SquidKids Launches into Hamleys!!

SquidKids amazing stand at Hamleys : Boots, Umbrellas, Jackets and Bags

Close up on the colour changing Wellington Boots and Drawstring Bags

A close up on the colour changing Bus Jacket

The cute colour changing Green Flower Wellington Boot

So excited to announce that SquidKids have launched! Into non other than the coolest, most favourite Toy Store in the world, Hamleys! So happy.

We may have been going for 6 years now, but realising new designs and working hard on projects still gives us an adrenaline rush. We were so chuffed at all the press that turned up to Hamleys yesterday  and responded so positively!! Also a big thanks to all those that support us, not just yesterday, but on this whole journey - you guys are the best.

Keep an eye out for us. We will continue to sporadically update you - we promise!
Plus our SquidKids website will be updated with stockist information so you can all buy lots of colour changing goodies for the cute kids in your lives!

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Emma-Jayne & Viviane xxx

John Lewis 2014 PitchUp

We are super excited to be announced as 1 of 12 finalists to pitch to the John Lewis buyers on the 1st of August!! We will be pitching our new childrenswear collection SquidKids.
There were over 700 applicants from all over the UK this year - record number since PopUp Britain started the PitchUp Competition 3 years ago.

All finalists and their products:

• Luggage entrepreneur Alistair Callender’s lightweight garment travel solution Gate 8
  
• Wrapping paper innovator Linda Hasking, founder of Identity Papers
• Cycling safety pioneer Lucy Lynn-Evans and her wearable fibre-optic light solution Veglo
  
• New British sports-wear brand Lexie Sport, founded by designer Lily Rice
  
• Innovative tablet holding solution G-Hold, run by award-winning entrepreneur Alison Grieve
• Lighting innovator Patrick Evans with Smoo
  
• Former lawyer Leyla Cooper’s skincare range Pretty Athletic
  
• Kitchen appliance entrepreneur Daniel Harkin
• Children’s rain-wear specialist SquidKids, founded by Emma-Jayne Parkes & Viviane Jaeger
• Smartphone charger inventor Matt Sandrini with Popcord
  
• Angela Ramsay’s new children’s board game Blank, as seen on Dragon’s Den
  
• Children’s building kit Bildy, founded by Jayne Bromfield

You can read more here.

Wish us luck for the 1st August!!
Emma-Jayne & Viviane x

Jack and Jill School Fair!

Making it Change Colour!

Are there any white patches left?!

Dry Colour Changing Banner

Wet Colour Changing Banner

We were fortunate to be invited to The Jack and Jill School Fair on the 18th May at Twickenham Green. It was a scorcher of a day - the sun was shinning and the children were buzzing!

We made a huge colour changing banner game for the children - armed with water guns and water pumps they drenched the banner with as much water as they could to make every potential white spot colourful! A few children didn't want to leave resulting in a few tears.. And some parents wished they had saved their £10 spent on the rides and just let the children play with the SquidBanner - it was the cool gazebo ;-)

We were there to promote SquidKids up and coming Launch and also Shooting Star Chase - the wonderful charity we have chosen to donate a percentage of the SquidKids sales to.

We hope you enjoy the pictures!! We sure enjoyed the day.

Emma-Jayne & Viviane x

SquidKids Website Is Here!

Exciting! We have launched our SquidKids website... softly! We still need to do the photoshoot of the first collection, and as usual the garments are taking longer than planned to arrive..! But otherwise all looking good :)

We are super happy with the website, fun and colourful! Big thanks to Spritz Creative!

Check it out here:  www.squidkids.co.uk 

Emma-Jayne & Viviane xx

SquidKids Tagline

We have been umming and ahing over our tagline. We thought of loads but none of them were quite right. However over lunch with two other board members we had a 'little' brainwave. We decided that SquidKids is not just about water or rain but it is totally about colour! Everything and anything to do with colour. Hence why there is no main areas of black in any of the SquidKids designs as scientifically speaking it's not a colour ;-) So we hope you like our new tagline: "bringing colour into little lives"....

Emma-Jayne & Viviane x

SquidKids Little Movie

Hello Everyone,

Been awfully slack - big apologies!!

But super excited to share with you the cute SquidKids promotional film - our first of many we hope!!
The little actors were so well behaved and utterly adorable! You will agree after having a little watch... be sure to turn your volume on :)

Emma-Jayne & Viviane x

Cheers!

After a full on week of meetings, our first Squidpreneur course at the Kingston University, a round table at Claridges and getting our first SquidKids stockist (WAHOO!) we felt we deserved a glass or two of bubbles last Friday night at Beagle; awesome restaurant bar in Shoreditch - definitely check it out if you are in the area.

Squidders xx

SquidKids Logo

So excited to reveal to you our SquidKids logo! As you saw from one of our earlier posts we have been working on the logo for a while as we wanted it just perfect; the font, the colours and the splashes!
It is a very colourful busy logo - but that is exactly what SquidKids is :)

We hope you like it! xxx

Meetings....

A little round up; Website is finished but not fully completed - you know how it is; still a few details for perfectionists like ourselves to be totally satisfied with it! But it is looking good. We plan to launch the website to the public around July 2014 to coincide with the products being available in store... :)

Had our first meeting with Harrods last week. It was very positive and they really liked SquidKids. Only problem is where it would sit in their store as we are not a high end luxury brand.. But it was positive so lets see.... More meetings lined up this week with high street stores so fingers crossed!

Do excuse the poor quality picture - but do you remember the scene from the wonderful Mary Poppins Walt Disney film when she keeps pulling all sorts out of her bag? Well Viviane and I giggle that when we go to meetings we are like Mary Poppins - the products and ideas just keep coming out of the bag and sometimes it's a bit much...! Passion over bubbling ;-)

Wish us luck! xx

SquidKids Filming Day

                                                                                                              Two of our gorgeous acting crew

                                                                                               Being super innovative

                                                                                                               Film Crew

                                                                                    One of the runners filling up the waterbombs..!

On Saturday we shot our SquidKids promo film with the help of Spritz and Simplo. We were ever so lucky that Jane of Highbourne House in Guildford allowed us to use her beautiful home for the day, especially as it is also a very popular bed and breakfast - it was the perfect location.

I think we were dreaming when we thought we could tell 11 children what to do for the day...! Our script pretty much went out the window and we had to improvise, and what fun it was! The weather also decided it would rain for most of the morning and early afternoon - so we had the children playing in the rain... Thankfully their parents were obliging.

The feedback about the SquidKids collection was so positive and reassuring which was so nice to hear. We are absorbed by it every day so sometimes ones judgement gets clouded. Fresh eyes and minds viewing your products is key and the response was so wonderful it made our day.

Biggest thanks goes to the wonderful children and their parents - we couldn't have done it without you!!

Squidders xx

P.S sorry you were probably hoping to see some of the designs.. That would spoil the surprise! :)

Snail Mail

We had some fun designing our SquidKids letters for the buyers. Cute little characters, our lovely childrenswear designer has come up with, dancing on the page.
Fingers crossed the buyers fall in love and book up meetings with us :)

xxx