HAVANA
The Havana scarf pattern has been a long time coming! In fact, it has been in the works for almost a year.
There was a lot of research going into this design since it was both a new and dramatic pattern but also the first product in an entirely new collection, the Lightweight collection made from 70% Bamboo fabric!
Over the past year, we have been designing a new Lightweight scarf that is ideal for warmer climates. We have been testing lots of different fabrics in lots of different configurations.
There has been so many pattern revisions, fabric iterations, prototyping, and samples that have all paved the way to bring you our newest pattern.
We will get into the the new Lightweight fabric design in our next blog post. In the meantime, dive right in and explore the inspiration and iterations of the Havana scarf!
Some of my first inspirations where the flow of people moving through the street. In these two iterations, I wanted to capture a top down view of the buildings along the street and how people move from house to house to chat with friends, laugh and move on.
This rough design showed the layering of houses along the edge and the colored paths were the routes of the people moving, stopping, and meandering through the street.
In this crazy colorful example, I removed the buildings and just mapped the route of the various people who I saw in the streets.
While I loved the concept of this initial sketches, I wasn't in love with the designs themselves.
I changed up my approach and tried a more orthogonal idea which related back to the buildings themselves. I picked colors from the photos that I had taken and layered them together.
I played with the idea of solid blocks of colors as well as rectangular outlines to try to convey the density and layers that make up Havana
In a a simplified approach, I created bars of and blocks of colors that layered together but felt less like buildings. This started to feel close, but way too rigid for Havana.
The city was alive and organic, full of movement, and these rigid blocks just weren't capturing it. They layered and overlapping was starting to get at the depth and the richness of the culture that I wanted to portray. I just needed to be less serious, just like Havana, and have a little fun with the design.
Things started to click when I moved away from rectangles and into more organic shapes. I found inspiration in the strange shapes of the tropical fruits and vegetables, the soft planes of the classic cars and the flecks of paint peeling off the building.
I layered the color droplets together and interjected a few textural circles. I was so inspired by the newspapers that were all over the city that I wanted to bring the repetitive lines into the design.
The flat color droplets weren't quite right so I added a gradient giving them a richness to their colors, so much like the flowers, fruit and city. The last part that wasn't quite right was the background color.
All of Havana is contained within the transition from land to sea. The crashing waves and beautiful trees and plants are both such a huge part of the city. It seemed natural to bring in a background color that transitioned from the blues of the ocean to the greens of the land.
There were three main inspirational forces behind this pattern.
COLOR // The abundance of color everywhere was almost overwhelming! The food is colorful, the buildings are colorful, the cars are colorful! And they are ALL of the colors!
LAND & SEA // The sea is such a part of Havana. The moment where the sea meets the land creates this transition between the teal blues and bright greens and are simply beautiful!
NEWSPAPER // This is a somewhat strange inspiration, but this is the main way that people get their news in Havana. The graphic of lines of black text make their way into the scarf pattern.
This pattern was certainly a stretch for me. I am much more comfortable designing in a much more controlled way, but that is just not Havana.
Havana is about following your heart, dancing and dreaming. It is about exploring what's down the next street and trying a food you have never had before. It is not about trying too hard and forcing things. It's about going with the flow and letting things happen.
It's about laughing with old friends and meeting new ones. It's about feeling the wind in your hair as you drive the Malecon in a classic car and let your worries blow away.
Enjoy this fun and funky pattern this spring while you plan your next tropical adventure, maybe even to Havana!
HAVANA // Inspired by the bright hues of classic cars, vibrant buildings and colorful cuisine, this pattern captures the layered colors and textures of the beautiful chaos that is Havana.
Caitlin Blythe
Waypoint Goods // Owner & Founder
Caitlin began Waypoint Goods to help and inspire women to get out and travel while feeling safe and fashion forward. She creates custom patterns and designs for the travel scarves based on her travels. Her past life as an architect makes the brand contemporary and modern while focusing on empowering women to travel.
