How To Design An Illustrated Scarf

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

JEFF KOONS : A RETROSPECTIVE

Hello Lovelies,

I can't thank you enough for your amazingly sweet comments you left on my latest post Finding My It Girl. The wheels are definitely in motion and I've been doing a lot of thinking about additional ways I can better serve you all, my readers, here on Travel Write Draw. Ultimately I want to give you access to the very best of art, culture, fashion, & illustration here in New York and abroad and inspire along the way. So today I'm starting with an inside glimpse into what I consider one of the best art retrospectives I've seen to date in New York - Jeff Koons: A Retrospective at the Whitney Museum.

I visited this exhibition a week or so ago and was absolutely overjoyed by the experience. Jeff Koon's work is meant to elicit a reaction from its viewers and it most certainly did for me. There is something really refreshing about standing next to oversized everyday objects, play-doh and the like, that ignites the child in you. I left feeling totally recharged which says a lot considering it was crowded with the typical selfie obsessed attendees. The saturated colors alone are worth the visit. If you are planning to make a visit to New York this Summer, make it apart of your "must see list" otherwise enjoy the snapshots I curated just for you.

Much love,
Meag xx

Finding My "It" Girl

Good Evening My Darlings,

It feels like forever since I last sat down and connected with all of you here on Travel Write Draw. Truthfully I've been having a really rough time lately, as in lots of crying, breakdown fits, and rocky emotional roller-coaster rides. I'm about to make some MAJOR moves here in New York and quite frankly I'm scared shitless. I've been doing what most overly anxious OCD people are prone to doing - running around asking everyone for advice and seeking answers, while feeling totally unsure and uncertain about making a major decision. And all the advice getting can really throw you for a loop. In my quest to get some real answers on how to create real quality content on my blog, I consulted with a blog "expert" and walked away feeling completely sideswiped to the point that I didn't feel like I could write on my blog anymore (hence why I disappeared for over two weeks).

I WAS PARALYZED...I was told that my content wasn't good enough, that my traffic was dismal, and that I needed to write an E-Book?! I felt like everything I had ever learned about social media, being authentic, and being myself was completely WRONG. Honestly I'm still reeling from the experience. BUT with every hard lesson comes a wave of self-affirmation. How can anyone FAIL at being THEMSELVES?! Seriously?! How can you go wrong expressing yourself, speaking from your heart, and connecting with people from every corner of the world?! Frankly the fact that I've managed to connect with anyone through the internet in a meaningful way feels like a huge WIN to me.

Furthermore, last night I attended a brilliant personal branding class through The Lovely It Girl, a personal brand consulting boutique, where the founder Michela Aramini challenged all of us to identify our inner "It Girl". Suddenly all the reasons I love life and feel passionate about being a fashion illustrator came flooding back to me. I was reminded that my "It", my unique intrinsic value, is the only voice I really need to listen to.

So my loves, I'm on the quest to find and re-define my inner "It". Just like the ever stunning and talented Candice Lake I illustrated above, I want to exude all the light and warmth of the world from the inside out. I want to live in my "It" and I want you all to come with me. What does being your "It" self mean to you?! Who are you at your very best?! I'm thanking Michela Aramini BIG time for beginning the new movement and suggest all you amazing readers join in.

SO much love,
Meag xx

BE YOUR OWN IDOL

This past year has been a year of major transformative growth. Whether knowingly or not, I managed to attract people into my life who have changed me irreversibly. I'm sitting here in my bedroom/studio right now, half awake from the wear and tear of today, knowing there is much to be said and expressed in this post. I'm fighting with the little energy I have left today to give to the most important thing in my life, my dream (aka my blog, my illustrations, my love of travel, and my connections with all of you). This severely skewed equation of how my time is divided daily, as a result of a demanding full-time job, is perhaps the reason I'm writing this evening at all. Something is wrong with the way I'm living and today and each day forward I need to be my own idol.

I came across this particular quote whilst reading the ever honest and admirable Sophia Amoruso's #GIRLBOSS. She writes "I don't want you to look up, #GIRLBOSS, because all that looking up can keep you down. The energy you'll expend focusing on someone else's life is better spent working on your own. Just be your own idol." And when I read this it hit like a barreling freight train unhinged. I can't count the number of precious minutes, hours, days that I have wasted in my life worrying about what the hell everyone else around me is doing. I have been plagued with the disease of dissatisfaction my whole life. Nothing was or is ever good enough. Starting today, that all changes. What I have come to realize in my young 28 years is that it absolutely DOES NOT matter where you come from, good or bad, because it is up to you to determine where you go from here.

There is simply no more time to waste worrying about my circumstances anymore. This is my journey. I own every part of it and if I want things to be different then the change of course can only be led by me. I don't know any other fashion illustrator out there who has branded themselves a traveling fashion illustrator. But just because the category doesn't exist yet, does not mean my brand isn't valid. I realize that in order to live a life of fulfilment I have to be a pioneer, I have to be my own idol. I can't look to illustrators of the past or even my colleagues today. My journey can only be paved by me. Have any of you ever faced a moment in your life where you realized that you had to be your own idol? If so when or how did it happen? My Spring Awakening continues and I would love nothing more than to continue sharing it here with all of you.

Much love,
Meag xx