My Favorite Murder:
From Fan Art
to Official Merch
What began as late-night lettering
practice became an unexpected & rewarding collaboration.
I posted an illustration of Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark of My Favorite Murder (MFM) to Instagram and went to bed. When I checked my phone the next morning, my notifications were blowing up. The official My Favorite Murder account shared it, and I had a sudden influx of new followers.
In early 2020…
The follow-up artwork to retain a new audience.
Recognizing the momentum and wanting to retain my newfound audience, I created another MFM illustration, this one being what I’d want as a poster. Almost as soon as I posted this piece the official instagram shared it again. Not only that, they reached out to me for my email to share with their merchandise team. We went back and forth, but they ended up backing out.
However, bootleggers began selling unauthorized shirts featuring my artwork. After the second time this happened,
I reached out again. I explained the situation and showed them that there was real demand behind the design. Look how well this bootleg version is selling, that’s money you’re not making. I figured the worst that could happen is they say no again…or they could say yes.
The original pattern design done in Procreate.
Success! Not only did they green-light the t-shirt design (with some minor edits to add the name of the podcast), but they also loved the pattern I had recently created and wanted to use it for silky pink pajamas. I frantically rebuilt the pattern in Illustrator to be a functioning tile, and I quickly delivered polished, print-ready files.
Result
The T-shirt design launched
October 2020 and sold out
in days.
The pajama design launched January 2022 and is restocked
as of 2024.
I took initiative, was persistant, advocated for my work, and was able to turn a piece of personal fan art into official merchandise for a podcast that was repeatedly topping the charts. It remains one of the most meaningful projects I’ve done, professionally & personally.
Why This Matters
I myself ordered the short set of the pajamas.