How the Sausage is Made

A client of mine, who also happens to be an old high school friend, hired me to recreate a student-designed t-shirt for printing. I was told not to spend a lot of time on this, and while that’s usually a red flag for designers, this time it was appropriate direction. I designed t-shirts in high school that I thought were awesome (they sucked), so the bar wasn’t set very high. There’s no accounting for the taste of a 16-year-old.

Here’s the sketch I received, showing an overall concept:

My client wasn’t married to the drawing, so I took it in a slightly more contemporary direction. Here’s a small glimpse into my process.:

We decided to go with a take-off on the “Got milk?” campaign. It’s a cheap way out, but for a small student group, I’ll take the hit to my creative reputation (just don’t call an IP attorney). The sketches above were done in Adobe Illustrator, and as you can see, my messy reputation spills into my work. (See what I did there?)

Completed design:

And here are a few examples of how the design might be applied:

The final version is pretty far from the original sketches, but my client was pleased. Now let’s see how the students feel about it.