LAS Apparel: Women's Wild One Tee

I LOVE apparel design! One of my favorite shirts I have designed for LAS was this Women's Wild One Tee. Like most of my best apparel designs, this one began as a hand drawn sketch.

The goal was to create something feminine for the female archer/hunter. I spent a lot of time finding the right shirt sample-something feminine, flattering for many body types, and also a decent fit since so many women's shirts run small. For the sketch, I went in a floral/bohemian approach.

From there I brought the sketch into Illustrator and converted it to a vector file. It took a decent amount of touch ups and tweaks since the sketch was generally small and rough. I experimented with different colors and potential garments, before ultimately landing on the Anvil Women's Freedom Tee in rose with a white and black design. I added in the "Lancaster Archery Supply" text subtly below the right antler to add some LAS branding without taking away from the overall design feel.

The grey pictured above represents the knocked out pieces. Therefore, this could be screen printed with only black and white ink. The grey above will just be the rose garment color. Using the t-shirt colors is one of my favorite techniques. Not only does it create complexity to the design, but it also allows me to implement an additional color without adding an ink color which then adds cost.

Once we got this design produced, it became available to purchase on the Lancaster Archery website. Our in-house photographer took great photos of the shirt. You can currently purchase this shirt here: https://www.lancasterarchery.com/lancaster-archery-supply-womens-wild-one-tee.html

When In Doubt...

These words have been dancing around in my head for a while now, and I finally got them properly down on paper. When in doubt, be rad.

It began with a 4H graphite pencil sketch followed by a 005 micron outline. The 01 micron gave more definition to the letterforms with the help of a ruler to straighten some of them out. From there I roamed freely with a 005 blue micron to fill in the RAD.

Evening Rose Sketch

Throttle Down Speed Co. Cafe Racer Socks

In lieu of Cyber Monday, we launched another new product on ThrottleDownSpeedCo.com today! Now available: Cafe Racer Socks that feature a sketch I had drawn quite a while ago and a Throttle Down Speed Co. logo on the reverse side. Initially we ordered a sample of the socks to test the quality of the print. To our surprise it printed better than ever and no detail was lost. Therefore, we added it to our inventory and are now sharing it with all of the other gear heads. Get yours here.

mrsjjfive

One of the greatest things that has come out of being a part of the Aid to Injured Riders nonprofit has been the friendships I've developed with the other girls involved. I am proud to call them my friends and work on personal projects with them as well. Jodi Johnson has been a rock star behind the camera this season snapping some really awesome candids of racers and their teams. Because she was snapping more and more photos, she came to me wanting a logo for "mrsjjfive". I was happy to take on the project and sketched up some hand drawn logos one evening. After only one round of revisions we landed on one that she could use to make stickers, use it on autograph cards and, most importantly, as a watermark on her images she shares. Below are the various sketches that had been turned to vector and the final logo Jodi chose. 

 Above are the initial unorganized logo sketches on paper. Most times I sketch first to brainstorm various ideas.

 Above are those initial sketches in vector form. These are fairly rough vectors and I later cleaned up the line work on them. These are what I presented to Jodi for round one.

 The logos shown above are round two based on Jodi's feedback from round one. She wanted to incorporate some dots within the one logo so I provided various options to choose from.

Eventually she settled on the above logo that I had cleaned up, yet still allowed for the handwritten feel to remain. I look forward to seeing it around the flat track community!

The Brintlinger Foundation

About a month ago or so Throttle Down Speed Co. was asked to create something special for The Brintlinger Foundation. The Brintlinger Foundation was created to honor the lives of two very important people within the Flat Track community, Dave and Tyler Brintlinger. Without any hesitation, we took on this project to design a t-shirt that the Foundation could sell as an additional way to raise money. Despite the fact that the Brintlinger Foundation is fairly new, it has made great strides to raise money and pump that money back into the racer's pockets in the Flat Track racing scene. It's proving to be a truly great organization that is focusing its efforts into supporting riders of the sport that has been a love of mine for a lifetime. Needless to say, I wanted this design to be spot on. I wanted it to be something I would be extremely proud of, so I put a lot of time into the concept phase to get it right.

I began with a design of a vectorized colored image of two hands fist bumping based on the initial design direction from the Foundation. At first, I particularly liked it, however, when we received additional design direction to have one of the hands be wearing a glove, I knew the initial design did not quite hit the mark. I let the idea "simmer" as I tend to say, for a few days to visualize a strong design that could be easily transferred to a screen printed design. Eventually that idea was turned into a sketch on paper:

From there I took the drawing into Illustrator to convert the line work into vector shapes and paired it with the initial hand drawn text, "forever remember", that I had written when working on the first version of the idea. When adding the text I realized the image would be better flipped horizontally since the glove hand was larger than the bare hand as shown below.

Once it was all placed together I was happily surprised to see how it worked as a whole. The design was ready to be shown to the Brintlinger Foundation to see the response and if any additional revisions were to be made. The design was well received to say the least and is now currently being screen printed in brite blue like shown below.

I'm really looking forward to seeing these shirts help raise money for this positive organization that is benefitting the Flat Track community. It's an honor to be a small component of their fundraising efforts, and I look forward to seeing what else the organization brings to the dirt track world. Be sure to check out their Facebook and Instagram accounts to stay up to date with what the Brintlinger Foundation is up to next. And be sure to order your shirt either online or at the race track.

Pink Rose

I set out to paint several 8x10 canvases this weekend with bold, vibrant roses. I wanted to paint more of my traditional styled roses. While I was sketching the rose in white paint over a bright pink canvas, I began to become intrigued with the sketched line work. I sketched in white first, then began to outline in black and topped it off with some white splatter from a toothbrush. I let that dry and as it did new ideas bounced in my head. I decided to make this painting unique from my traditional drawings that involve smooth shading from white to black within defined line work. I decided to add a touch more sketch lines in white and called it complete. Below is an animated gif and the final image of the painting. I will have this one and several others for sale in two weeks.

The TDSC Spring/Summer Line

The Throttle Down Speed Co. Spring/Summer clothing line began as a very broad concept. We knew we wanted to make a larger collection than we ever had before. The goal was to make some Throttle Down Speed Co. items that were very specific to the brand, a few flat track-specific designs and some general motorcycle related apparel that would appeal to all riders and enthusiasts. Personally, I wanted to include designs for both men and women while picking quality shirt and tank top canvases. It all began in my sketchbook, selecting garment types from our printer.

Another goal with this collection was to offer more than one color version for each design. We were inspired by several apparel companies that already offer these options and find a way to display them efficiently on their websites. We also set out to accomplish a way to show all designs at first, but show color options on each product page.

Eventually these designs were put into action and sent to the printers to test and receive sample garments. After some trial and error, we finally turned our conceptual pieces into real printed apparel items.

Above showcases primarily new designs sketched out, as well as former designs. A few above have not made it to the printers or our store for several reasons. For example, the draw string bags are still something we hope to add to our collection, however, the timing did not work out with that one. The pink shirt on the top right, though, will not be printed due to design cuts and the decision to only offer the best designs.

Once we approved all of the samples, we were officially ready to host the first Throttle Down Speed Co. photoshoot with all of the new (and previous) designs to perfect our website. Most of the photos were indoor studio shots, however, we were fortunate enough to shoot a few outdoor lifestyle shots like shown above. Once the shoot was completed, clipping and retouching were the first priorities on the list and then we could promote our brand new collection.

Above are the 15 brand new designs that we launched and are for purchase on Throttle Down Speed Co.'s website. See the full collection here: throttledownspeedco.com/collections/spring-summer-2016. This collection is definitely something that we are truly proud of at TDSC. A lot of hours were put in, and we appreciate everyone who takes the time to check it out. I look forward to more designs and collections in the future. The hard work surely is worth it.

Doodle Turned Into Vector

Last evening I had a spike in creativity and felt the need to create some handwritten typography and toss it over one of my new photos from the trip to Austin. Below is one of the doodles I made last night and its transition from a sketch to vector to photograph.

Transition: From Canvas to Clothing

The "flying piston" is a familiar icon within the motorcycle and automotive industry. It is currently apart of the Throttle Down Speed Co. apparel line but the creative did not initially intend to be printed on clothing. Below is the transition of how the original acrylic painting of a flying piston was translated into the hooded sweatshirt it is today.  

Above is the original acrylic painting that consisted of only 3 colors. From there I scanned the image and vectorized it.

Once vectorized, I printed it out and sketched a bunch of options that included the Throttle Down Speed Co. logo within the design. I finally chose one and continued designing in Illustrator.

Above is the final design printed on an American Apparel hoodie.

Finally, here are the two side-by-side for comparison.
Get your hoodie here.

Transition: From Paper to Clothing

One of my favorite aspects of art and design is seeing how an original idea can transform itself throughout different mediums. Since my work for Throttle Down Speed Co. is highly experimental, a t-shirt design for example, typically originates from a fine-art piece. Below is one example of how this has been done in the past.

Our Mens & Womens "Cafe-X" design was one of the first garments designed from a drawing. Below is the initial ink drawing that was later scanned and transformed into vector art.

Everything about it was handmade including the hand drawn typography. Once in vector form it was cleaned up and slightly modified to be a sleeker design.

Having this design in vector form, opened up the opportunities for not only a design for a garment, but also to be cut as a vinyl sticker. There were a few additional revisions for the vinyl application, especially when considering the black to be inverted to white.

In addition to vinyl, we got this design printed on a variety of heather grey t-shirts. The black on grey turned out seamless and it is one of my favorite shirts because of it's roots in raw creativity. 

I believe it is essential to know where the ideas are coming from and how they are evolving throughout time and through varieties of applications. One idea can transform itself to endless possibilities, which is what makes my career exciting. Stay tuned for more design transitions!

a few experimental sketches