Why I Decided to Refresh My Branding
If you’ve been with me for a while, you’ve probably noticed some changes happening around here!
Behind the scenes over the last several months, I’ve been feeling friction between the artwork I’m creating, the artwork I want to be known for, and the visual brand that was supposed to represent it.
For a long time, my brand lived in this soft, beautiful, vintage-inspired space. And I still genuinely love that. I love warmth, coziness, and charm. I love old-fashioned, delicate things with thoughtful details and artwork that feels like it has a secret story tucked into it somewhere.
But at some point, I realized I had branded myself into a beautiful box that didn’t fully match the energy of the work I was actually making.
My brand felt calm and soothing and pretty, while my artwork was becoming more expressive, more playful, colorful, and more joyful.
And the more I thought about it, the more obvious it became that this disconnect didn’t really make sense, because so much of my inspiration comes from my children.
My kids are energetic and silly and curious and wildly expressive. They notice tiny things. They get excited over simple things. They bring so much movement and color and imagination into my everyday life, and naturally, that has started to show up more and more in my artwork.
So having a brand that felt so quiet and restrained, while the heart behind my work was so full of joy and play, started to feel off.
The two just didn’t feel like they vibed anymore. And once I saw that clearly, I couldn’t really unsee it.
Over the last several months, I’ve been slowly planning this rebrand. Not in a dramatic “burn it all down and start over” kind of way, but in a much more intentional way. I’m keeping the bones of my original brand, but turning the volume up. I’ve been asking what I actually want my work to feel like, what I want people to understand when they land on my website, and what kind of creative world I want this brand to invite people into.
I want my work to feel artful and polished, but not stiff.
Playful and joyful, but still intentional.
Warm and personal, but not overly soft or washed out.
Artwork that kids can love and parents can happily live with (iykyk).
And I want my brand to make space for the kind of work I’m growing into, especially as I continue building my portfolio and moving more seriously into art licensing.
That’s also why Bark and Blossom Design is becoming Sarah Caldwell Design.
And honestly, that part feels really big to me because for a while, having a studio name felt comfortable and easy. It gave me something to build under and (if I’m being totally vulnerable) something to hide behind. But as I keep moving forward, I’m realizing that I don’t want to hide behind a separate name. I want my own name to be front and center.
Not because I think I’m some huge brand name right now, obviously. But because I want to build toward that.
I want Sarah Caldwell Design to be recognizable, and so I want my name to be connected to my artwork, my collections, my resources, and the creative direction I’m putting out into the world. Especially in the licensing space, where so much of the work is about building a recognizable body of art, it makes sense for my name to carry the brand.
So this refresh is partly visual, but it’s also more than that:
It’s a shift in clarity.
It’s me saying, “This is the direction I’m going.”
It’s me making room for more color, more play, more personality, and more confidence.
It’s me letting the brand catch up with the artwork.
And practically speaking, it’s also a lot of updating! Website pages, product graphics, free resources, email templates, Pinterest pins, blog images- all the little pieces that slowly pile up when you’ve been building a business for a while.
So if you see things changing gradually, that’s why; I’m in the middle of aligning everything, one piece at a time, and it will probably take a while to get through it all.
But honestly, I’m really excited about it.
This doesn’t feel like becoming someone different. It feels more like being honest about what was already there.
My work has been moving toward something more expressive and joyful for a while now. My brand just needed permission to follow.
Until next time,
