Some of the options we offered.

As a designer, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing the real-world implementation of your work. From thumbnails and research all the way through roughs and revisions, design can be a grueling process sometimes. The payoff is what keeps us coming back; that moment where everything comes together and you can be relatively satisfied that there are no more additions or subtractions to make. Sometimes this point is never reached; deadlines may force you to deliver work that is not necessarily sub-par, but could certainly use more time and tweaking. (Most designers I’ve come across are notoriously perfectionist, myself included.) I can relate these moments of design bliss to more, less-exciting professions, such as manual labor. I recall one of my first summer jobs as a landscaper, in the August heat sweating my ass off. As rough as it could be, multiple times throughout the day I would look back at a freshly mowed and trimmed yard and get a nice feeling of accomplishment; a job well-done. This tangible payoff appeals to me in life. I like to see results when I work hard. It’s an enjoyable feeling.

The final art sent to Production.

Camp Electric is a summer music camp for young people located near Nashville, TN. They feature a variety of instructors teaching different instruments and giving lessons to the campers. It seems like a pretty sweet place, but I wouldn’t make it because they only feature real instruments. My turntable skills may be under-appreciated I fear. I was stoked when this design was ordered and was able to make it out to the print floor and snag a few samples for my portfolio, as well as that great feeling of accomplishment. People will soon be rocking out with my design on. Sweet.

During the production/printing phase there were a few minor technical issues that came up. Some of my strokes were too light and needed to be thickened up so as not to fill in with ink, or be too small to print. These are issues I always have to be aware of when designing for t-shirts. The constraints are limiting sometimes, but it becomes a fun challenge to push up against the boundaries and see what happens.