THE CONCEPT
In creating this t-shirt I started out with some exploration of ideas to see what I would like. I new I wanted to make a shirt which I would want to wear. This design was for me and not a different audience.
After playing around with ideas I finalized on two. My first idea would be a mash-up of Harry Potter and Pokemon. I thought about how Voldemort goes through several stages before reaching the full power seen in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. What if I took each stage and designed it to look like an evolution of a Pokemon? My second idea was inspired by recent events in Marvel Comics. Captain America just anounced his allegiance to Hydra as seen here.
It made me wonder what other Marvel superheroes would look like if they also worked for Hydra. I decided to explore that idea by creating icons which mashed together elements from each heroes design language with Hydra's.
SKETCHING
With two fun ideas in mind it was time to start sketching. I started sketching some ideas for my Harry Potter Tee first as seen below.
The first evolution would be based of Tom Riddle seen in the second book and called Riddletike. Next would was based off of the creepy baby Voldemort seen in the fith book, called Voldebaby. The final evolution is full on evil Voldemort seen in the final book.
My second idea, based on Marvel, I sketched out bellow:
From left to right. Page one: Hydra, Wolverine and Hawkeye. Page two: Captain America, Spider-man, Iron Man, t-shirt layout, Deadpool. Page three: Scarlet Witch, Thor, Fantastic Four. Page four: close up of t-shirt layout.
In these sketches I explored several heroes ranging from Iron Man to Scarlet Witch. I new I wanted to use Captain America and Spider-man in the final version. Cap’ because he started it all and Spider-man because he is the best.
From these sketches I was able to better visualize what I was seeing in my head and how to make it. I realized these sketches could look really good in just a single color and I could use positive and negative space to define the shapes. I also made my choice on which heroes to feature on the tee. Unfortunately Scarlet Witch got the cut because her icon was looking too similar to Wolverine and Hawkeye’s but I liked how they looked more so than hers.
DRAFTING
I decided at this point to go wth my Marvel concept instead of Harry Potter because I liked the timeliness of the idea and I felt more excited to create it. Probably at a later time I will revisist a Harry Potter and Pokemon mash-up, but not here.
I decided at this point to go wth my Marvel concept instead of Harry Potter because I liked the timeliness of the idea and I felt more excited to create it. Probably at a later time I will revisist a Harry Potter and Pokemon mash-up, but not here.
Now it was time to bring my sketches into Adobe Illustrator and vecotrize them. Here is an initial draft of my concept:
In creating this I first created the center Hydra icon. Once I had a look I liked I used it as a base in my other icons to insure consitency in the designs. It was a good start, but I could see areas which needed improving. The font wasn’t working out as good with the image as I initially thought it would and I wanted to bring more emphasis to the hydra icon in the center to make it clear the other icons are a mash-up of it.
FINAL VERSION
When working in a digital space I like to keep both sketches and reference photos close by. Here is a picture of my digital workstation with a nearly completed graphic.
When working in a digital space I like to keep both sketches and reference photos close by. Here is a picture of my digital workstation with a nearly completed graphic.
My digital workstation: full of chaos and creativity.
Take note of the proximity of sketches and reference images to my digital draft. If placed too far apart or on different screens it is possible to loose your train of thought when looking between them. Also thrown about are previous versions of icons. Kept in case I needed an older version of something I make.
For the final version I worked in the ideas I had when working on the draft such as finding a better typeface. I also rearranged a couple of the icons to better fit in the space once the center Hydra logo was enlarged. I cleaned up all of the icons further by giving them inform spacing and size as well as cleaning up some rough edges. Finally, I added a texture over the top. The texture is from a picture of dust found here. I ran an image trace over the picture and then colored the new shapes to be the same as a background. On the final picture this created the appearence created a distressed appearance on the tee by making i look like part of the graphic had been worn off, giving the final image a vintage feel.
Bellow is the final graphic ready to send to a printer and a some mock-ups of what it could look like.
