Designing a Hat for Flat Fitty

28 Sep Designing a Hat for Flat Fitty

The great hat maker Flat Fitty challenged me to stump them on making a killer hat.  They gave me complete freedom to design it any way I wanted.  So I went crazy with the detail and colors.

Designing a cool hat took more than just putting good art on it.  It was the added details, large and small, that made it awesome.

When I first met with Elizabeth Miller, who is in charge of Flat Fitty promotions, she challenged me to create a hat that would show off what they can do as a manufacturer.  I was up for the task!

THE ART:  For the front of the hat I chose to use my painting SUNRISE.  I wanted it to pop when you look at it from different angles, and Sunrise has browns, blues, greens, many colors.

I had to manipulate the art so that it would work with the fold in the center of the hat.  This required modifying it so when you folded two pieces together, the art still looked good.  This took a lot of thought and time playing with the concept in the computer.

INSIDE LINING:  I was trying to make a triangle with an all-seeing eye in the center.  It looks great – I didn’t exactly pull off what I was going for, but it still looks cool.  Truthfully, I was amazed at how well Flat Fitty pulled this off.

STITCHING:  I changed the color of the stitching from light blue on the brown to light green on the dark green – this little detail makes the art pop even more.

INSIDE BILL:  Adding the embroidery “soul searching” on the inside of the bill was an extra detail that adds meaning.

SIGNATURE:  The final touch was adding my signature and logo, indicating that it’s a Drew Brophy design.

I’m sure this was one pain-in-the-a@# hat to make for sure.  But Flat Fitty pulled it off without a hitch.  I was amazed at the quality of the hat – they  nailed all the details including the artwork on the inside which was printed on a silky fabric.

The hat feels great when you wear it, and everywhere I go, people ask me where I got my hat.  (I wear it all the time.)

Only 13 of these hats were made, so sorry, they won’t be available for sale at this time…unless one of my licensees decides to get them made.

I’ll keep you posted.  Life is good – Drew

PS:  Photo to the left is by Michael R. Foley – who shot the painting of The Dream Machine.

BELOW:  A photo slide show of different angles of the Flat Fitty Hat. You can find it at flatfitty.com.