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February 5, 2008

Winterblast 2008 T-Shirt Design

For the past several years, I've had the great opportunity to design t-shirt graphics for Winterblast, our church youth group's annual winter retreat.

For 2007, I created a snow monster for the shirt design, and loved how the white ink on navy blue long-sleeve t-shirts turned out. For 2008, I chose a stylized white polar bear design, on forest green long-sleeve t-shirts.

Designing the Polar Bear
To create the stylized polar bear illustration, I used image searches to locate a few reference photos, to help me establish correct proportions and shapes in my memory. Using this reference, I created a front-view polar bear in Adobe Illustrator. No sketches were necessary, as the bear idea had formed in my head by this point.

After several design iterations, I decided to add a pair of black 1960s sunglasses, a winter cap, and enclosed the polar bear within a circular shape.

I explored various type treatments for Winterblast '08, settling on a combo of Helvetica Bold and Medium. The rounded rectangle shape around the type suggests a highway sign — as our group typically has a long road trip North to the retreat.

Printing the Shirts
Once the art was complete, I took my final files to MJM Screen Print & Embroidery Studio in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. MJM provided great screen printing and superb service, turning these Winterblast t-shirts around quickly, and with great quality.

Here are a few photos of the finished t-shirts:

I think these shirts turned out very well. I can't wait to pass these bad boys out to the 50 students and leaders going to Winterblast 2008!

February 5, 2008 8:59 PM | T-Shirts | add to del.icio.us