This past semester was C-R-A-Z-Y, so I didn't have much time to put anything up. In truth, I didn't make much of anything new- most of my time was spent preparing my portfolio with pre-finished work. Though, there were a few things.
A couple of which were projects where we were split into groups and worked on various things for local businesses and organizations. Sort of like a job simulation, I suppose. As one of the two Illustrators in the class, the only illustration related jobs we were assigned to were the making of tee-shirts. *Shrug*
One was for the organization that runs the Kal-Haven Trail Run every spring- apparently they'd been going to KVCC Portfolio students for their shirt designs for the past few years.
The other was for the Scotts Community Center- they wanted a T-shirt to sell at their 'Jammin' ' country music event on Tuesday nights.
So, I jumped right in. Little did I know that my work would be for naught. >.<>
Well, in one instance, I suppose. My designs for Kal-Haven Trail were flat out not chosen, which is fine. XD It wasn't a competition, and I'm not all that competitive as it is.
Scotts was completely different. We came up with some good designs, we all did, but in the end the Community Center decided they weren't going to use them because they didn't have the money for shirts. (But more on that later.)
Scotts was completely different. We came up with some good designs, we all did, but in the end the Community Center decided they weren't going to use them because they didn't have the money for shirts. (But more on that later.)
These three- the three above this blurb- are for the Scotts Jammin' event. I had SO many different versions. I used the same pics for each one, but I just kept re-arranging them in different ways. The pics are sketches of some of the actual players who come fairly regularly. It was actually pretty cool to have some of the regular folks go- "Hey! That's so-n-so!". I think it makes the shirt more their own, too. The lettering on the first two was hand-drawn. It was inspired by the text in an ad in a reproduction 1900 Sears n' Roebuck catalogue. Oddly enough, from an ad for Banjos. XD
Although the Community Center itself didn't have the money to fund the shirts, another student and myself took it upon ourselves to have one each of our designs printed. Mine was the first one in this post- turned out pretty nice, too. We set a price, made fliers, took orders, had them made, and handed them out. We made some money ourselves too! My first big paycheck involving my artwork. :)
These last four were for the Kal Haven Trail Run. I did a huge amount of work for them too. These were some of the designs I thought were the most successful. I think the one with the white dogwood flowers on black is the one I'm most proud of. The "flowers" are made out of shoe prints- I used some black acrylic paint and my dad's old hunting boots to make them. :) The "branch" is actually in the shape of the trail, which extends from Kalamazoo to South Haven (Hence the name, Kal-Haven Trail.) The flowers were from round one of designing, which also included a cartoony bird design and a sketchy bridge.
After they'd looked at our designs, they decided they wanted something more to do with the train aspect of the trail, since the trail used to be an old railroad track. There's an old caboose (preserved of course) along the trail, so on the second round of designing, I focused on that. The first two are part of the result.
I guess in the end they wanted something more cartoony to represent the run, so they decided on a cartoon caboose that one of my classmates bought from a site online, and edited in Illustrator.
