Work Sifnos Pottery Guild
Sifnos Pottery Guild, 2021
A mark you can press into clay
- Sector
- Craft
- What we did
- Identity, packaging, shop
- Where
- Kamares, Sifnos, and shipped across Europe
- How long
- 10 weeks
An identity for eleven potters who share a kiln, a shop and nothing else.
38%of yearly sales now happen between November and March
The brief
Eleven workshops, eleven styles, one shop on the harbour that sold all of them with hand-written labels. Visitors took it for a souvenir shop and walked past.
The real problem
A guild mark has to survive a kiln at 1,200 degrees, not only a screen.
What we did
Each potter chose one of four stamps: ring, cross, petal or diamond. Pressed into the clay they mark the maker; printed together they make the guild's pattern. We had the stamps cut in brass, designed the shipping boxes and labels, and built a small shop that ships across Europe.
What we made
On the wall
The stamps were chosen by the potters, one each, at a single long lunch.
Every Friday at four, each project in progress is pinned up at real size. Why we print it
What changed
Online orders now carry the guild through the winter, when the island is empty. Two more potters joined in 2024.
Every potter kept their own hand. Now people can see we belong together.