Driving Brand Loyalty through Custom Illustrated Umbrellas for Keepers Cottages

In the competitive landscape of luxury self-catering accommodation, brand differentiation often lies in the “unseen” details. Keepers Cottages, the premier provider of holiday rentals in Kent, sought to provide their guests with more than just a rainy-day essential. They required a high-end, functional brand touchpoint that resonated with the coastal charm of their locations.

The Umbrella Workshop (a division of the Wurlin Group) stepped in to manufacture custom illustrated umbrellas that transformed a simple weather accessory into a piece of bespoke artist-edition merchandise. By utilising our City Walker frame and executing a complex, 8-panel Pantone-matched print, we successfully bridged the gap between a creative vision and a high-durability reality. Here we explore the journey from dainty white illustrations to a sophisticated, aqua-marine brand asset that now serves as a hallmark of the Keepers Cottages guest experience.

The Client: Keepers Cottages, Kent

Keepers Cottages is the leading independent holiday cottage agency in Eastern Kent. With a portfolio that spans from the historic streets of Deal to the sprawling coastlines of Whitstable, their brand is synonymous with local expertise, luxury interiors, and a quintessential British seaside aesthetic.

For a business where the “product” is a memorable stay, every physical item within the cottage—from the linens to the hallway storage—contributes to the guest’s perception of value. In the unpredictable British climate, umbrellas are a frequent necessity for guests exploring the Kentish coast. Keepers Cottages identified an opportunity to replace generic, off-the-shelf umbrellas with something that felt like a curated gift.

The Challenge: Merging Utility with Luxury Branding

Procurement teams and company owners often face the same dilemma: how to create branded merchandise that doesn’t look like “merchandise.”

Keepers Cottages had several specific requirements:

• Colour Precision: The “aqua marine” brand colour needed to be exact. Standard stock fabrics can often match a specific brand palette, but often we will Pantone-match to ensure exact colour-matching.

• Design Complexity: The artwork wasn’t a simple logo. It consisted of dainty, detailed white illustrations—a variety of shapes including bees, sausage dogs, ice cream cones, and lighthouses.

• Durability: Given the coastal winds of Kent, the frame had to be sturdy. A cheap promotional umbrella would break, reflecting poorly on the luxury status of the cottages.

• Visual Storytelling: The design needed to be a “conversation starter”—something guests would want to be seen with and perhaps even purchase to take home.

The Creative Vision: Art-Canopy Umbrellas

The concept for these art-canopy umbrellas was rooted in “The Joy of Discovery.” The client wanted a design that felt like a treasure map of the Kentish experience.

The Iconography

The illustrations were carefully drawn to represent the eclectic mix of the Kent countryside and coast:

• The Sea & Shore: Shells, crabs, and fish to represent the fresh hauls of the Deal coastline.

• Coastal Life: Lighthouses to guide the way and ice cream cones for the summer holidays.

• Country Charm: Bees and leaves for the inland orchards of the Garden of England.

• The “Keepers” Vibe: A book for cozy nights by the fire and a sausage dog—the universal symbol of a dog-friendly holiday cottage.

This level of detail requires an umbrella manufacturer capable of high-fidelity printing. Traditional screen printing often struggles with very fine lines or small, intricate shapes across multiple panels. This is where graphic-print designer umbrellas move from the realm of “promotional products” into “retail-grade accessories” and we employ the most appropriate print method for the artwork provided. 

The Solution: Custom Illustrated Umbrellas with UK Quality

To meet the brief, the Umbrella Workshop utilised the City Walker Umbrella—a sophisticated long-handled model known for its elegant silhouette and robust windproof frame.

1. Full-Canopy Pantone Matching

Rather than choosing a “close-enough” blue, we dyed the fabric to a specific Pantone aqua marine. This ensured that whether the umbrella was seen in a guest’s Instagram photo or standing in a hallway rack, it was instantly recognisable as part of the Keepers Cottages brand family.

2. 8-Panel Illustration Layout

Many branded umbrellas are printed on one or two panels. To create a truly immersive custom illustrated umbrella, we printed on all 8 panels. This allowed the dainty white print to flow seamlessly around the canopy, creating a 360-degree story.

3. Precision Engineering

The “dainty white print” mentioned in the brief is notoriously difficult to execute on light-coloured fabrics. Using digital printing techniques, we ensured the white remained crisp and opaque against the aqua marine background, preventing the base colour from “bleeding” through the ink.

Manufacturing Excellence: From Pantone Matching to Final Mile

The Umbrella Workshop serves as the bridge between creative and manufacturing. For the Keepers Cottages project, our role involved structured project coordination to ensure the design vision was never lost in translation.

Structured Project Coordination

The procurement of bespoke artist-edition umbrellas involves more moving parts than a standard order. Our process included:

• Pre-production Sampling: Ensuring the aqua marine was perfect under different lighting conditions (natural sunlight vs. indoor cottage lighting).

• Template Alignment: Ensuring the illustrations (the bee, the lighthouse, etc.) did not get “chopped off” at the seams where the 8 panels meet.

• Quality Assurance: Testing the City Walker frame against tension and opening mechanisms to ensure a premium “click” every time.

Global Reach, Local Expertise

As specialists in bespoke umbrellas, we leverage a global supplier reach. While the concepts are developed with the UK’s “luxury quality” expectations in mind, we use the best international manufacturing facilities to handle the complexities of high-volume, high-detail textile printing. We then managed the international distribution, delivering the final product directly to the client in Kent, ready for the upcoming holiday season.

The Result: A Tangible Brand Extension

The final product was more than a tool to stay dry; it was a piece of Graphic-print designer merchandise that guests actively sought out.

• Social Proof: Guests staying at Keepers Cottages frequently shared photos of the umbrellas, providing organic social media marketing for the agency.

• Improved Guest Perception: The inclusion of a “high-quality, beautifully designed” item inside the cottages reinforced the agency’s commitment to excellence.

• Brand Longevity: Unlike paper brochures or digital ads, these umbrellas last for years, acting as mobile billboards for Keepers Cottages throughout the towns of Kent.

What Can We Do For You?

At the Umbrella Workshop and Wurlin Group, we are specialists in bespoke umbrellas, packaging, and customised merchandise. Progressive and flexible, we work with creative agencies and brand owners to diligently explore concepts and develop custom branded solutions.

We understand that for marketers and procurement teams, the biggest risk is a product that looks “cheap.” That is why we focus on:

• Innovative Manufacture: Using the latest in textile and printing technology.

• Global Sourcing: Finding the right materials at the right price point without sacrificing quality.

• Seamless Logistics: Handling everything from the drawing board to the final mile with international shipping and personalised fulfilment tailored to your brand.

The Keepers Cottages project is a testament to what happens when a brand refuses to settle for the ordinary. By investing in custom illustrated umbrellas, they turned a functional necessity into a powerful brand asset. Whether it is the specific Pantone match of the aqua marine panels or the intricate storytelling of the white-printed icons, every element of these bespoke artist-edition umbrellas was designed to delight.

The Wurlin Group- The Umbrella Workshop is your partner for turning ambitious concepts into tangible reality. We handle the complexities of production to ensure your design vision is never lost in translation—taking you from the initial sketch to a finished, high-quality product delivered to your door.

Contact Umbrella Workshop today to explore how we can manufacture your luxury umbrellas. Let us help you turn your brand icons—be they bees, books, or lighthouses—into a masterpiece.

Contact us at info@wurlin.com to start your project.