"WHATEVER"
Small Time Shirts reached out to me for a hoodie design for their new release. Given the stress of 2020 I was asked to do a design illustrating an appropriate send off to a dismal year. While working on various designs I was not satisfied with what was coming to mind. Then inspiration hit in the form of 12 stings after running over a yellow jacket nest when mowing my yard for the last time. I had the image of a face getting eaten away by hornets and the phrase "whatever" underneath the graphic. After brainstorming a little more I decided the hornets were too busy and just a burned off face would suffice. Due to budget constraints the hoodie release had to be delayed into 2021. So I decided to use Roman Numerals to denote the year in question as to not age the product out of relevance and add a flair of the esoteric. Of course a 2020 hoodie was going to be doomed. After submitting the graphic to the printer we found out that our choice of color and product would not allow the graphic to be printed easily. After some debate we settled on a different color of hoodie so I had to alter the graphic to make visual sense with the new color and pick a new color palette. Both versions are represented below.
"Whatever" V. 1
"Whatever" V. 2
"THE HAND MAGAZINE"
The co-founders of the art magazine approached me about designing a promotional shirt for their publication. The magazine features reproducible art exclusively with an emphasis on printmaking and photography. The co-founders wanted an image that referenced occult imagery but still be approachable. I pulled visual references from occult writings of the late 19th century and decided have direct references to photography and printmaking, in this case block printing. After experimenting with different typefaces I felt the most appropriate action was to design the title type myself.
"MOUTHBREATHER"
I was tasked to visually interpret the phrase "mouth breather" for a new release for Small Time Shirts. After going through various unsatisfactory concepts I found myself with lots of time on my hands due to being furloughed from my service industry day job. The very real consequences of COVID-19 caused a great deal of anxiety which drove the creation of the zombie theme used for this project. The idea of a zombie out break felt like an appropriate trope to use: in zombie lore unaware victims of the zombie outbreak fall victim to the living dead incarnations of family and friends, and the same could be said about the early days of the spread of COVID-19. Since zombies are now a common aspect of our pop-culture, utilizing "living dead" imagery felt like a palatable approach to communicate the under pinning anxiety of quarantine.
"Mouth Breather" Front
"Mouth Breather" Back
"THE BYLAND GHOSTS"
This sweater design was inspired by an episode of the podcast "Bone and Sickle" (#33: Ghosts from Purgatory). Of the stories told, one particular narrative immediately came to life in my imagination. The story was very bare, just a quick anecdote of a woman whose haunt was visible by everyone including herself. The woman was forced to carry the specter on her back and it was described that the rotting flesh of the ghost dangled around her arms sank into the ghost's thighs. While the description is gruesome, I couldn't help but find some morbid humor in which I pictured the ghoul piggy back riding this woman who more annoyed than anything else.
"*SMALL TIME SHIRTS"
The owner of Small Time Shirts reached out to me about creating a simple shirt graphic that would be text based and act as a brand recognition product. I had already designed a the company's logo and I didn't feel right just using as a shirt graphic. So I decided to make a type based graphic using the company's initials then adding an asterisk to humorously add in the name of the company. My approach was to make a graphic shirt that would be both visually appealing with out looking like customers were paying to be brand advertisements.
