Brierfield fashion designer turned illustrator hopes to draw on skills of other artists to take thriving business to next level
Brierfield-based fashion designer turned illustrator Emma Weston is looking to draw on the skills of other local artists to help her take her thriving business, which came about by accident, to the next level in the New Year.
Emma is looking to work with an animator to bring life to some of the bespoke illustrations that she produces under her company name of Emma Weston Illustration for a range of local, national and international clients.
Emma, who is married to Chris and mum to Alfie (nine) and six-year-old Tommy with a third baby on the way, launched Emma Weston Illustration two years ago as a sister company to a wedding stationery business, Alf & Alba Design, which she set up during the lockdown in 2020.
Emma explained: “I had studied fashion design at Heriot-Watt University and was lucky enough to get a job within the industry. For more than 12 years, I designed sportswear for the JD Group but, as with a lot of people, lockdown made me re-consider my work/life balance and the upshot was the launch of Alf & Alba Design. Through this I attended a business network meeting. While listening to one of the presentations, I began doodling and one of the other businesswomen there asked if she could take my doodle and use it to help her market her farm-based business.”
Emma continued: “She told me she had been struggling to find an illustration for her website and marketing materials that fully represented her multi-faceted business but felt my doodle did the trick. It can be difficult, especially for companies working in the legal, financial and insurance sectors, health and education, which have huge amounts of information to get across, to do so in a way that is all encompassing and easy for people to understand.
“One way of doing it is to swap words for illustrations as many people absorb information better if it is presented to them more visually. Graphics can make a corporate message more accessible to more people. So it wasn’t long before I started being approached by companies
commissioning me to produce illustrations for their academic and other reports, marketing materials and even live for presentations.”
Emma Weston Illustration is now her main business and ready for the next level. Emma recently completed a Community CVS skills course for those within the creative sector, which was very useful in terms of helping her to understand how to structure a growing business.
Emma said: “There was no animator on the course but my course colleagues included designers, artists and makers. It shows we have a wealth of artistic talent locally, which I want to tap into.”
Chris Trickett, Business Director for charity Community CVS, said: "Emma has done incredibly well and is just the sort of success story we strive for
“The creative sector is currently going through a lot of change because of fast evolving technology. In offering a skills course, our role is to ensure local creatives have the confidence and tools to cope with their sector’s challenges and growth so that Lancashire is a place where
creative industries can thrive to provide both immediate and longer term employment.”
The course Emma took will run again in January. Anyone interested can email [email protected] or telephone 01254 503043.