my visual design process✨
My friends and I wanted to show support for our favorite music artists, but found that their merchandise was either way too expensive or not aesthetically pleasing.
So I got to thinking, “What if I designed my own shirts that were both cute and affordable?”
Skills: Graphic Design, Product Design, and Photography
Tools: Adobe: Photoshop & Lightroom, Cricut Air, iPhone X camera
Materials: Iron-on vinyl, x-acto knife, tailor’s tape measure, backdrop & props
Project Duration: A day or two from conception to production
Ideation:
My inspiration for designs usually came from lyrics of songs that reminded me of a color or a feeling. As an example for my design process, we’ll use the “Canyon Moon” shirt. In his song, Harry Styles sang, “And I keep thinking back to a time under the canyon moon.” It made me think of driving though the Colorado mountains with the moon and stars above you, hiking through nature trails, and a general wistfulness for past moments of joy.
With an idea in my mind and a pencil in my hand, I drew out a rough sketch of what I wanted the design to look like. I experimented with the placement of the moon and stars until I liked where it was.
I uploaded the design into the Photoshop, where I cleaned up the lines of the stars and the outer circle. Serif fonts, which are usually seen as traditional, gives the design a more “vintage” look.
The next step was to determine what size width would be suitable for shirt sizes small through 2XL. The size had to be large enough to look proportional on the biggest shirt size, but small enough that it didn’t look bulky on a small.
Final Design:
I photographed the final shirt design with my iPhone X on a canvas backdrop and edited the photos using Adobe Lightroom.
