Engineered Pattern on a Long Sleeved T-Shirt

My first attempt at this was not all I hoped it would be, but did prove the concept: I create all the pieces for a t-shirt in Illustrator, add patterns to them, have it digitally printed at Spoonflower, and then cut and sew the garment.

I didn't consult my paper color chips, so didn't realize that the coral color in my shirt would be blaze orange, and I added too many elements. I'm excited about the process, though.

Digital printing, my skills at creating patterns, plus my knowledge of sewing opens up myriad possibilities.

Christmas Patterns

I've been lucky enough in the last couple of weeks to have graphic design jobs, even if they're other than creating surface art. I'm not waiting tables, so I count my blessings.

I don't have anything new that I can post, but this timeless Holiday collection is just right this week before Christmas to put me in the mood.

Product Sighting - in My Livingroom

It always a treat to see your design on a finished product.

In the past several months I've been converting my designs to needlepoint grids for Needlepaint.com , work that I have become addicted to.

They do fantastic work creating custom canvases for pillows, Christmas stockings, belts and even dog collars.

Look at the finished pillow they created for me from my original design! Gorgeous!

Gosh, She's Got Range!

I've worked on designs the last week or so to answer requests. Fingers crossed that something sells!

Hourly Work

In my daily and ongoing quest to make a living as a graphic designer, I take on many and varied jobs which pay hourly.

This week, I've been "vectorizing" vintage labels for Charles of Helmar Brewing Art and History.

He's an artist who creates super cool faux baseball ephemera. When you seen one of his baseball cards, for example, you'd never guess that it is actually a new product. His super secret method of distressing the items really does the trick.

He's got hundreds of followers who collect his stuff, and he is often commissioned to do custom pieces.

I spent a week once clipping heads of baseball players from the backgrounds. It's not glamorous work, but I look at it this way:  I'm not waiting tables.

Here's a sample of what I've been working on this week. These are two old cigar box labels.

I can't wait to see what he does with them.

Antique Stuff

Once you learn how to clip out images in Photoshop and then create repeats, all you need is time.

This is a jpg of a hi res repeat I did a while back.

Appears I've got the know how AND plenty of time.

The Marriage of Vector and Raster

Sometimes I'll come across the most gorgeous vintage print of flowers, and it's a high res enough jpg to clip and use in a design. But design what?

The first answer for me is to make a repeat. That's easy since I've got my super cool secret way of making a PERFECT repeat with a raster image.

I've also been creating a library of vector grunge/distress repeats, and when you layer them all together, you get something like this below. Well, at least I get something like this. I know it's not quite right, but I'm slowly but surely cracking this tough nut.