Designs for my class T-shirt

Hey guys! It has been a while. Here is an update from me or rather a FEW updates from me. Since this is my own personal art blog, I have decided showcase my recent small projects I was involved in. One of which I'll be talking about in this first post will be the developments of ideas for my class T-shirt. No, unfortunately my designs were not chosen and from this I learnt that when designing something, the audience that you are designing for plays a big part in your designs. You would have to be very clear of what your audience want before you can come up with a 'good' design. Ah well. There is always next time. At least now, a design has been decided. Designed by another classmate, we are now waiting for him to finalise the design. Go Fun! Anyway, without further ado, here are my designs. Comments would be appreciated. Well, see you in the next post: 'House Exco Experience'

1st design: Us five girls

My class has a very UNbalanced ratio. There are only 21 guys and 5 girls. So I decided to work on that unique aspect of our class. I was thinking of featuring the girls on the front of the t-shirt as I wanted them to be the focus. (The guys? Well, I was thinking of drawing them all squashed at the back of the T-shirt. Haha. Sorry about that you guys.)

This was done up in photoshop. I did the a rough outline in blue then started to form lines using the lasso tool with black. Since my class chairman suggested pink or orange, I showed him duplicates of my designs but only with a different colour.

My class chairman told me to simplify the drawing and add in some guys. However, I got too lazy and began to procrastinate on this. Bored, I came up with another design : the third one. But let's look at the 2nd one first, shall we?


2nd design: The sesame street idea

So when coming up with the first design, this idea also popped in my mind. I was thinking of sesame street episodes where it ends with a phrase like: ' And today's episode was brought to you by the letter... and the number...' Since my class is well... a number, I decided to draw something like that, with Big Bird by the side. This idea began to branch to the count and his counting habits and the Sesame street logo which I changed to fit the theme of the class T shirt.

I first drew the design with a pencil and I used references from what I found at home such as Sesame street on VHS and DVD. Later I inked it. I think I got too carried away with inking Big Bird's feathers so he began to look a little black.

My class chairman didn't think the class would approve since it looks so childish and all so I had to scrap this idea. Its back to the old drawing board.


Big Bird


The Count



Big Bird and Cookie Monster

3rd design: a more graphic take

This was the design that I put a lot of thought in as I thought this idea would be a good one. I had been influenced by a few books on good designing and one of the things I observed is that they are able to translate their focus into something cute and funny using what they observe around them, one of which is signs such as the toilet signs which gives you a pictorial notation which one is for the gents or for the ladies. So I decided to work on that, translating the unique side of my class into a more graphical presentation.

One of the few problems I countered was the lack of ideas. The only points I could pick up was the fact we had a class joker and that the common interest of the class was appreciation for his jokes. Some of my classmates stood out based on their own unique identity but I needed to work on something more general because this, after all, was a CLASS t shirt.

At first I sketched in ideas in my 'Anna Sui' notebook. After choosing the best 5 signs I wanted to work on, I began to sketch the composition of the design and how I wanted to place the different signs. I took a couple of measurements and began to draw the signs on other few sheets of paper. After inking, I cut them out and pasted them together according to the plan. After which, I scanned it in into photoshop where I gave it colour and words.

I think that the majority thought the design to be too cartooney? So, unfortunately, I had to scrap away the idea.


Sketches







The Layout




The Final Design : front and back respectively



4th design: a class quilt design

No. I am not designing a quilt for my class (What on earth would they do with it?) This design resembles a quilt so thus its name. This was just a suggestion to my class chairman since they decided to open to the floor and ask for designs again (after seeing another class with a rather nice designed class t-shirt). In a rectangle with about 5x6 boxes, I added in the characters, being my classmates, according to how I see them as and by their index number.

One of the problems which cropped up again was the lack of knowledge of my classmates. I was not too sure how to potray them out since I didn't know the character very well. Also, I became quite tired as I was designing this quite late into the night. So this came about... those astrix near the boxes suggested that I am going to redraw that particular character since it did not look too well done.

I think my class chairman got quite offended when he saw this piece (He thought he looked like a sushi) so he thought it was not appropriate for the class? Well, another idea scrapped again.



















Well, I had a few more ideas, but due to my lack of initiative, they were not drawn up. Its another lesson learnt. I have to keep on drawing to keep the ideas flowing. No more excuses. I have to get down to work. Also, Like I said before, designing is like a hit-and-miss. Especially when your class expects you to come up with something without a theme. It was a challenge but it allowed me to gain a few experience: in my drawing skills and in my process of thinking when designing.