The story behind Heading Prints is simple, though the company’s bright, intricately designed bandanas and scarves certainly aren’t. “The year was 2020, and because of COVID, I hadn’t gotten a haircut in awhile,” recalls founder Cory Kimmell. “My hair had grown quite long, and I was looking for a way to style it. I wasn’t really into hairbands, so I was leaning toward bandanas, but everything I found made me look like a pirate,” he laughs. In an effort to avoid the plethora of paisley bandanas on the market, Kimmell decided he could design his own, combining his college side gig—flipping antiques for extra cash—with his newfound need for an accessory. “I had a collection of old books that I kept for myself from my time combing through antique stores and flea markets. Many of them were hundreds of years old, so I knew the imagery was free to reuse and repurpose under the laws of copyright and public domain,” he says. Kimmell applied his 13 favorite book designs to a collection of bandanas that quickly sold out. “The first run was 1,300 units, and I was expecting to bury them in the backyard,” he says. “The next order was 1,900, and those sold out in a month, so I knew something was going on.”
Kimmell, who had been living in Pennsylvania at the time, moved to Maine and put his business on the back burner while he got situated. As he began to spend more time on the Heading Prints venture, it continued to grow in popularity, and Kimmell was able to quit his day job in August 2024 to solely focus on the business. Situated in an office in the Old Port, Kimmell and the Heading team search for patterns and images on the internet and in the company’s collection of antique books (nearly six bookshelves full) to transform into breathable cotton bandanas and scarves. Kimmell, who has a background in marketing, taught himself how to transform book designs by watching videos on YouTube. “Once I find an image I like, I’ll take a photo or use a scanner to capture the illustration and open it in Illustrator or Photoshop. We have two products that are each a different size—one’s a square and one’s a long rectangle—so some images need to be adapted, squished, or reorganized. There’s fine-tuning, like changing the colors, and then vectorizing it so the graphic can be expanded to any size without losing quality,” he explains. “It’s a fairly long process that can take quite a while. For example, if I buy a book from Great Britain, by the time I find it and it gets shipped, photographed, and designed, it could be three to four months before the bandana actually comes to fruition.”
“Many of these designs haven’t seen the light of day in more than a hundred years, so I’m really fortunate to be able to dust them off in any capacity,” Kimmell says. “It seems that customers are just as happy to see the designs for what they are in a new format, whether that be a scarf or bandana or anything else.” Kimmell pays careful attention to the content of the books, as many include inaccuracies that haven’t aged well. Every design is cited on the Heading Prints website with the specific book and year it came from, and the company is embarking on a journey this year to educate customers via social media. “We’re really looking forward to showing off some of these old books that we’ve been hoarding and to educate people on the history of rare books, the various art styles and subject matters, and different authors and illustrators,” Kimmell says, adding that he hopes to build a community as excited about books as he and his team are.
When asked if there’s a single book that captures the essence of Heading Prints, Kimmell pauses for a moment as he ponders the stacks of literature surrounding him. “You know, I can’t choose,” he finally says. “Every single book has a little piece of the puzzle, every design is its own. That’s one amazing thing about this product—it’s one singular thing, a scarf or a bandana, but every design has its own story behind it. Someone may buy it because they have a granddaughter who loves cats, or a son who loves fishing. It’s amazing how one item can bring joy to everyone through the breadth of designs,” he says. “I think the fact that no one book can really define the business says something in itself.”
Cory Kimmell's Favorite Spots Around Town
Carlson Turner Antiquarian Books & Bookbindery
241 Congress Street | carlsonturnerbooks.com
Washington Baths
145 Washington Ave | washingtonbaths.com
Cantina Calafia
46 Pine Street | cantinacalafia.com
"Many of these designs haven’t seen the light of day in more than a hundred years."