Building Band Fun
Having been a "band geek" in my
MS/HS and college days, I know how much fun band can be and it
builds a sense of worth and accomplishment. I have been
privileged to work with our program in Clintonville on several
occasions. Each year our band enjoys the challenge on "Honors
Band." Along with the success of competing, students also
receive a t-shirt showing their participation in the event. We
work hard to make shirts available for all students at a good cost,
so we keep the designs pretty simple. Below is a
example:
2006 Valley 8 Honors Band Design
I have also
created some things for the Band that are not
t-shirt related. In 2006, I designed Clintonville Middle
School's new Marching Band Banner. My design was created in
layers in Photoshop and was later converted to a vector graphic so
that it could be used with cloth cutters. The banner was cut
out and stitched together and now proudly hangs in our MS Band
Department. I have also created nametags for officials, band
directors, and judges at events. You can also see a sample of
that below.
MORE THAN INK
My Printing Project of a VW Sort!
You'll not find a person on this Earth that enjoys Volkswagens more
than myself... classic... air-cooled... What's not to love? I
have owned several VW's over the years and enjoyed them all.
When I moved to Wisconsin, I purchased a 1969 VW Baja Beetle that I
nicknamed "Norna." (German meaning "From the North")
Norna was definitely a fun ride and I took her EVERYWHERE! In
2007, I participated in the Northern Wisconsin VW Club's annual car
show just down from Oshkosh's EAA Museum. For the show, I
created my own "Show Shirt." I took images of my beloved VW
and reworked them in Photoshop giving me a "art" feel like the
drivers shirts that are popular at the track. Since the show
was so near to EAA, I incorporated their main entrance gate into the
design along with the slogan "Ground Control."
SEE THE FULL SIZE DESIGN
BEST
FRIEND'S DUNE BUGGY AFTER SAME PROCESS
Getting Noticed
From T-shirts to Props-Having Fun & Being Creative!
I have always had a creative side and loved graphics & computer art.
Over the years, I have used a lot of different software to create a
lot of cute and fun items. My foray into t-shirts started with
a simple request by a friend to create a logo for a program that he
was helping develop at Steenbock Library at UW-M. The
librarians were working with a program called "CATS." They
wanted me to come up with a simple design they could take to a
printer and get printed up for the staff. It was my first
design and was simple, but my friend and the staff loved it.
CATS DESIGN
Next up, a group of my close friend were off to the annual gaming
convention called Gen-Con in Milwaukee. They had been working
closely with gaming company Wizkids with one of their popular games. I was asked
to create a fun selection of shirt designs for them that would
reflect the members of their group. The shirts would be
designed in Photoshop and the design graphics would be printed onto
special paper that would allow the designs to be heat transferred to
the t-shirts. This was my first work with heat transfer
printing. The individual designs were colorful and fun to
create. The shirts were wildly popular and I received a lot of
positive feedback on the designs.
HOUSE LUAU DESIGNS
Along with the t-shirts created for the convention, the group asked
for something special as well. They wanted me to create a fun
gift for the CEO of Wizkids, Jordan
Weisman. It was decided to create a special I.D. badges for
the crew and for Mr. Weisman that would be special "one-of-a-kind"
promos. I created several sets of cards are promos and a final
design was printed and presented to Mr. Weisman. He was
thrilled to receive his badge.
JORDAN'S BADGE
With
the success of the gaming shirts at Gencon, I
got several other offers over the next
couple years from other groups to design group shirts, stickers,
handouts, etc. One of my favorites came in 2004, when I was
asked to "beta-test" the online game City of Heroes. I was
part of a rather large group that was asked to play the game in
advance and help work out bugs or issues before it release to the
general public. At Gencon in 2004, we were invited to a
special "release" party for the game. I was asked to design a
fun t-shirt to mark the occasion. The design featured the
fictional newspaper, "The Paragon Times" on the back similar to the
one in the online game and the game characters of members involved.
These were a LOT of fun to create and I still get e-mails from fans
of those shirts.
CITY OF HEROES DESIGNS
WORKING THE INK
I have also worked with traditional silk screening as well. I
have created many single color designs and also multi-color designs.
Recently, I have been working on a
t-shirt that features two very
special friends, Heyroad and Shorty. They are both dogs owned
by close friends of mine who help raise funds and support Pug and
Boston Terrier Rescue groups. this year at the Milwaukee
Pugfest, they will be hosting a special event to promote their
cause... A kissing both duel to see which pup can raise the most
money. I was asked to come up with a special shirt for the
participants and helpers. We decided to go with a 2 color
design, white and blue ink on red shirts. The shirts will be
available at Pugfest May 15th, 2011. Have a look at the
final results....
PUGFEST FUN DESIGN