Tara Sofia - the beginning!

Hello friends & readers!

This post is going to be the first detailing my ‘Tara Sofia’ journey – creating artwork and designs and somehow harnessing my creativity into a business that I enjoy. So, it is more of a "setting the scene" type post, and as time goes on I will share details more specifically as different aspects develop.

As a quick insight into my background, I come from a creative and entrepreneurial family – my parents created ‘Santoro’, an award-winning lifestyle brand known for its captivating art collections and innovative designs.

I decided against university, favouring real-life experience instead so I went to work at Santoro immediately after completing my A-levels. I couldn’t wait to get stuck into a full-time creative working environment. Ten years later, with all my self-taught skills (graphic design and fine art)  and having designed for one of the UK’s leading home fragrance companies, I found myself wanting a change but I couldn’t pick a path. I loved painting. I loved product design. I loved graphic design. I had also now developed a love for fragrance. I loved too many things!! I wanted to dedicate more time to my artwork (which up until that point had taken a back seat), but I didn’t want to abandon all the other business and design skills I had learned.

 

After leaving full-time employment I started working freelance, splitting my time between designing for clients and creating my own artwork collection. I worked on combining painting and photography with graphics and embellishments… eventually I came up with pieces that looked like this:

Then I came up with a plan. I would combine my love of art and design with my love of home fragrance, and so I currently find myself in the process of developing my own ‘Tara Sofia’ range of scented candles which are inspired by my art. I wanted to see my artwork translated into products, so I took the graphic-based “Bollywood Queens” collection and started to create fragrance profiles around them, as well as a vessel design and packaging ideas. That was the easy part!

The hard part is getting scented candles produced at as low a cost as possible so I can make a profit from selling them. To make matters even more difficult, of course everything I wanted to achieve design-wise ended up being the most expensive way to produce something!

So at the moment I am waiting for a glass sample which I am hoping will be exactly what I want it to be, for the main vessel for the candles. It is expensive but I know through my knowledge of the scented candle market that in order for anyone to be interested in a new range, it needs to be different. So I am following my artwork style – creating a range that is luxurious, glamorous and flamboyant. With that in mind, I knew there was no way I could simply use a plain glass vessel with a sticker on it.  

Also I have just received my first selection of fragrance samples which I am planning on sniffing through shortly. As fragrance is so personal it is quite hard to pick fragrances that will appeal to everyone – so I’m not. I will pick fragrances that I think best embody my artwork designs, and that best convey the overall ‘Tara Sofia’ style. In doing so they will become personal to me – in a way that artwork is personal to an artist, and conveys an element of their personality.

 

At the same time as creating a range of scented candles, I am continuing with my artworks – doing a lot of guerrilla marking at the moment! Approaching as many different establishments as possible to try and get some exposure and interest in them. I am also working on setting up a small gallery type space for my canvases which will be a great way for people to view them in person, as unfortunately I don’t think photos do them justice at all. They really need to be seen in person to appreciate the full effect of the 24-ct gold leaf and the Swarovski Crystals.

 

I am hoping that I can use the artwork and candles as a way of marketing each other, we will see how that goes! Anyway time for me to get back to a painting which I really want to finish, hopefully will post it on instagram over the next few days so keep an eye out and let me know what you think!