Design Process: Making of the Tiger Safari Print

In the final post of our series taking a behind the scenes look at the design process for the Tiger Safari collection, we look at the print of the same name.

Inspired by Adventures on Safari

As the name suggests, the inspiration was our experience on safari at a tiger reserve in India. Every morning and evening, jeeps full of tourists head into the park, circling round different routes in the hope of spotting a tiger.

If they see a pugmark, their direction may change as they follow the tracks and trails. Guides and rangers patrol on elephant. If they spot a tiger, soon a swarm of jeeps will be nearby – with tourists taking in turns to head out on elephants into the undergrowth to get a closer look.

Print Composition

Our idea was to show tigers hiding in the undergrowth, circled by elephants and jeeps. We thought a classic cross check pattern would be the perfect foundation for the print, with the green cross check drawn with grass details representing jungle foliage. 

We had lots of fun developing the details on this print. A fun fact you may not know is that Sarah’s brother is a massive tiger lover, and actually came with us on our trip to Pench Tiger Reserve. He has ginger hair, which of course fits perfectly with the colour scheme, so we drew him (and ourselves) into the pattern in several places!

Sampling the Design

When we had the design ready we started selecting colours and sampling the print. We toned the colours down slightly from our original strike-off which we thought was a little strong.

Printing the Design

Once all colours were mixed and the screens tested, we were ready to print the full run of fabric. The pictures here show 3/7, 4/7 and 7/7 colours down.

We paired the Tiger Safari print with ‘Tracks and Trails‘, illustrating tyre tracks and pugmarks looping all over the park. A one colour print, it makes a good contrast to the colourful Tiger Safari print on the other side.

Stitching Products

Back in the studio all our fabrics get stitched into products! Here one of our tailors is stitching Leopard spot piping onto a quilt.

Tiger Safari Quilt and Cushions

Click here to shop the Tiger Safari Collection
Follow us on instagram to see more of our design process, making and behind the scenes.