Studio Update: A Fresh Start

You may have noticed that we have officially rebranded as Harper & Blake earlier this week (yay!) Do you remember two months ago, we told you we were getting our hair done? Well, after a slow and meticulous cut, dye, highlights and blow-dry, we have finally stepped out of the salon looking and feeling fabulous with our new ‘do.

We wanted to make sure everything was perfect before making the leap and we hope you will agree that the hard work has paid off! Iconemesis may be no more, but its core values still live on. Harper & Blake is simply its (more stylish and sophisticated) dual reincarnation. The high-quality, illustrative iPhone cases that you know and love will still be available on our online store with new designs already on the new site!

Our silk chiffon scarves are an exciting new addition to our overall range with the first few designs already available online. The website also features a glossy new online magazine and colourful fashion editorials showcasing our collections. Over time, we hope to introduce more products to our range and become the ultimate go-to fashion and lifestyle brand.

This is the start of something new all over again and we can’t wait to see what the future holds. We can’t thank you guys enough for sticking with us this far and we hope you will continue to grow with us as Harper & Blake expands.

So what are you waiting for? Come visit our shiny new website and check out all the exciting things we have going on there! Love Harper & Blake xo 

Studio Update: Fern and Beetle NEW COLOURS

Happy Sunday lovelies! Hope everyone is having a relaxing day today with your feet well and truly up! Whilst we have you sat down, we’re going to take the opportunity to tell you about some new products we’ve developed this week.

Last week you may recall us introducing our fern and beetle print iPhone cases? Of course you do. Since the feedback was so overwhelmingly positive, we decided to go ahead and recreate each print in a different colour variation to appeal to the bolder and more feminine amongst you.

So not only do we have the fern print contrasting against a dusty peach background, we now have it against a bright white backdrop too so the emerald fern leaves really pop!

On the flip side, last week we introduced the monochromatic beetle case. This week, we coloured the little beetle families in a rainbow of bright exotic hues for a case that is a little bit tropical, but a whole of fun.

These new designs are part of a new collection following our rebrand which takes place… oh crikey, tomorrow! Keep your eyes peeled as we share the exciting news on Monday. Don’t worry, this isn’t goodbye! Iconomesis lives on, but not as you know it...

Studio Update: Fern and Beetle iPhone Cases

Happy Saturday everyone, hope the sun is shining too where you are and you’re having a brilliant weekend!

We have a really exciting studio update to share with you this week. Remember our fern and beetle print development posts from the past few weeks? We may have told you that they were going to be used exclusively towards our new silk scarf collection. Well, we’ve decided to apply them to iPhone cases too!

In our mock-ups, you can see we’ve created a whole beetle family, each bearing its own unique pattern and distinct shape. We chose to feature this design on a bright white case to emphasise the contrast between the illustrations’ intricate, graphical lines.

On our fern print case however, we feature two varieties of dark and bright leaves against a dusty peach background. We believe against the green ferns, it creates a harmonious contrast that stand-outs but isn’t in your face.

We've aimed these two designs for the minimalism fans out there but maximalists, don't despair, we're also working on some bold, fun and feminine styles just for you!

These new designs will become available once we've unveiled our big rebrand! In the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our designs so far. Let us know in the comments below!

Studio Update: The Fantastic Fern

Hello everyone, us again! We just wanted to share the news of an exciting new print we’ve been working on for our new silk scarf collection coming soon. We’ve continued to be inspired by nature and this week we’ve started developing a very summery new fern print.

We’ve explored florals, beetles and now we’re onto the humble fern. Why have we chosen the fern of all plants? Well, if you take a look at our moodboard above you can begin to appreciate how intricately detailed their leaves are, more so compared to other plants. When collated together as a repeated print, it has the potential to create some striking imagery overall. Don’t know about you, but we are instantly transported to somewhere far more exotic when we set our eyes on this luscious botanical print!

Our print designer Louise Thomas has been working again very hard this week to create some very detailed sketches for us. As you can see above, each leaf has been given a lot of depth due to its shading, with tones transitioning between deep emerald to a bright peridot. We can’t wait to see how these illustrations might look on our delicate, silk scarves. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts so get in touch and have a fantastic weekend!

Studio Update: Beetlemania

Happy Friday everyone! The weekend is nearly upon us and boy, what a busy week it's been in the Iconemesis studio. Particularly so, as we continue to add the final touches to our big re-brand in just over a week's time! Our new makeover has been months in the making but from Monday 17th August we reveal a brand new, glossy website and logo with all your favourite illustrated tech cases still in tow.

This week we also started developing print designs for our new silk scarves range. Since our last studio update, we have continued moodboarding into other themes (it's highly addictive) and have some initial sketches underway - exciting stuff! Altogether we will have eight scarf patterns including florals and feathers, but today we wanted to share with you the progress of our beetle print.

As you can see in our moodboard top of page, we drew inspiration from the beetle's distinct silhouette and how the beautiful insect has influenced fashion and design. Last week saw the closure of the V&A's most popular show in history that was the Savage Beauty exhibition - a celebration of the extraordinary talents of Alexander McQueen. The late fashion designer was famously inspired by nature, particularly insects, and often presented their colourful patterns in a kaleidoscopic manner. From this, we explored graphical, line motifs to incorporate into the final designs.

Here's our progress so far...

The sketches are the handiwork of the talented Louise Thomas - our in-house print designer - whose designs you may recognise from some of our tech cases. The designs are so incredibly-detailed yet ultra-contemporary. We can't wait to see them in colour and set on our silk scarves. As always, we will keep you updated of our progress as we go along and next Friday's post might be the last from Iconemesis as you know it... (Oops, said too much?)

Whatever you do, have a fabulous weekend. Until next time!

From The Studio: Decisions, decision...

Last week we let you have a little behind the scenes look at our re-branding photoshoot and now that it is over and done with we have the lovely task of narrowing down the pictures to a small selection to use for our new website. Would you believe that in a 3 hour period or photographer took nearly 1000 photos?! We certainly did a double take when the contact sheet came through! We have managed to cut that down to a lovely 100 so far but this week and next week is going to be where we finalise them and get them sent off for final edits and touch ups.

The images are going to play a central part of our new website which we are also in the process of designing up and should show of our new brand image quite well... we hope! Our current website - iconemesis.co.uk - is great but we can't wait to show you this new fashion forward sleek look that we have been developing.

Also, our scarves are nearly ready! We have quality checked them and now we are just waiting for the first batch to arrive back from the factory, we might let you have a little look at them when they arrive or we may wait until the website relaunches... stay tuned!

A Behind The Scene Look: Photoshoot

Hello Iconemesis fans, this week we have something very exciting to share with you and we hope you can understand why this post is two days late. On Saturday we moved from the studio - where we have been busy finishing up the designs of our scarves that we will be *fingers crossed* showing you next week - and headed out with a team to go and shoot our campaign for our new website!

Of course, as with all of our rebranding posts, we don't want to give too much away but we would just like to let you know what has been going on. So, our lovely team of models, stylists, and one trusty photographer took to London's Southbank Centre to shoot some images for our new website and our new brand. The shoot was very much location based and we used the hustle and bustle of this creative part of London to inspire the energy for the shoot.

We can't wait to show you the finished campaign! We have already got the contact sheet back and to say that we are excited would be an understatement. We don't want to give away too much but the above picture should give you a little insight or at least into one of the models we were working with (that's right, the campaign has two!).

When the photos are out we will of course be crediting and letting you know all about the great team we were working with on the day. Until then however, stay tuned...

Studio Update: Getting Our Hair Done

Image Source 

There is a commonly held phrase that a person who changes their hair is about to change their life and it all links to the idea that our outer appearance is representative of what is going on inside. For us this could not be truer right now as we are carving out our new online brand and everything that goes along with it. So whilst we are continuing to develop our range of scarves and our new patterns we have also been getting our hair done...

Scarves

Before telling you about our new outer appearance we should probably let you in on the inner workings of the studio and the exciting news that we have sent our scarf designs off to the manufacturers! So very soon we are going to be sent back boxes of beautifully printed scarves ready to share with you.

Designs 

So what hairstyle are we actually going for? Well our logo is almost finalised, we are just getting some feedback from a few stylish friends before agreeing on the best fit for the brand. We have narrowed it done to one typeface and are just considering the best colour and style for the final look. Alongside this, we are also working on our new website and have got a few designs in mind that we think are going to work really well with our new collection.

Studio Update: Feeling Moody

Hello once again from the Iconemesis Studio! As usual we have been very busy but have still managed to find time to update you on everything that has been going on. Last week we were focusing on our re-launch party and spent a lot of time out of the studio hunting down venues, but now our attention has turned to one thing in particular... mood boards.

When we first start to develop prints and products we like to put what is in our head on paper and gather up all of our inspirations in one place. There is no better way to do that than with a good mood board! Not to give too much away, but above is our floral inspired mood board that we are using to help develop prints for our range of silk scarves. Rather than focusing on the big tropical leaves and botanicals that are around at the moment, we have been looking to next season where smaller, more intricate patterns are going to be more prominent. We have been looking at the work of William Morris and Andy Warhol amongst other to try and find an aesthetic that we really connect with.

As well as mood boarding for our new scarf range we have also been starting to style up some ideas for our upcoming photoshoot. We are feeling inspired by minimal classic style with an international twist, stay tuned to find out more and for a backstage write up of the shoot!

Come back next week to find out more about the Iconemesis re-brand journey...

Location, Location, Location...

So over the last few weeks we have been giving you updates about our new products, our rebrand and lots of exciting things for you to be looking out for online. This week we are letting you in on the fact that our activities have started to extend past the screen of our computers.

First of all we have been scouting for studio spaces in Central London so that our brilliant ever-growing team can have a creative and fun space to meet and make the magic happen. We are busy designing our new collection and we are also designing up a (soon to be revealed) content platform to run alongside it. This means we are looking for a studio to suit a wide variety of need and we think we are getting close.

As well as studio spaces we are also on the hunt for a place to host.... our re-launch party! That's right you heard it here first, we are going to be throwing a party to reveal our new brand, our new designs and to help celebrate London Fashion Week. Stay tuned for the guest list to be revealed and the invites will start dropping into inboxes.

If you would like to attend our brand launch why not get in touch, and we might just see you at LFW!

New Line Update: Scarf Samples and Logo Decisions

Hello again from the Iconemesis Studio! We have had another productive and exciting week of design activities that we just can't wait to share with you. We spoke last week about getting in our scarf material samples and now this week we have moved on to putting our prints on the gorgeous silks. We have trialled the printing with our popular Oriental Birds pattern from our existing iPhone case range and we are very pleased with the results. 

The silk that the pattern is printed on is Silk Habotai, a Chinese silk of a medium weight and glossy finish that is soft to the touch, perfect qualities for making a luxurious feeling scarf. The most important thing about the silk is that it is optimised for digital media printing, the technique that we are using, and so it means that all of the colours remain vibrant and the details remain sharp. This means that our scarf range, when fully developed, is going to feature patterns of the highest design quality and they will be real investment pieces. 

As well as scarf development, our Online Editor and new Designer have been working closely to figure out the best direction for our new logo. We won't share all of the details with you but just to let you know that we are very close to making a decision that we hope you are all going to love! This week has been a great one in terms of really starting to nail down the visuals for the rebrand and we cannot wait to share more with you... when we can! 

What do you think to the Birds Scarf sample? 

From The Studio: More Than Just iPhone Cases...

As you may have seen from a few postings over on the main Iconemesis website blog and on our Instagram, we are currently undergoing a rebrand and will no longer be called Iconemesis in a few months time. However, you might not know that it is not only our name and website that are having an overhaul, and we are also branching out into new territory with our products. 

At Iconemesis we are infamous - or so we have been told - for our lovely patterned iPhone cases and lots of people trust their tech to be protected and decorated by our designs. We are passionate about collaborating with designers (in fact we have some new illustrator cases out right now) but we have been getting the design itch ourselves which is why we now stock Iconemesis own patterns in addition to our well loved illustrator designs. So what is the next step for us? Well the most obvious one was take our new found love of design and apply it to something other than iPhone cases.

We have decided to use our rebrand as a chance to launch our first ever range of silk scarves which are going to be the start of something pretty big because as you can imagine, we don't want to stop there. You can see some swatches of the new designs above but that is all we are going to show you for now... we do like to tease you. But trust that the wait will be worth it and soon you will have some lovely new silk scarves to shop from a new brand, with the same Iconemesis feel. 

Do you like the pattern swatches? Tell us what you think! 

Work in Progress - Doughnut and Fox Prints for iPhone Cases

This week we have been working on a doughnut and fox print design for our iPhone cases.

The photos above is the work we've done so far.

We're currently editing the designs, experimenting with the placement and background colour, and look forward to hearing your feedback.

New Arrivals: Blossom and Ice ream iPhone Cases

Two weeks ago we mentioned that we were starting an Alphabet Design iPhone case alongside developing an eyes, ice cream and blossom print for our iPhone cases. After experimenting with the ideas we decided to drop the Alphabet designs and started an ice cream and blossom print from scratch.

We have since developed the blossom and ice cream designs and added the iPhone 6 cases to the range earlier today. Take a look at the blossom and ice cream iPhone 6 case on our website and let us know your thoughts below.

Thank you! 

iconemesis 

xx

New Prints - Work in Progress

Eyes and Cherry Blossom

Ice Cream

Images of eye print along with cherry blossom and ice cream designs.

New Print Development

Photo credit via Pinterest

This week we started an Alphabet Design iPhone Case project, in which every week we will create two letters of the alphabet. We aim to work through all the letters gradually over the coming weeks.

Along side this we are continuing to develop an eye print we started a couple of weeks ago, as well as experimenting with a cherry blossom and ice cream print.

For the inspiration behind these prints, we have pinned some images on our 'Inspiration' board.