March Meet The Maker is a social media challenge by Joanne Hawker, in which creatives talk about every aspect of their small businesses. You can find out more on the March Meet The Maker website here.

I'm taking part in most days of the challenge, and will be updating this blog post frequently through the month, alongside my social media accounts - so keep an eye out for my updates!

Storytime

Heya! I’m Hannah and this is Looksee, a small creative business in Glasgow. At Looksee, I help you share joy and celebrations with your loved ones through bright and bold greeting cards and more.

Looking for high quality cards that are recyclable, supplied in eco-friendly packaging, with fab animal designs and a variety of sentiments and occasions? We’ve got you!

 

The Human Touch

🎨Every design has been doodled, illustrated, and coloured by my hand
✨I believe there’s something magical about designing and creating a card with my hands, for you to write with your hands, which your pal then receives and holds in her hands
👋That moment of joy when she opens her card and sees it’s from you - well, it’s basically a hug in an envelope, delivered right to her home and her hands!

Tasks

🎨I'm an illustrator and designer, so drawing and editing artwork are a given - though I also enjoy a lot of variety in my work tasks, including:
💻Wrangling technology and website maintenance (and only occasionally throwing the computer out of the window!)
🎁Making pins super giftable in hand stamped eco-friendly boxes
💌Embossing envelopes by hand
📸Photographing my products, and lots of beautiful places for my blog and newsletter
️📦Packaging everything in eco-friendly compostable and recyclable materials, posting orders to travel across the UK, and fulfilling local deliveries
📝Writing thank you notes, product descriptions, and content for blog posts, social media, and emails
🖨️Working with print companies and other manufacturers to make our products, as well as making or finishing some products in house
️🏬Stocking products with fantastic UK indie businesses
📚Learning! There's always room for improvement, so courses, books, Skillshare and Youtube are all fab

Combination

✏️While my artwork is mostly digital these days, I aim for hand-drawn charm in combination with the clarity of digital illustration. I feel like this is the best of both worlds - I can create lines with varying widths depending on the pressure of the stylus, a bit like using a brush pen.
️🎨I can also erase things if a layer isn’t working out, or change colours more easily - particularly helpful when I want to create a design in multiple colourways for you!

 

Your Brand

🌳Together, we plant a tree for every order placed through the Looksee online shop, because you love trees and I do too!
♻️I make eco-friendly choices wherever I can in my business (hello compostable greeting card packaging!)󠁧󠁢󠁳
🌍I work mostly with manufacturers in the UK for my products and packaging, in an effort to reduce carbon footprint where possible, and to support local jobs and businesses.
🥳I create lovely cards and gifts for you to celebrate life moments with your friends and family – and I’m super excited for all the celebrations I’m able to help you with now, and in the future as our collection continues to grow!

 

 

Focus and Priorities

🌷I'm focusing on creating more card designs and increasing the variety in the Looksee shop.

💐Are there any sentiments, occasions, or animals you would like to see prioritised in my upcoming card designs this year?

Signature Style

Collection

Evolution

✏️Then vs Now! When I started my art journey, I pretty much only used pencils and fineliner with teeny tiny sketchy lines.
️🖌️By the end of my Illustration degree, I was more confident in mark making, and the designs I created were much bolder and more deliberate. I moved towards using more brush and ink, and lino printing. But… I hated using colour! I wasn’t confident with it so I avoided it, sticking to a mostly black and white colour palette.
🐱When I started making greeting cards, I was starting to dip my toe into colour more. You’ll see it in my Cosy Cat designs, I mostly used pastel colours, accompanied by the bolder inky lines and shapes that I lean towards it a lot of my artwork.
🐅The first really colourful design I created for greeting cards was my Party Tiger design.
️🎨More recently, I’ve found a balance I’m even happier with between colour, and the black and white bold lines. I love using a brighter, more joyful colour palette now, of blues, greens, and pinks. I think it stands out beautifully when the card is displayed on a shelf or the mantelpiece.

Process

💡My process starts with an idea. Sometimes I write it down in words, sometimes it starts as a little doodle on a shopping list.

🖌I usually use a bold digital brush to get the basic shapes down, and on another layer I refine the linework (but not too much, I like to keep the hand-drawn look)

🌻I add a white layer that goes a little wider than the black linework. This helps the animal design stand out - it’s also a bit of a nod to stickers, and to cutting out photos from magazines for collages.

🖨I add in several layers for colour and texture. Then it’s editing, test printing, and placing an order with a printer here in the UK.

Gifting Ideas

🎁Our Fairytale Wildlife Enamel Pins are fab gifts - they come in fully recyclable gift boxes, and are available on a Buy One Get One Half Price! You can mix and match any animal and any colour.

🦊Looking for a gift for someone who is clever, full of mischief, and playful? A fox is symbolic of these qualities! Available in black and ginger 🖤🔥

🐰Rabbits are a symbol of many things including peace, fertility, intellect, and empathy. Available in black, pale blue, and pale pink 🖤🌊🌷

🦌Deer appear in many stories around the world, and are often enchantments for princesses in folk and fairy tales. Available in black, pale blue, and pale pink 🖤🌊🌷

👚Each pin comes with removable rubber washers, so your pal can wear it on both chunky jumpers and t-shirts. The deluxe locking pin back makes it more secure, and the hard enamel means that it’s less prone to scratches than soft enamel.

🛍️ Buy 1 enamel pin, get 1 pin half price! 👯 Get one for yourself and one for your pal so you can match!

Positive

🌻There’s a lot to be positive about - I enjoy my career, I’m excited for this year, and I’m really happy with the direction Looksee is going in!

🌳Planting a tree for every order in our online shop is something I’ve been wanting to implement for ages, so that’s been a fab addition recently 🌱

🌞 Though I'm glad to be feeling positive about work, I'm also excited to be having a lil break from the studio for a week from Monday! Orders placed after Sunday 23rd will be posted on 2nd April. See you then! 🏖

Product Story

🦦Last year I designed an otter birthday card, and it’s been a hit!

🦦My older sister is otterly obsessed with otters, so I designed this for her birthday. I’d also had a couple of other requests and suggestions for otters, and it sold out when it launched before Christmas - so I definitely underestimated the power of this cheeky chappy!

🦦He's currently out of stock - don’t worry, I’m ordering more from the printers as soon as I’m back in the studio next week for a much needed restock! And lesson learned, it'll be a larger restock this time 😂

😍Do you love otters too?

 

 

Like this post? You might like the following journal entries:

• March Meet The Maker 2022
• Just a Card Indie Week 2022
• Just a Card Indie Week 2021