Fisherfolk is a small scale jewelry business in Michigan crafting colorful, one-of-a-kind heirloom pieces. My sister Julie created the brand as an ode to our family’s maternal grandmother, a prolific quilter and artist. The brand’s aesthetic is inspired by the lakeside cottage she built in Northern Michigan in the 1970’s, which remains largely in its original condition. The brand’s name is inspired by one of my sister’s favorite days at the cottage as a kid: a day where she somehow convinced my grandmother to step away from the sewing machine and take her fishing on Lower Herring Lake.

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I worked with Julie to build a brand around her jewelry pieces. We began with a logo drawing based on a Michigan gar, the fish we spent our childhood trying to spot in the lake. We then extended the brand through illustration to showcase more Michigan wildlife, including native insects, mushroom varieties, and Michigan’s famous Petoskey stones. We treated everything with a warm color palette inspired by the beloved 70’s decorating of our family’s cottage and the vibrant colors Julie uses in her pieces.