Day In The Life: Jessica Hendrickson, Design Director

We asked Jessica Hendrickson, the Lion Brand Yarn Design Director, to keep a journal during one of her busy photoshoot days. Jessica and her team are the masterminds behind the patterns you love on LionBrand.com! Let’s go behind-the-scenes as Jessica takes us with her during her day at a Lion Brand Yarn photoshoot!

8:30 am Photoshoot Fuel – I stop for coffee and pick up water and donuts for the team to start the day. I can never start a photoshoot day without a coffee and a donut.

Oh! And before we get started you have to meet the team! Francis LaMonica is our amazing Photographer, pretty much every photo you see on our website was taken by him. Mallory Giordano is our amazing Design Assistant. She helps to request garments from our army of makers and bring the photoshoots to life. They are both extremely important parts of the team and we wouldn’t have inspiration to share without them!

9:30 am CALL TIME – I arrive at the photoshoot location around 9:30 with Francis and Mallory. This allows for us to have some time in the morning to gather garments, set up lighting, figure out the order of shots for the day, etc.

9:45 am Setting Up – We walk around the studio to find the best lighting and backgrounds for photos! This tends to be the slowest part of the day because as soon as the model arrives we will be in execution mode trying to shoot as many new garments as we can.

10 am Model Arrival – Our model arrives around 10 – 30 minutes after we arrived giving us time to continue setting up each shot.

10 am-10:30am Last Chance To Sit Down- We give our model 20-30 minutes to settle in. We try not to use makeup artists and stylists to give the most realistic, relatable appearance in our photos. We always ask our models to bring their own clothing and look how they feel their best so that comes across in the photography we take.

11 am Shoot Shoot Shoot! – We shoot a new garment every 15 minutes or so. For each garment, we strive for a full-body photo to see the garment with the full outfit, a closeup so you can see the textures, and an ultra closeup for detail. We think this gives our makers the most comprehensive look to help make better-informed decisions on what they want to make.

12 am Break For Lunch – While we all like to eat healthy once in a while, we splurge on the finest fast food the area we are in has to offer. Cheeseburgers and fries for the win!

1pm: Back To It – We continue to shoot various garments and home decor until we drop – literally.

Shoot days are the most exhausting days because you need to make sure you are paying attention to all details and get the most out of the location and model.

4 pm IT’S A WRAP! – The day is over around 4pm! We say goodbye to the model, clean up our space so we leave it as we got it, and pack up garments.

The next steps after shoot day will be crucial – editing the photos, matching them up to their pattern numbers, and finally, posting them online for everyone to make!!

To see even more behind-the-scenes content from the Design Department at Lion Brand you can head over to the Lion Brand Yarn Instagram account!