I’ve quickly discovered along the way that there is no easy or quick way to come up with new ideas, especially when it’s for products that you want people to be genuinely interested in, so much so that they are happy to give you money for them. I’ll write a whole blog post about how I come up with ideas for Monster Trunk products in the near future, but long story short, it’s a lengthy and challenging process.
The first 3 tshirts I designed were all purely based upon what I’d really like to see on a shirt and what I’d like to wear, both on a personal level, which are two of the many guidelines I think that anyone designing tshirts for their own brand should think about! When I was noting down ideas for future tshirt designs and other products I really wanted them to have more of a back story and meaning to me personally, which in turn my current and new customers can relate to. Obviously I’m self employed in the creative industry and I’m constantly working towards new goals that I’ve set for myself and I know a lot of other people who work for themselves do the same.
One thing that constantly inspires me is time, it is easily the most valuable thing in the world, the one thing we all constantly want more of, the thing that goes ridiculously fast when we’re having a good time and the one thing I know I’ll regret not making the most of unless I work really hard at what makes me happy. It is something that is on my mind daily, so I decided that I wanted to create a design that would remind me to make the most of my time.
I started out by creating a couple of brainstorms and I also started looking into the idea that you can’t move through time without decay. The first sketches were obvious choices of skulls, coffins and pocket watches etc. When I’m first creating a new design or illustration I like to get these more obvious sketches out of the way first because they’re the ideas that would probably come into everyone else’s head initially.
I knew that if I could find an inspiring quote that was relevant to my general idea it would probably help to fuel my idea generation and help to put the meaning of this particular tshirt into words. I found a couple of quotes that I really liked, the majority of them though were already being used on products by other independent brands and I always want to stay away from what others are doing as much as possible. In the end, the one that really stuck was ‘Time flies when you’re having fun’, I firmly believe that no matter what age a person is, what skill level they have or what experience they have etc., everyone should be encouraged to pursue their dreams and live the life that they have always wanted to. So I thought that this quote in particular would work well as it would serve as a great reminder when you throw it on in a morning to make the most of your day. This gave me the idea to include some part of the design that represented the ‘time flying by’ part. So I started out by jotting down some bird ideas, I couldn’t really get it to go anywhere in the beginning but it was definitely an integral part of the design process.
Once I was set with the quote, it was down to creating the designs. I knew before hand that I was probably going to do a pocket print, I was also pretty sure that it was also going to have a back print but I wasn’t 100% on it and I didn’t want that to influence my design ideas too much in the initial stages. I started out sketch ideas for the lettering, I knew that I wanted to include that somewhere on the tshirt, even if it was small and hidden. I drew up a few pages of ideas for it and while I’m no lettering expert, as long as it represents my idea, first the design in question and follows the general design principles that I’ve set for Monster Trunk, then I’m happy.
I was super happy with the two designs on the right hand side, upon starting to work on the design digitally I actually went with the top right design, but something about it wasn’t really working in my eyes, I didn’t feel like it was even at both sides so I went with the bottom right idea instead and I’m glad that I did. I still knew that I wanted to have something on the tshirt to represent the ‘flying’ part, as I didn’t feel like the bird was working, I decided to keep away from the whole idea for a few weeks and I’m glad that I did! They always say that the best ideas come to use when we least expect it and I remember getting this idea while I was in the bath, instead of using a bird, I came up with an image in my head of a bat. I thought it fit perfectly as they’re pretty fast, and they obviously represent vampires which represent death which brings us back to time passing by. I did go through quite a few revisions of the bat idea and eventually settled on having a bat skull, if I could get it to look right.
As soon as I drew up the final idea I was set, I knew it was right, it was just a matter of finishing up both designs in Photoshop and sending them to print. This is usually a pretty easy process for me, as one of my design principles for the brand is to keep a very ‘hand drawn’ look about my designs, so it’s a matter of just tracing over my idea in Photoshop. One element I did decide to add, is the Monster Trunk logo on the sleeve. I really like when other tshirts have this element on them and it’s something I’d like to carry forward to future designs. Here are some shots of the finished shirt….
Anyone who has ever ordered from Monster Trunk before knows that you get lots of extra treats and I always try and make sure that the packaging is a little different. So I also gave that a little upgrade for this new tshirt. I wanted to create some stickers to reflect the tshirt design and so also have a positive effect on your day, especially if you were to stick them on a sketchbook or laptop etc. I also wanted the packaging to feel hand crafted and a little special, so it’s all hand printed and finished up by hand too.
I hope you guys enjoyed seeing the whole process of a shirt from start to finish! If you’d like to buy the tshirt, you can do so here. If you fancy buying another shirt with it you can enter the code ‘TREATS’ to get free delivery over £25.
Thanks for reading!
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