Visual Merchandising with Jolly Brown

We now have around thirty stockists worldwide and JOLLY BROWN is one of them! When we sent our stock to Hannah we were so excited to see all of the beautiful instagram photos of designosaur products that we asked Hannah to share some of her Visual Merchandising secrets! This is one creative lady...

HANNAH BROWN
JOLLY BROWN
HITCHIN

Hannah in her shop JOLLY BROWN, wearing our Brachiosaurus necklace

Describe your shop...

I opened JB in the year of the crunch and this November we have been open 7 years! Lucky number 7, the year we discovered designosaur! Lucky us! We have men, women and children from all over stopping to shop in our store for themselves or for a unique gift, there is something for everyone at JB! We pride ourselves on providing awesome customer service and amazing items making JB a special place to shop and enjoy! We have beautiful Vintage clothing and accessories, skate and streetwear, independent jewellery brands and so much more! 

A T-Rex lends a hand (his mouth) to hold our Brachiosaurs Necklace

Which designosaur design do you personally like the most?

Its so hard to pick, which is why my orders take so long to arrive ;) I LOVE George, he truly is unique, I love that he goes with everything and looks different everyday... like me but my ultimate piece is the Humpback Whale... she's a real treasure!

George is displayed on a different dress until he sells!

Which designosaur piece do your customers love?
THE GNOMES... they received such a great response, so funny and clever, they really make people smile and that is something I hope ever Jolly Brown customer leaves with!

Do you believe visual merchandising plays and important role in selling your stock?

One hundred percent! It is key to my store and I try and be as creative as possible with all my VMing. I love the visual side of the business and I really look forward to getting new products to play with a create an installation in store... sometimes to the detriment of my ironing pile!

Shiny Gold T-Rex and Pavilion Necklace

Have you done anything particularly creative/ different with the way you display our products?

Hell yeah! I knew I'd love it but when my first delivery arrived, I downed tools and went out to buy some props to merchandise it! It a fun and creative brand and I wanted to do it justice, I have a store of VM props already but I had to have a dinosaur somewhere in there! George was great to work with as I just put him on a different dress everyday until he sold, the whale went in my nautical area and the unicorns sold themselves really, beautiful little things they are! It was so fun to see how the different pieces worked with my store and how well they fitted in and what they added too!

 

A T-Rex chewing on a unicorn ring, that's something you see everyday right?

Do you display products differently depending on the brand?

I do but they do also fit with the Jolly Brown vibe, I try and look how they are displayed and photographed by the brand themselves and then I work from there, that way the brand feel is still there but with a Jolly Brown slant! I use wood and brass a lot, I also love ceramic animals, they give things a personality! 

Our little chicken day tripping at the windmill

What outfit would you create with your favourite designosaur piece?

I would most definitely use the whale with a classic navy and white Breton top, dungarees & a big pair of round sunnies at this time of year, she sits so beautifully on your decolletage and I love big statement pieces over t-shirts, its not something that everyone does! Dungarees are a piece of clothing which smile, they remind people of childhood, comfort and having fun; designosaur is something which always makes the corner of my mouth turn up too!! 

Blue whale hanging out in Hannah's Nautical themed area

BIG UP to Hannah for answering our questions, we love her style and her shop, and we are also a big fan of dungarees, so why not pop in to see Hannah at JOLLY BROWN?

ROAR!

All photographs were taken by Hannah of JOLLY BROWN.

Talking about ourselves! - Kirstie Allsopp's 'The Handmade Fair'

The Handmade Fair organised by Kirstie Allsopp is the weekend of the 19th - 21st September and we will be doing a talk as part of the Etsy Business School.

Our talk is called "Setting up a successful business. Stories from an Etsy seller"

It all sounds very serious, "business school", but they have asked us to speak so even if Etsy were going for a formal business talk that ain't gonna happen as I'm far too excitable and honest! We can't wait to tell you about how we started, all the experiences we've had along the way right up to where we are now!

If you don't want to listen to us then you can visit our stall which will be in the Etsy area of the show. We will have all of the usual dinosaurs, plus some new designs which you may not have seen before. Lucky you!

Not only can you see our ugly mugs but Deadly Knitshade will be taking on Mr X Stitch in a Mollie Makes mash up in the Super Theatre. I don't even really know what that means but it sounds amazing. Deadly Knitshade has worked with Nintendo and is famous for her graffiti knitting, so you've got to come and see her right?

 

It's going to be a great day out and you can get some of your Christmas shopping done early / buy lots of awesome things for yourself and be too poor to afford Christmas presents... 

Want tickets you can buy them here: http://www.thehandmadefair.com/ticket-info/

Or you can enter to win a set of tickets over on Photocraft's blog. Lyndsey James will also be doing a talk as part of the Etsy Business School too! Photocraft helps crafters to take brilliant product shot through workshops and online courses, and Lyndsey is awesome too!

Hopefully see you there, if you do come and see us then let us know you read the blog and we will have a little something for you. If we aren't at the stall then I will be hunting out Kirstie Allsopp for a photo as she's my craft crush.

ROAR!

Buying British and Handmade this Christmas!

OK so there is C h r i s t m a s in the title which you may think is a little early, but if you are like my mum then you will have started your Christmas shopping six months ago!

Now for those of you that haven't realised, we are a British company who designs, makes and assembles all of our jewellery right here at designosaur HQ in Brighton.

We love supporting local designers and makers and do, where we can, buy local, and buy handmade. We know as well as you do that sometimes it just isn't possible to get exactly what you want right on your doorstep but all we are asking is that you consciously think about where your products are made.

We are planning to buy only British and/or handmade products this Christmas, we are part of the Brighton Etsy Team (check them out) which gives us over six hundred shops to browse through, and we think that with some time and research everybody will receive a gift they will love!

I'll keep you updated on how our buying british and handmade goes and if all else fails we will just have to give everyone designosaur for Christmas! If you'd like £5 toward your first Etsy purchase, you can redeem now or use later to buy something you’ll love by following this link http://etsy.me/1sNrAPG