How To Design An Illustrated Scarf

Tuesday, July 29, 2014


Hello My TWD Darlings,

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and great start to your week! I for one had a pretty stellar weekend involving an uber fun filled roadtrip to Toronto for a dear friend's wedding on Saturday (more on that to come!!). I'm finally bouncing back from the whirlwind of nearly 24 hrs spent in a car in 2.5 days lol. Regardless, today I'm riding high on life because I discovered that the illustrated scarf I designed for Collection 18 has finally become available to buy on NORDSTROM EEEeeeee!! Yes I'm totally squealing over this.

I VERY rarely show any of the work I do for my employer here. But I thought it could be really interesting for you, my sweet Travel Write Draw inner circle, to show the behind the scenes of making the scarf and also break down a comprehensive (and very much abbreviated) how to that you can use when considering designing a scarf yourself. SO it starts a little something like this.

STEP 1: Decide on your theme! When we were considering our trends almost a year ago now we were seeing lots of evidence of flamingos everywhere from fashion accessories to home goods. It became clear that this wasn't a trend to be ignored. So we agreed to move forward with an engineered scarf design involving a flamingo and I got straight to work on pulling references to draw from.


STEP 2: Illustrate your motifs! Once I gathered the very best the web had to offer on flamingos I whipped out the finest watercolor paper and got to work. I painted and painted, and then I painted some more, until I got just the right angle of the flamingo to work with in photoshop. I scanned the best illustrations, cleaned them and moved onto...

STEP 3: Playing with compositions! With my scanned flamingos I started placing them into a file in the dimensions of the scarf I wanted to create - in this case 26" x 80". I illustrated a few geometric shapes to create a print for the background of the scarf. This was the really experimental stage where I created roughly 40 different layouts to be considered for one final scarf design.

STEP 4: Pitch the colors! We decided unanimously to use the scarf where the flamingos head and body draped around your neck when wearing as a true wrap. But this wasn't the end of it. I printed the scarf life size and started pitching the pantone colors so the maker would know how to get as exact as possible. This also allowed for limiting the number of screens it took to print the design.

STEP 5: Send to maker! Once the pitch sheet was filled out with all the colors and their positions on the scarf, I burned the final design to a disc, folded the life size printout, and threw the design sheet in an envelope to be sent to our makers. Within weeks we received our first sample which was probably my most rewarding day ever at Collection 18!!

STEP 6: Sell to buyer! Once you have your sample, you're ready to sell! In our case, the sample goes in the showroom in time for August market to be viewed by all the retail buyers. For you at home receiving a sample means you can confirm that it is accurate and also photograph for your online store. I'm beyond thrilled that of all the retailers to walk through our showroom last Summer, NORDSTROM was the one who purchased my design!!

And now you can view it on shop.nordstrom.com here:


Did you find this post helpful? Are there projects that I've worked on that you would like to see more how to's or behind the scenes on? If so let me know in the comment section below.

Much love,
Meag xx

20 comments:

  1. This is gorgeous! The scarf looks amazing! You did a great job!
    http://balearaitzart.blogspot.com.au/

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    1. @lorenabr thanks lovely, this was the most fun I've ever had at my full-time job. Something clicked the day I put my illustrations to product. I want to do more illustrated fashion accessories xx

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  2. What a magnificent thing to be a part of, thanks for sharing. You did a fantastic job - the scarf looks perfect!

    House of Illusions

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    1. @Agnes W thanks so much my love. I learned a lot from this experience and I wish I could do more like this for my employer. I guess I'm just going to have to start my own line instead ;) xx

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  3. That's a gorgeous scarf! I love the blue one! I really enjoy posts like these because I can learn so much about the process of things and the potentials for me as an artist. May I ask how you can apply to get in a show room?

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    1. @Caroline Bogush great, so happy to hear you found this post useful!! When I was still a student my professors couldn't paint a clear picture on what a career for a fashion illustrator really looked like. I'm happy that I'm pulling back the curtains for you so to speak. I don't know about getting into a showroom exactly. Do you mean getting an agent? I don't have a showroom, agent, or gallery necessarily. This was a design I did for my employers as their "in-house illustrator/social media editor/graphic designer/marketing manager." Let me know if I answered your question xx

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    2. Okay! Now I understand! That cleared things up! I looked up collection 18 and was a tad confused but now I understand! Does it upset you that it says Collection XIIX and not Meagan Morrison? How many designs have you done for the company? I'm sorry, This is all so interesting to me!

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    3. @Caroline Bogush no it doesn't upset me, mainly because it was only one design, and also because that is what you agree to when you work full-time for an employer. Truthfully every big design house in the world employs designers who are the ones actually conceiving of the designs and never get any credit for it. That is part of the industry. If you want to do something on your own and get credit for it you need to do it on your own or through a collaboration xx

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  4. Aww, how nice to see the process! Your scarf is lovely! I hope this is the first of many.

    http://lamentinglizzie.blogspot.com

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    1. @Elizabeth Hisle thank you my sweets, I do too!! Even if it means starting my own brand ;) xx

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  5. How cool is that?! Fabulous scarf,colors and your design! Big congratulations! Awesome work! Thanks for sharing on how-to and the whole process! It's really interesting!

    www.pursefixation.com
    Toast your Purse with an Outfit!
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    1. @Purse Fixation you bet!! I would love to do one like this with beautiful insects just like your post that you shared not long ago xx

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    2. That would be super cool! I can already almost see it!:-) :O I was thinking already some time ago about your illustrations and the purses I want to start designing :-) Maybe we could do some sort of collaboration together one day? What would you say? :-)

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    3. @Purse Fixation that would be amazing!! Would love to have a peak at your designs xx

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  6. Wow, this is amazing! xx Eszter

    www.shineonsilver.blogspot.com

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  7. I love you scarf! That's very beautiful! Big Job!

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