The Baby Bear collection is probably the one collection that has my name written all over it. I just love the tough look of the products, with the wood background, the tribal arrows, the grizzly bear walking all cool-looking and the unique font. I love every bit of the design! It really makes me think of watching the cold weather outside, while snuggling up on the couch with some warm, wooly sweater and a hot cup of tea. Just that thought gives me butterflies in my stomach and cravings for the fall and winter season! 

The design came to life when I decided to create a woodland themed baby shower invitation. I had been trying to make a design with forest animals before, but failed miserably. Willemijn did not approve any of my previous woodland themed designs and looking back, she was so right! I think that my love for woodland animals stood in the way of me making such a design. I felt a bit defeated really. But ultimately, I pulled myself together and knew that this time I would succeed with the BEST design ever.

I started out with the bear. At first, I wanted to have the word “Bear” to be the shape of the silhouette of the bear. After an hour of trial and error, I acknowledged that that wasn’t a very good idea. Either you could see that it was a bear, but you could not read the word. Or you could read the word, but could not figure out why it was in such a weird shape. So that was a no-no.

Then I thought of having a picture of a foggy valley with pine trees inside the bear graphic. It took me another 30 minutes to figure out that that wasn’t going to work either. The bear silhouette was just too fragmented with the legs and head sticking out (I know, it’s not the bear’s fault that he has the paws and all..).

Finally it hit me that the bear silhouette was just perfect as it is. So I added the fun font, the tribal arrows and the wood background and VOILA, the baby bear collection was born! I made a darker version as well and to be honest, that was only to have Willemijn to choose from two designs instead of disapproving one design. Having a choice, makes you think that at least one of the two options should be approved :)

I realize that this sounds like Willemijn is a high-demanding "the devil wears Prada" kinda lady boss who reigns supreme over LittleSizzle, but that couldn’t be further from the truth! Usually, she adores my designs and she completely leaves the designing part up to me. It’s more like a formality and a validation for me that I show her any new designs that I make.

To my relieve, Willemijn absolutely loved both of the designs, so we decided to make the complete collection for both versions. With every new product I made, I fell deeper and deeper in love with the design. It’s so simple, but yet so complete. This collection has been one that I truly enjoyed making, from start to finish!

On many request, we have made another collection with the same design, except we changed the bear to a deer, so that the products can be used for a girl baby shower as well (check out the Oh Deer collection here).

Check out the complete Baby Bear collection here.