January 2026 Spoonflower Design Challenge Brief: Wildflower Collage
Entries: Jan 2 – Feb 10
Voting: Feb 12 – Feb 24
Results: Feb 26
“Draw inspiration from vintage botanical plates, and hand-collected garden studies layered into charming, collage-style compositions. Think delicate stems, varied scales, and a sense of natural abundance arranged in a way that feels curated yet organic. Designs can feel historic, romantic, or softly modern, but should celebrate the beauty and diversity of wildflowers.” - Spoonflower Design Challenge Brief
If you saw “Wildflower Collage” and immediately pictured a regular tossed floral, you’re not wrong for thinking that - but I don’t think that’s the goal of this brief.
When I see keywords like vintage botanicals, garden studies, collage style compositions, and curated yet organic, it sounds to me like they’re pointing toward something more “collected” and intentionally arranged. Less scatter print, more artful design.
This is my interpretation (because Spoonflower never tells us exactly what they mean), but I’m seeing a pretty clear through-line: structure + variety + vintage study vibes.
Here’s how I translate the core keywords into something you can actually design:
Hand-collected, layered, collage, curated
I believe they’re looking for multiple species mixed together, like you gathered wildflowers and laid them out. The “collage” part seems to imply
a mix of flower types + leaf shapes
overlap or layering
not perfectly spaced
Some level of structure or shape
Vintage botanicals, garden studies, varied scale
This sounds to me like a botanical illustration influence:
ink + watercolor vibes
specimen-like stems and leaves
paper grain, wash textures, or even keeping sketch layers on
“studies” style (buds, blooms, seedheads, different angles or groupings)
Wallpaper
Keep in mind this is a wallpaper challenge. Designs should read well at a distance and at a large scale. Consider designing at 24x24” for 1 repeat or a 12x12” for a 2x2 repeat. Anything smaller than this and your design will probably get lost in the voting page.
Also consider where this wallpaper might be used. It’s always a good idea to consider:
Where your wallpaper is going to be (bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms, commercial spaces, etc)
Who your design is for/your target audience
Answering these two questions can give you a lot of direction in the form of limitations.
My Pinterest Board for This Challenge
If you want some extra context for this challenge, I put together a Pinterest board that’s basically a vibe check for Wildflower Collage.
I took all the keywords from the prompt (vintage botanical plates, garden studies, vintage collage, wildflower art, etc.) and then compiled the best examples into one board. So this should help a lot.
And if you want more boards like this for future challenges, feel free to follow me on Pinterest - I’ll keep adding to them as new prompts come out.
Final Thoughts
I can’t say for certain what Spoonflower “wants” (none of us can), but my interpretation is that this challenge rewards designs that feel like collected botanical studies turned into a curated yet organic repeat: rich and abundant, but still designed with intention.
