In 2019, I digitally painted what would become the mascot of that year's festival–a portrait of the executive producer in an approximation of their Leia burlesque costume in a similar pose as Carrie Fisher appeared in iconic black & white photos as her seminal character. The original illustration is below.

This design went on everything–flyers, posters, the website, facebook, instagram, and everywhere we could fit it. It can be purchased on a shirt, tank top, notebooks, and tote bags. But just having a great illustration does not mean it was the final iteration–it just wasn't working when we tried to get it screen-printed locally. It was too detailed, there were too many colors, and we ran into so many issues trying to get it printed, that I almost gave up. 

I went back to the drawing board. What would make this illustration work on a shirt AND work with the theme? My solution was to make it appear more rough around the edges.

Above is the progression through different iterations to try and give the illustration a lived-in quality to it. I was inspired. I wanted to own this shirt. It was cool.

After more conversations and back and forth between the local screen printer we decided to drop the yellow layer. Not only did the final design still look awesome, but it also cost significantly less than the original design. Below is the full detail version of the illustration we used for the festival t-shirts.

Everyone involved was happy with the final product, and we also created tote bags which were a huge hit!