Tusk Farm
Tusk Farm is a small family farm known for its woolly, golden Mangalitsa pigs and their commitment to handcrafted, high-quality products. They approached me to strengthen their visual identity through custom illustration work that could be used on apparel, stickers, and their new GoldenBristle soap line.
Deliverables:
x5 Illustrations
Garment Designs
Soap Packaging Design
Exploration
We began with pencil sketches to explore composition and style. Three illustrations were developed:
Spruce & Swine
A detailed head-and-shoulders portrait of their iconic curly-coated pigs, surrounded by a wreath of spruce boughs. We wanted to echo the charm of highland cattle art with this one, but capture the wild and woolly characteristics of the Mangalitsa pig.
Garment Project
The Boreal Boar
The clients wanted a dramatic boar skull illustration surrounded by boreal botanicals. After a revision for a more accurate tusk style for the breed, a butterfly was added as a symbolic detail to soften and balance the intensity.
Wool & Wild
The client wanted a reimagining of that Western iconography lineup (i.e. boots, stars, and moon) but featuring Alaskan equivalents. Instead of traditional cowboy symbols, the illustration features barley, the full moon, boreal botanicals, a butterfly, and of course, a Mangalitsa piglet, creating a northern take on a classic Americana spread. We explored two iterations to dial this one in.
Refinement
Each illustration was translated from loose pencil sketches into highly detailed, one-color artwork designed specifically for screen printing. Weight, linework, and texture were refined to create a crisp, high-impact result on black garments.
"We have been giving away T-shirts to customers who put down deposits for large pre-orders, having a physical item for them to walk away with has really made the transaction feel more special."
Emily Lanni
Tusk Farm, Fairbanks, Alaska
Packaging Project
Project Objective + Concept Development
The goal was to create striking, story-driven artwork that subtly explored an interpretation of Freya, the Norse goddess who rides a golden-bristled boar, to elevating their small-batch soaps with a slightly luxurious feel. I explored multiple packaging options to give the client a range of creative directions to choose from while ensuring each approach offered a clear path to staying within their budget:
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Single sleeve with scent label seals
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Die-cut star detailing for “Over the Moon”
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Bubble-edge die-cut concept for “Sacred Soak”
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Custom tissue paper wrapper with scent label seal
Each concept balanced practicality, cost-effectiveness, and visual impact to help Tusk Farm scale their product line while staying true to their story.
Sacred Soak
A playful, indulgent concept featuring Freyja in a pig-footed claw-foot tub overflowing with bubbles, guarded by a large, masculine Mangalitsa boar. Tusks, form, and anatomy were revised to strengthen the character, adding personality and whimsy to the scene.
Over the Moon
A play on "the cow jumps over the moon," Freyja rides a woolly Mangalitsa pig leaping over a crescent moon, her gown flowing behind her. This one took a few iterations to dial in the tusks, anatomy and figure of Freyja to capture the story we wanted to tell.
The Outcome
The garment illustrations gave Tusk Farm cohesive visuals for apparel and stickers. The designs not only work beautifully in a one-color print, but they can easily extend into future merch offerings.
The two GoldenBristle illustrations instantly elevate the soap line, especially with the gold foil accent. The artwork is flexible for packaging, merchandising, and future creative expansions. The sleeve-and-label system also gives Tusk Farm a scalable, customizable way to introduce new scents without reinventing the packaging each time.
"The value for money with this service is immense. We walked away with a several pieces of beautiful art that really feel like a celebration of the work we have poured into our business, Not only is Brianna an incredible artist, she absolutely nails service delivery. The design process is fun and easy, the pricing and rates are fair and transparent, and Brianna managed to incorporate all of my ideas and requests while also creating a finished product that was better than what I could have designed on my own. I can’t recommend her enough."
Emily Lanni
Tusk Farm, Fairbanks, Alaska
