Скачать или смотреть Our 4th Pop Up Display of the Year: The Amazing Lisa Swift Illustrations

So we’ve just said goodbye to Lisa Swift Illustrations, she came down to the shop earlier this week to breakdown her lovely window display. Lisa messaged me on Instagram earlier this year to enquire about doing a pop up display and I definitely didn’t hesitate in saying yes! I was actually really excited about Lisa’s pop up display – not only was everything totally new to us as we’d never sold her work before, she was also creating some brand new designs, inspired by places local to Ashbourne, especially for us.

Lisa is pretty local to Ashbourne, she’s only about a half an hour drive away. She lives and works in Chesterfield in North Derbyshire. It’s a small world, Lisa also owns a handmade gift shop with her husband John called Shop Indie, which is based in Chesterfield town centre. They’ve been running their lovely bricks and mortar shop for just under five years now as they first opened back in October 2019. Similarly to us they sell lots of incredible greeting cards and unique gifts from over 150 British independent makers and designers.

After running her handmade shop for a year or so, Lisa had a creative itch that she really needed to scratch. She was starting to feel like she was stuck in a bit of a rut and was getting a little bored with what she was creating. She hadn’t drawn anything for years but during the pandemic when she had a little more time for herself she discovered digital drawing and absolutely loved it!

Lisa takes a lot of her inspiration from the local area – how could you not be inspired by the beautiful Peak District and Derbyshire landscapes? With Lisa’s beautiful gift shop being based slightly more north than us, a lot of her existing designs were of the High Peak and North Derbyshire rather than places near to Ashbourne, so she decided to create some brand new illustrations especially for the pop up display. Lisa made sure she did lots of research on the local area and discovered some hidden gems and tourist favourites.

Lisa created four unique designs for her pop up shop window display:

St John Street in Ashbourne Town Centre
Hartington Signal Box
Tissington
Tissington Trail

Lisa has her amazing artwork printed on lots of different products, so we had something for everyone and every budget. We had a huge range of postcards, greeting cards, fridge magnets, bookmarks, coasters, ceramic mugs, A4 wall art prints and A3 wall art prints. Just like us, Lisa is a huge believer in shopping small so she always tries to seek out other small businesses who can print her products for her.

Over the three weeks we hosted Lisa’s pop up display, we sold a really interesting mix of designs and products but there were definitely a few standouts! Product wise, there was a very clear best seller – coasters were by far the most popular purchase! We sell a lot of coasters in the shop all year around so it didn’t come as a shock to me that they were a firm favourite. I always think coasters are a nice thing to treat yourself to when you’re away on holiday or out for the day visiting one of your favourite places. They’re something practical you can use everyday and when you’re enjoying your morning cuppa they’ll bring back lovely memories of the time you spent there – so I’m not surprised that they sold so well.

Design wise, the Salt Cellar was the most popular, closely followed by the Peak District Millstone and Matlock Bath. I’ve not actually visited the Salt Cellar before but after seeing how popular the design was, it’s definitely on my list of places I need to visit! I’m always looking for new places I can go walking with Orla and Amber and this place sounds perfect! If you’re not familiar with the Salt Cellar either, it’s meant to be one of the most photogenic spots in the whole of the Peak District. It’s a really unusual rock formation that sits high up on the Derwent Edge, overlooking Ladybower Reservoir and Derwent Valley.

I was really chuffed with how well Lisa’s creations sold in the shop and how much our customers loved the style of her work, that I decided to make some of the designs and products a more permanent fixture. To start with I’ve decided to keep stocking her local postcards, coasters, A4 and A3 wall art prints and magnetic print hangers. And of course we had to keep a couple of the bespoke designs Lisa created especially for us as well as some of the best sellers during the pop up display.

Initially we will be stocking the following designs:

St John Street, Ashbourne
Bamford Edge
Peak District Millstone
Salt Cellar
Tissington Trail
Winnats Pass