Botanical & Garden

Flowers, and the people who grow them

Two halves to this set. One is straightforward botanical work — a floral bow wreath, pink hibiscus, a retro daisy, a lemon branch, an aloha hibiscus — that sells on totes and tees to people who would not describe themselves as a target market. The other is garden-club humour that actually lands: Free Weeds, Pull Your Own, Gardeners Know All the Dirt, Welcome to My Garden.

Gradients are the test

Petals are gradients, and gradients are where cheap transfers go grainy. A flower printed badly bands — you see the steps between tones instead of the blend — and once you have noticed it on one shirt you cannot stop noticing it. These print smooth and they wash that way, which is the whole reason a botanical set is worth stocking rather than avoiding.

The two paintings

Van Gogh, Sunflowers and Van Gogh, Almond Blossoms are here because they have been in the public domain long enough to press onto a tote without a licensing conversation. They are also the two designs in the library that benefit most from a larger size — a four-inch sunflower loses the brushwork that makes it worth printing.

For a market run, mixing the humour and the florals onto a single length of film costs the inches and nothing per design.