As one of my projects during my summer internship at Blackbough Swim, the CEO and Creative Director, Jemina Ty, had me create a print for a swimsuit collection she is planning for the 2024 summer season. While I have dabbled in apparel design due to student organizations at college, I have never made a print. So when Jem asked me if I wanted to try it out, I couldn't pass this project up!
This is the image of the moodboard Jem was collating for the collection. She told me that some ideas to try out were viney florals, watercolor brush strokes, and mermaid-esque elements. With that, I tried drafting some elements in my sketchbook where I merged a mix of both seashell imagery and florals. I then digitally translated those drawings into Krita before rearranging the drawn elements on Adobe Photoshop.
The leftmost picture was my very first draft based on my interpretation of the picture of Jem's moodboard. It then went through many iterations and edits based on feedback from her assistant creative director, Max Garcia. Overall, each of the comments wanted more intricacy in the vines and the depth of the print. It has gone through recolors to complete redrawing of the shells to make the print less cartoony. It's also pivoted to have dreamier pastel colors to fit the other prints Jem designed for the collection. The rightmost picture is now my desktop wallpaper since I liked it so much! However, Jem ultimately said that she preferred a more "ditsy" print. To which I then rearranged the print one more time.
This was the final iteration before my last day of my summer internship. My boss asked me to mockup the print onto an existing bikini silhouette they already have which you can see on the right side. Regardless of whether this will be included in their 2024 summer collections or not, this was definitely a fun project to take on! I had a lot of fun with it. Thanks Jem and Max for trusting me to try it out.
