bought. I always have to choose where to stick the stickers carefully so I know I will see them lots!

 In his shop, HRSNR sells lots of cartoon and parody mashup creations. Lots of his products have special treatments like holographic materials and glow in the dark parts. He has always produced a variety of stickers including ones with holographic or transparent features. He also has plenty of prints in all sorts of shapes and sizes, enamel badges ranging from small to large, some with coloured metallic effect and lots of bundles of related items like themed sticker packs. I really like HRSNR’s products and how unique and different they feel.

Recently HRSNR has chosen to close down his shop with a clearance sale and has since not posted any new illustrations. I contacted the shop with a few questions about his time running a shop and his reasons for closing but have not yet received a response. I think this is an interesting comparison to Sighh Studio and shows the different approaches to running a small business. HRSNR was run by Harrison on his own, all the designs were his own and he got to choose what designs go on what products and also is in charge of all the shop running like keeping up with social media, manufacturing and posting out orders, whereas as Polly has now expanded into a bigger team the burden of jobs is shared amongst them. However, with a bigger team means the vibe and manifesto of the shop must be clear and easy for the new team members to stick to. If more designers are on the team, everything new that gets designed has to be in accordance with the feel of the shop and for it to look like it fits with the rest of the products. This is still partly true for a shop run by one person as each product has to fit in with the theme of the shop and personal manifesto to keep consistency but this is easier to stick to when all the designs are coming from one illustrator; one brain.

I will be running my own shop more like HRSNR, I will be in charge of every aspect and therefore have full control over what products I stock. I hope that this will be manageable as there is a lot to do. I can see the advantages to having a growing team but that is down to growth of the shop and money available. This could have been a factor in why HRSNR has chosen to close. He may not have wanted to expand to a bigger team but struggled to manage the shops growth on his own. He also could have decided to move on and take his illustration career in a different direction as he is young. As he started the shop around age 20, then like other illustration based small business he could have started the shop at uni or to earn some money and get his name more known. Whatever the case, I will greatly miss seeing his new creations as I felt a personal connection to his work. He illustrated some of my favourite cartoon characters and mashed them up with others and put them in settings with really unique twists. Much love to HRSNR!