We’ve had a few questions about our new t-shirts, so we thought it might be helpful to talk a bit about our process.
For starters, we’re all extremely busy with kids and careers (not to mention yard work), so we subscribe to the 37 Signals philosophy that states: Meetings are Toxic. Our plan to create branded t-shirts was executed entirely via email and instant message conversations during a single weekend.
Conceptually, we had a basic creative direction established. We wanted a single color of ink (to keep costs low), graphics on the front as well as the back, and something that vaugely matched our brand (no reds, greens or wacky colors).
Finally, we knew that we wanted to use a local, Michigan printer. Ypsilanti’s VGKids was the first vendor that came to mind. They’ve done terrific work for some of our favorite outfits: 826/McSweeney’s, Modest Mouse, Shadow Art Fair and Flight of the Conchords.
Initial Sketches
We iterated through a few low-resolution concepts in Photoshop, showcasing our logo and website address:
Initial Reaction
Reaction from the kids in Mr. Kebs’ yearbook class was: Booooooooring!!! The colors were drab and the graphics didn’t have any visual appeal.
Second Revision
A few emails, texts and instant messages later we were burning through another half-dozen Photoshop concepts. Working fast and loose we free-associated new concepts using splatter brushes, photographs and duplicated logos.
Additional Feedback
Yaaaaaay! Mr. Kebs’ students voted the top two images as the leading candidates. The semi-abstract graphic and unconventional text placement were consistent with what kids are used to seeing on sites like Threadless Tees.
The Winner
And here’s our crowdsourced winner: an oversized, asymmetrical design with our company name and web address on the back. The benefit of crowdsourcing our t-shirt to the students is that we have the exact t-shirt our clients want and they helped design it — thanks yearbook crew!
Gettin’ to Work
Now it was time to create the production-ready vector artwork necessary for the silkscreen.
Here’s the source image we used, an outtake from our airport excursion in Saline.
Production
We crudely trimmed the artwork to keep the abstract feel and dropped it into Adobe Illustrator.
Next we used Illustrator’s handy Live Trace function to create a single-color version of the artwork. The application traces the edges of the photograph and converts a pixel-based image into a resolution-independent vector graphic. We then bundled up our files and shipped them off to the VGKids production team.
Final Proof
Our pals at VGKids turned-around a proof in a single business day. We shipped them our artwork on Sunday night and they gave us something to approve for production on Tuesday morning. Since the cost was trivial, we decided to add our K logo to the sleeve for a little extra flair.
Results
Less than a week later we had a box of crowdsourced, custom-designed, hand-made t-shirts on our doorstep. All that’s left to do is give them away!
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Got hops like his daddy!
Where’s the rest of us in our shirts?!