This section covers my work at Illinois State University's Horticulture Center. This was my favorite project I did during my undergrad as I got to learn so much about different plants that I never knew about. I wanted to make sure to incorporate the information I learned into my designs. There is some fantastical elements in the designs but I did want to bring the magic out of horticulture center into the clothing!

There was a lot of research I needed to do before starting on the designs. I’ve never actually drawn any plants before this, let alone, never even knew about some of the plants I needed to know about. There would be days where I would be out in the garden section just taking pictures and practicing how to sketch some of these plants out. There was plenty of times where I would show my manager the design I came up with for a plant and I would immediately get sent back to the drawing board. Literally.

It made me start to appreciate the plants I worked with though and it dramatically improved my illustration skills. I do have somethings I would change if I could do it again. I would change some of the flower designs since to the average person. They wouldn’t be able to recognize some of the plants. I would also change the vegetable design and make it somehow darker to match the other two designs.