Year: 2024

Client: Artchives India, a luxury company specializing in themed tote bags.

Brief: To create two illustrations for tote bags themed around New York and India, using classic motifs that don’t feel too cliche or tourist geared. The illustration for the India theme must also be usable as a fabric pattern for light scarves and handkerchiefs.

Process: After thoroughly reading the briefs and the company’s brand guidelines presentation, I spent awhile studying past tote bags of theirs to pick up on key elements of the illustration style. I also began to plan what recognizable elements I wanted to use from each location. For New York, I found it very challenging coming up with something very recognizable that wasn’t too over done, as the brief said. I began thinking about everyday things I see walking around the city, and compiled a list. After playing around with composition and complexity, I ultimately decided on a simple hot dog cart and a pigeon, featuring the company’s monkey mascot exploring. I also decided to make this illustration autumn themed for a muted minimalist color palette, and chose a yellow highlight color as a nod to yellow cabs. The whole process included a lot of back and forth communication and brainstorming with the brand owner, who challenged me to lead the creative direction. For the India theme, my big challenge was that it had to be simple enough to function as a pattern and somewhat variety of scale. I immediately gravitated towards the idea of tropical fruits for a bright, summery theme, and incorporated Indian jasmine flowers as well as a small briefcase to reference Artchives’ “I Dream in Wanderlust” tagline on their original totes. I presented the pattern with two different background colors to demonstrate some versatility.