#130 Cool & Breezy

#130 Cool & Breezy
 #130 Cool & Breezy
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National Scarf Day is September 27

Last week I came across the announce­ment that the first annu­al Nation­al Scarf Day is Sep­tem­ber 27, 2018, & one thing fell in place after anoth­er. I had been think­ing about wrap­ping a scarf into an amper­sand for some time, then that announce­ment was the clinch­er — for sev­er­al reasons.

First, Nation­al Scarf Day was “offi­cial­ized” by the same orga­ni­za­tion — Nation​al​Day​Cal​en​dar​.com — that I reg­is­tered Nation­al Amper­sand Day with. (That’s Sep­tem­ber 8, & here’s why I chose that date.) Since I did­n’t yet have a theme for Sep­tem­ber’s Amper­Art piece (push­ing it till the last minute again), this was def­i­nite­ly a pos­si­bil­i­ty. I was curi­ous who came up with Nation­al Scarf Day, so I read the arti­cle at Nation­al Day Calendar. 

Echo logo and Dot the spotted zebra

Lo & behold, Nation­al Scarf Day was found­ed by none oth­er than Echo Design, a high­ly respect­ed mak­er of lux­u­ri­ous, styl­ish scarfs (their orig­i­nal prod­uct, but now they offer gloves, home décor, swim­suits & more). They’ve been in busi­ness 95 years, & here’s the best part: Sep­tem­ber 27 is the anniver­sary of their first day in busi­ness. I love it when there is pro­found mean­ing for some­thing, & the name Echo was­n’t arbi­trary: it’s the acronym of Edgar C. Hyman’s name (just add cO.) To make the day they start­ed their scarf busi­ness even more spe­cial—now this is real­ly pro­found—Sep­tem­ber 27, 1923 is also day they got mar­ried! Read the fas­ci­nat­ing Echo sto­ry here.

Upon vis­it­ing echode​sign​.com, I was cap­ti­vat­ed with all the styl­ish designs & vibrant col­ors in their prod­ucts, as well as the fun & sophis­ti­ca­tion of their web­site. This imme­di­ate­ly inspired my Amper­Art design!

What per­fect tim­ing — the begin­ning of fall, when it will soon be Cool & Breezy; the date of Echo’s anniver­sary; & just about the time I was start­ing to won­der what this mon­th’s theme should be.


Before I con­tin­ue, treat your sens­es to these incred­i­ble designs by Echo. I nev­er knew scarfs could be so flam­boy­ant & artis­tic. I was on their web­site for at least an hour, like a kid in a can­dy store!

Echo Design

 

Hun­dreds more at echode​sign​.com/​s​h​o​p​/​s​c​a​rfs


Scarfs or scarves?

I was intrigued that Echo spells the plur­al “scarfs” rather than the com­mon “scarves.” I did a lit­tle research & dis­cov­ered “scarfs” is an old­er spelling, where­as “scarves” became more pop­u­lar around 1930. My orig­i­nal idea for nam­ing this Amper­Art piece was “Scarfs & Scarves” but then “Cool & Breezy” is much bet­ter, don’t you think?

Here’s a chart from writing​ex​plained​.org show­ing the usage of the two words in the last two cen­turies. “Scarfs” was just bare­ly still the pop­u­lar ver­sion when Echo Scarfs was found­ed in 1923. 
Blue: “scarfs”  Red: “scarves”

Scarfs” sounds classier to me — each scarf is indi­vid­ual, where­as “scarves” sounds like a big pile of close­outs on the dis­count table. I’m glad Echo still spells it “scarfs.” (By the way, do you know which is more pop­u­lar: “gray” or “grey”? You’ll find the answer if you keep reading.)

Scarf Queen to the rescue!

Upon dis­cov­er­ing Nation­al Scarf Day, I could­n’t wait to tell my friend Mor­gan Won­der­ly, who is an image expert. She says, “I have had a scarf obses­sion for many years now. I find that they are the per­fect com­ple­ment to any out­fit to add addi­tion­al col­or & style. As an image expert, when I work with my female clients, I always help them acces­sorize with at least a cou­ple of beau­ti­ful scarves in their sig­na­ture col­ors.” She told me her favorite red scarf is an Echo! Mor­gan was indeed excit­ed, & wrote about Nation­al Scarf Day on her blog. 

Simply Feminine, Morgan WonderlyBesides image expert & fab­u­lous makeovers, Mor­gan Won­der­ly is the author of Sim­ply Fem­i­nine — Sur­pris­ing Insights from Men. Ten years’ worth of inter­views with hun­dreds of men pro­vides a fas­ci­nat­ing (and sur­pris­ing) in-​depth study of women’s fem­i­nin­i­ty from a man’s perspective.

How did the Scarf Queen res­cue me?

After com­plet­ing, pol­ish­ing, for­mat­ting, & upload­ing my Amper­Art piece for this issue, Mor­gan admon­ished me for draw­ing “a piece of string” to rep­re­sent a scarf! (See the orig­i­nal ver­sion below.) So I fired up Pho­to­shop again & added some more threads to the scarf. It does look warmer & cozi­er. Prob­a­bly still not as wide as Mor­gan (or Echo) would like to see, but I had to keep the amper­sand rec­og­niz­able. (Look close­ly — the scarf is made up of “knit­ted” amper­sands as well. I don’t see why this could­n’t be made into a real scarf.) As for the gray vs grey answer, both spellings are more pop­u­lar: gray in Amer­i­ca & grey in the UK. You’re still reading!

original skinny design

That skin­ny thing is not a scarf!” says the Scarf Queen


How do you celebrate National Scarf Day?

Wear your favorite scarf, of course! Bet­ter yet, splurge on an irre­sistible new one. Vis­it your local store, or shop right here at Echo and enjoy their enter­tain­ing web­site. Sign up for the Echo newslet­ter & you’ll save 10%. (As my sub­scribers know, I do not get any com­mis­sions nor par­take in affil­i­ate mar­ket­ing. If I like some­thing, I just want to tell the world.)

I’ll leave you with this stun­ning image. It’s the lim­it­ed edi­tion Echo 95th Anniver­sary Scarf, 50 inch­es by 50 inch­es of 100% silk & fin­ished with a machine-​rolled hem. Pur­chase here.

This is good: A per­cent­age of pro­ceeds from the sale of this item go to the Car­ing Kind Ini­tia­tive, help­ing peo­ple with Alzheimer’s Dis­ease get the care & sup­port they need.

 

Enjoy National Scarf Day &
Happy Anniversary, Echo Design Group!

 


Production notes for #130 Cool & Breezy:
Original size: 20x30 inches

Program: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop
Fonts: Clicker Script (modified), Helvetica (modified)

Ampersand: Helvetica (modified to the point of unrecognizability — that’s what happens when you knit an ampersand)
Credits:
All scarves shown are from the echode​sign​.com website.
Chart: writing​ex​plained​.org
Book: sim​plyfem​i​nine​book​.com (book cover by Desimone Design)
You may repost the image & article. Please credit Amper​Art​.com.
To download a full-​size high-​resolution 11x17-​inch poster, click on the image.

For pro­fes­sion­al graph­ic design, please vis­it Des­i­mone Design.

Desimone? Damn good!