Nucleation is the rate-determining step in the initial stages of most chemical vapour deposition processes. In order to achieve uniform deposition of diamond thin films it is necessary to seed non-diamond substrates. Here we discuss a simple electrospray deposition technique for application of 5 nm diamond seed particles onto substrates of various sizes. The influence of selected parameters, such as experimental spatial arrangement and colloidal properties, are analysed in optimizing the method by optical and electron microscopy, both before and after nanocrystalline diamond deposition on the seed layer. The advantages and limitations of the electrospray method are highlighted in relation to other commonly exploited nucleation techniques.