Our story
We draw the wild that makes a place feel like home.
MarkedByNature began with a question: what if the animals you grew up beside — the loon, the badger, the manatee — could become the very shape of where you're from?
What we believe
You carry a place with you — in the creatures you grew up beside.
A place isn't only its map. It's the call of a loon across still water at dusk. The badger disappearing into a driftless hillside. The manatee drifting through warm, slow shallows. These are the things that make somewhere feel like yours.
So we draw them — every animal, bird, and fish native to a state — and fit them, by hand, into the outline of the state itself. What you end up wearing isn't a logo. It's a quiet, true map of home.
The artist
Ashley Johnson — biologist, naturalist, and the hand behind every line.
All of our designs are hand drawn by Minnesota artist and naturalist Ashley Johnson. Ashley grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her earliest interests were animals and art — two things that never changed.
She studied Biology at Augsburg University in Minneapolis. While working toward her bachelor of science she also worked as a student researcher, exploring the interactions between plants and funguses.
In her third year of college she spent a semester in Panama, studying tropical ecology and field study methods. This ignited an insatiable curiosity to travel and see the world. After graduating, she completed an expedition leadership course and became an international tour guide, leading educational excursions in South America, Australia, and Southeast Asia. She has also worked as a naturalist and teacher at nature centers and non-profits.
Her greatest passion is sharing her love for nature — and helping others notice the beauty and complexity of our natural world.
How each design is made
From field guide to fabric.
Every piece begins as research and ends as something you'll keep for years.
We research the range
We start with real range maps and naturalist records — every species that genuinely lives within the state's borders, nothing decorative or invented.
We draw it by hand
Each animal is illustrated individually, then composed into the state's silhouette, sized to its place in the landscape — the moose large, the chickadee small.
We print to order
Nothing is mass-produced. Each piece is printed when you order it, on heavyweight, built-to-last goods — less waste, more care.
"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living."
— David Attenborough · a quote Ashley keeps close
Real species, real ranges. If it isn't native, it isn't in the drawing.
Heavyweight goods and durable printing — pieces meant to age well, not wear out.
A new state joins the collection every season, drawn with the same care as the first.