Mantle is a naturalist craft studio for makers, growers, and provisioners. We illustrate, identify, and publish — with the patience of a hand on a sketchbook.
We accept four major projects a year and a number of small ones. Below — what we keep on the bench, who is at the easels, and the specimens currently being drawn.
A 1898 family bakery moving back to seasonal labels. Wordmark, 32 hand-drawn plates, twelve label templates, and a quarterly almanac mailed to subscribers.
We build identities the way a botanist builds a herbarium: collected, labelled, pressed flat. Every wordmark gets walked outdoors before it is signed.
Custom flora and fauna illustration in pen, watercolour, and gouache. Used on labels, menus, maps, and the occasional waxed-canvas tag.
Long-form publication design with the discipline of a Sibley guide. Saddle-stitched to clothbound, posted by mail.
We charge no more than the average city studio. We do, however, take longer, walk further, and ship heavier boxes.
“Mantle came up the trail with a sketchbook and a thermos. They went home with a brand. We have used the wordmark on every jar of preserves since.”
“They drew our local flora from life — three days in the woods, a hundred plates. The label is still our best-seller seven years later.”
“Mantle ships brands the way Sibley ships guides. Cloth-bound, indexed, dog-eared by the third season. They make work that gets used.”
Pricing is plain. Most projects align to a fourteen-week field season. Tending retainers continue quarterly until the woods fall back asleep.
Answered plainly. Letters reach us within a week — or come walk up the trail.
A barn at the head of a beech wood, two hours north of the city. Visits welcome, with rubber boots.
Three project slots remain in spring. We read every brief, including the ones we politely decline.