Flyleaf Books

2025 Merch Design

Long, long, ago when I was a blissfully energetic college student, I spent almost all of my time at either the art department’s print studio, or the communication department’s media lab. My days and nights were spent working with fellow art-aholics on too many projects, with overly ambitious timelines, surviving only on Krispy Kreme’s coffee and midnight runs to Cosmic Cantina for a veggie burrito (IYKYK). Occasionally though, I would go back to my apartment to sleep, and when I did, that apartment happened to be just up the street from one of our area’s local treasures: Flyleaf Books.

On those rare days when I would take a bit of time to rest, Flyleaf was where I would go. It was quiet. I would wander around, soaking in the calm of finished books - clinging to the tangible completion of other people’s frenetic efforts. I usually left with a small book of poetry, and a calmer soul.

Fast forward a decade and some change, and you can imagine just how happy I was when the wonderful people at Flyleaf asked if I would create the design for their custom 2025 merch. Every year they partner with a local artist to create a one-of-a-kind design, and I was thrilled to work with them to create this year’s illustration. I stopped by with my kids recently so they could see the finished design on the shelves, and then eventually had to drag them back out as they spent an excessively long time sprawled about reading various books. Talk about a full circle moment!

So, I thought it would be fun share here the design process for how we landed on that illustration here:

When we first started I asked the team if there was a particular piece from my website that they were drawn to, and they immediately pulled up Spring Dance. So, I anchored my design aesthetic around it for my rough drafts.

I ended up sharing four design options with the team:

I loved this mouse too much to let him go, so when the team picked a different design, I repurposed him both as inspiration for this illustration, as well as a design for my hand-printed tote bags (which are currently sold out – but I’ll soon be making a whole new batch for this year’s markets!)

We ended up going with option #1, and the team at Flyleaf had the brilliant idea of swapping one of the poppies out for an open book. So then it was on to carving and printing:

After a couple of tweaks and playing around with color options, the design was ready to go, and now it happily lives on limited edition products, available only at Flyleaf. 💛

Thanks for reading along, friends. And if you have some time this weekend, stop by your own local bookstore and show them a little bit of love – the world would be a much darker place without them!

-agc