Case study
Sophie Jonas-Hill - LicenseThis! Award Winner
Sophie Jonas-Hill is a pen & ink illustrator and artist who specialises in hand drawn images using a mix of traditional and contemporary media.
Since completing an MA in illustration at the University of Falmouth in 2021, Sophie has created a range of brands, from her tattoo inspired ‘Tea for Tattoo’, to horror-inspired re-imaginings of fairy tales ‘Dread-Time Stories’, through to the animal tea parties of ‘Bizzarro’. Sophie works in a range of medias, often layering pen and ink on tracing paper to achieve her characteristic translucent glowing effect. After turning one of her ‘Tea for Tattoo’ pieces into a tea set for a friend, Sophie was inspired to enter the world of licensing. Shortly after, Sophie won the Brand and Design category of Brand Licensing Europe’s LicenseThis! Competition in September 2021. As one of the judges of the competition, Larkshead MD Clare was impressed with her unique style and spotted the commercial potential in Sophie’s modern take on vintage inspirations, thus she became one of Larkshead’s clients.
After signing a Representation Agreement with her in July 2022 Larkshead worked with Sophie to further develop her brand. Specifically, in creating her first personalised style guide as well as a developing a segmentation strategy.
In June 2022, Sophie signed a licensing deal with Trademark Products to release a line of T-shirts featuring Sophie’s “Dread-Time Stories” range under her apparel design label “The House of Inky Moon”. The range sold successfully through HMV.
As the winner of LicenseThis! 2021, Sophie was awarded a small stand to exhibit her artworks at BLE 2022, and Larkshead supported her throughout her first show. This included networking with licensees and retailers on her behalf and introducing her artworks to the wider licensing community.
Concurrently to BLE in 2022, Sophie was collaborating with ‘The Tomorrow’s Ghosts Festival’- the ultimate celebration of all things Gothic and alternative, by creating bespoke artwork for the 2021, 2022 festival and thus generating additional awareness for her brands. This successful collaboration continued into 2024.
Sophie has continued to be recognised for her artistic efforts by a number of notable brands. More recently, Sophie has been commissioned to produce specialty illustrations for Bird & Blend’s monthly January 2024 Tea Tasting Club box. Featuring bespoke artwork specially designed for Bird & Blend’s subscription box.
In addition to her Bird and Blend collaboration, Sophie was also commissioned to create the label illustration for the multi-award-winning Kennet Crayfish Gin. This combined success for two of Larkshead’s clients boasts an exciting future, as we hope to champion further collaborations between clients.
Sophie Jonas-Hill’s stunning and individual collections have already enjoyed a great deal of interest from across the licensing industry. Larkshead will continue to work with Sophie to further develop her brand and extend her product range. Sophie’s story is just one example of how Larkshead’s unique and personalized brand strategy helps to elevate clients to achieve broad commercial appeal.
Please contact us if you would like to know more.
