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Muriel Fahrion

 

 
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Muriel Fahrion is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 illustrator
Illustrator

An illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text....
, who is well known for being the original designer of the famous girl's toy Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake is a Licensing#Artwork and character licensing owned by American Greetings, originally used in greeting cards and expanded to include dolls, posters, and other products....
. She is married to Michael Fahrion and has two adult children.

el Fahrion grew up and went to school in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border....
. After high school, she went on to get an associate's degree
Associate's degree

An associate degree is an academic degree awarded by community colleges, junior colleges, four-year universities, business colleges and some bachelor's degree-granting colleges/universities upon completion of a course of study usually lasting two years....
 in illustration at an art school
Art school

Art school is a colloquial term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially graphic design, illustration, painting, photography, and sculpture....
 in Cleveland. Immediately following art school, she was hired by American Greetings
American Greetings

American Greetings Corporation, Inc. is the world's largest publicly-traded greeting card company. It is based in Cleveland, Ohio and sells paper greeting cards, electronic greeting cards, party products , and electronic expressive content ....
, as a greeting card
Greeting card

A greeting card is an illustrated, folded card featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions, such as birthdays, Christmas or other holidays, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feeling....
 designer.






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Muriel Fahrion is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 illustrator
Illustrator

An illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text....
, who is well known for being the original designer of the famous girl's toy Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake is a Licensing#Artwork and character licensing owned by American Greetings, originally used in greeting cards and expanded to include dolls, posters, and other products....
. She is married to Michael Fahrion and has two adult children.

Career history

Muriel Fahrion grew up and went to school in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border....
. After high school, she went on to get an associate's degree
Associate's degree

An associate degree is an academic degree awarded by community colleges, junior colleges, four-year universities, business colleges and some bachelor's degree-granting colleges/universities upon completion of a course of study usually lasting two years....
 in illustration at an art school
Art school

Art school is a colloquial term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially graphic design, illustration, painting, photography, and sculpture....
 in Cleveland. Immediately following art school, she was hired by American Greetings
American Greetings

American Greetings Corporation, Inc. is the world's largest publicly-traded greeting card company. It is based in Cleveland, Ohio and sells paper greeting cards, electronic greeting cards, party products , and electronic expressive content ....
, as a greeting card
Greeting card

A greeting card is an illustrated, folded card featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions, such as birthdays, Christmas or other holidays, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feeling....
 designer. She worked in Juvenile & Humorous greeting card department where she created upwards of 6,500 greeting card designs.

In 1977, during her time as a greeting card designer, Muriel Fahrion created the original idea for Strawberry Shortcake and her cat Custard. Fahrion’s sister, Susan Trentel, also of Cleveland, crafted the first Strawberry Shortcake doll, based on the original greeting card design. This design made a big impression and in two years, Strawberry Shortcake went from a simple concept to an entire line of books, clothing, dolls and other toy creations. The line became so popular that a new toy and licensing division, called Those Characters from Cleveland (TCFC) was spun off from American Greetings.

While working for Those Characters From Cleveland, Fahrion also worked as a team member on several other toy designs including the The Get Along Gang, the Care Bears
Care Bears

The Care Bears are a set of characters created by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting cards. The original artwork for the cards was painted by artist Elena Kucharik....
, the Puffalumps
Puffalump

Puffalump is a brand of stuffed animals created by Fisher-Price in 1986. They were light stuffed animals made of a parachute material and poly-fil stuffing....
, the Popples
Popples

Popples was a series of fictional characters created by Those Characters From Cleveland , a subsidiary company of American Greetings, and the plush toys were manufactured by Mattel....
, and others. Like the first Strawberry Shortcake doll, many of these designs were first prototyped by her sister Susan Trentel who also worked at TCFC.

American Greetings' toy division eventually shut down, and Muriel Fahrion moved on to be the senior art director for Enesco
Enesco

Enesco is an United States of America company specializing in the sales and distribution of giftware. The company was known as an industry leader during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, as it carried the Precious Moments, Inc....
 in Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
. After working a few years at Enesco, Muriel Fahrion got a position in Norman, Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma

Norman is the largest city in and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and is part of the Oklahoma City Metroplex Metropolitan Statistical Area....
, at United Design as their Creative Vice President in which position she served for six years.

Current

Currently, Fahrion lives in semi-retirement in Medicine Park, Oklahoma
Medicine Park, Oklahoma

Medicine Park is a town in Comanche County, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, United States, situated in the Wichita Mountains near the entrance to the 60,000 acre Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge....
, with her husband Michael Fahrion and their two dogs in a house that they designed themselves. They both work part time doing freelance graphic design and web design for their studio . In 2007 she designed , a mascot for Super Kids, Spirit of Survival Marathon for the Cancer Center of Comanche Memorial Hospital. They are both active artists and are involved community members assisting with planning and preservation to working with the Wichita Mountains Arts Council and the , a local wild west performance troupe.

See also