Southfield Art Collective - Full Badge

My dad, Dirk Margheim, has been rescuing stuff from the curb and transforming it into treasure for years now. He's made furniture for friends; he even made it onto the pilot of a never-aired TV show about flipping reclaimed materials into furniture. He has made some art pieces over the years too. But a couple of years ago he got a bit more serious about it and bought a stall at a little market near his home, and I helped him develop a brand for that shop: Southfield & Co. You can find that work here on my Dribbble too.

But near the end of 2023, he decided not to renew his contract for the stall. He's in a transition period in his life; he has two newborn grandkids for the first time, he's only 4 years away from retirement eligibility at his company, and he had a huge health scare in the spring/summer which has opened his eyes in a new way to his own mortality.

All of these things coalesced into an idea; what if instead of a "brick and mortar" shop for his art pieces and furniture (mainly furniture back at Southfield & Co) he went online and started selling there and making content about how he makes his pieces, focusing on art instead of furniture? With some planning and discussing things with my mom, he decided to go for it! He closed up shop at the market, bringing all his goods home (after a fun little fire sale).

It was at this point he contacted me about renaming his business, wanting to start fresh on a whole new adventure. However, I pointed out he already had a decent little following with S&Co which he could more easily maintain with a pivot than a wholesale rebranding and renaming. This was particularly true because his business wasn't changing completely; he was dropping furniture from his stock, and focusing almost entirely on art, but he would still be working with reclaimed materials and rescued "trash", just as he had before. So we set to work trying to think of a new name with a nod to Southfield & Co, and eventually settled on Southfield Art Collective.

We chose "collective" because my dad plans to collaborate with other artists along the way, and when he goes to in-person markets he will even sell other people's artwork for them if they aren't able to attend! He wants to start a movement toward reclaimed art, and so he wants his brand to include that vision.

I'm excited to see how this goes, and I'll be posting some other pieces from the brand identity in the next few days to highlight the system I designed to enable him to beautifully brand all his artwork with the appropriate style logo.