Buy This Design!

A brand new design for you to check out! This is "Praying Skeleton" and would probably be best suited to a harder rock/metal/screamo/etc. band. As you can see this is a two colour print, would work on dark or light coloured garments and is approximately 15" wide. 

The band's name would be written in script along the bottom. 

This shirt design will be selling for $150. As usual, if you are interested in a design you can email me at mrchgrl@gmail.com!

Buy This Design!

That's right, kids! It's time for a new installment of "Buy This Design!" This time we have a great submission for an indie-rock type band, this design is best printed on light to medium dark shirts with a dark print. Variations of the same shade look really great together, like the example above, Dark Grey on Slate. 

If you don't know how Buy This Design works, basically I put up various designs that I have done without any particular band in mind and if you think it fits your band's style you can purchase the design from me, no strings attached, for however much I am asking for it. The process is first come first service, so once I've sold a design I can't sell it again, meaning that the band that buys it owns it forever. 

Today we have the "Dover Deer" design. A very intricate design with a buck and some dover-style antique elements. 

I'm selling this design for only $100! I recommend printing it on a high quality ringspun tee with a no-feel low-density ink. 

Buy a ready-made design!

Many bands don't know where to start when it comes to design, I always try to start designing a band t-shirt by thinking about the stuff that the kids in the audience already wear. If your demographic is hardcore punk, you aren't going to put a bunch of flowers and a picture of a pony on a t-shirt and call it a day (well maybe ironically, but still!), you really should "know" your demographic to have an idea of what they like.

Sometimes bands come to me and want to see what I could do for them, well, here is a new little addition to the site, this is called "Buy this design!" and it will feature designs that I have thought up but have yet to sell to bands or companies. Each design will have a price of how much it would cost for you to buy it from me and my solemn oath that once I've sold it to you it shant be used again by any other clients.

Yet another way Mrchgrl makes things easy peasy for ya! 

---

Today's design is "Hipster Picnic" and it is an all-over print that would work best on a lighter colour shirt. (Dark on light printing is always best when doing large scale prints! -- there's your tip for the day!) It can come with any colour ink, but I would recommend something subtle like a grey/burgundy/darkblue etc. as it stands out but can really go with any colour of denim (yes you have to think of these things!)

Hipster Picnic is priced at $150 for the design. Printing and Garments are, of course, extra. If purchased with another design I would consider dropping the cost! Obviously the part that says "your band" will be changed to actually say your band's name and the font is also customizable!

If you would like to purchase this design, please send an email to mrchgrl@gmail.com with the subject line: SELL ME THAT DESIGN -- HIPSTER PICNIC

Do I hear $150? Going once.... still going once...

Love,
Mrchgrl

xoxo

Portfolio: Jesse and The Rippers T-Shirt

A closer look at the vintage detailing - Screen Version.

A mockup of the teal color I wanted the tee to be printed with.

Not too long ago I was asked at work to come up with a few ideas for some t-shirt designs. The night before I was at a radio station event with my friend and had run into some fellow industry people and one of them happened to be wearing a vintage Jesse and the Rippers tee (If you don’t know who Jesse and The Rippers are double shame!)  I thought it was an amazing t-shirt and asked him where he had found it; he said he got it on eBay and that it was most likely either limited edition or one-of-a-kind. I made a mental note and when the prospect of some new t-shirt ideas for the wholesale line came up, I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

The guys at work were a little (lot) skeptical as they’re all a lot older than me and have no idea how much impact Full House had on my generation. I became a bit one-minded and knew that I just HAD to do this t-shirt design! So, I went to the drawing board, found a good Uncle Jesse Mullet and started from there.  I also wanted to make sure that the trumpet guy was in there, I always remember the random dude with the trumpet sitting on the couch whenever Uncle Jesse and his band were practicing in the living room. He always had the coolest (lamest) sweaters!-- But how about that mullet, huh? Hehehehe. The overall effect turned out pretty good and I like the idea of doing it in that washed out discharge style with lots of vintage effects, after all, the shirt should technically be about 20 years old. And thus, the Jesse and The Rippers Tee was born! Ta-da!

Want to buy this tee? Visit http://www.resourcerags.com if you're a store and http://www.orangeshag.com if you want to buy one piece! (not available until Dec.2008)

Portfolio: L.Ron is My Homeboy!

This one is for all of the scientologists / scientology haters out there. That’s right! It works BOTH ways!

Following the basic concept of the Jesus is My Homeboy / Mary is my Homegirl fad of the early 2000’s I thought it’d be pretty funny to do an L.Ron Hubbard (the founder of Scientology) t-shirt in the same vein. I was right and it ended up being pretty hysterical.  It’s a pretty basic design, but I thought some one would find it enjoyable! Hehe.

Want to buy this tee? Visit http://www.orangeshag.com to make your order now! 

Design Portfolio: Retouching and Restoring

(click to enlarge)

Since I was just a little girl I remember seeing this picture of my Grandma all over our house. It’s something that she loved to talk about as it was the first portrait she ever had done, she was only 16 years old and it was the first time she’d ever worn make-up. I’m sure sometime in the early 1950’s she cut it and put it into its oval frame and never left it. To me it always represented a time when my Grandma was young and beautiful and every time I saw it it reminded me of how much alike we could be. When I started really getting into tattoo culture I knew right away that I wanted to pay tribute to my Grandmother by having that image tattooed on me. I told her about it a couple years ago and although she’s always been resistant to the idea, I know that she is a little bit excited about it. I finally got her to lend me the picture so that I could take it home and give it to my tattoo artist, but I wanted to fix it up a little bit as it has faded over the last 60 years due to sun damage.

The first scan is of the original photo. As you can see there is a dark ring around the photo which is the original colouring, this part was covered up by the frame and never had the sun touch it. I wanted to return the photo to its natural state so I used Photoshop to restore it back to what I think is a pretty close match to its original loveliness. The idea for my tattoo is going to be a portrait with a baroque design style framing it, but I wanted to add a bit of colour into the face when tattooing, not too much and very subtle, just to bring it to life. I thought it’d be interesting to see what colour would do to the photo, so I did a bit of work on it and the version on the far right is how it came out.

Personally I like the colour version the best, it has a very misty but lifelike quality about it. I tried to use subtle colours and really punch out certain aspects like the fact that my Grandma has blue eyes and that her lips were probably a pretty dark red as this was shot in the 1940’s. Over all, I think it turned out pretty amazingly and I can’t wait for her to see the finished result.

Design Portfolio: Birthday Present

(click to make larger)

I like giving my best friends presents that represent something beyond just material goods. What is usually the most available to me is t-shirts, but it's what you do with the t-shirt that really matters, isn't it? 

This year for my friend's birthday I used a past memory and some wicked photoshop skills to give her what I think is a pretty amazing present! 

The image is a take on the band death from above 1979's album cover, in which the two members of the bands have elephant noses on their faces. It's a widely known album cover and also has a pretty wicked look to it. A couple of years ago my friend and I dressed at the band for Halloween and it was a great night, so I thought I'd commemorate her aging with a great memory. 

How It Was Done:

I found pictures of each of us that I thought would have the right style for the format I was trying to achieve. I used a combination of posterising, levels and vector tracing in photoshop and illustrator to achieve the right balance between black and white. I added a few details to our faces (like her nose ring and labret ring and my monroe piercing) and then put on the elephant trunks. Then I used photoshop brushes and colour theory to achieve the background effect.

It's actually uncanny how much the elephant people look like us with our elephant noses on. :D

Design Portfolio: Costume Tees (Resource Rags)

As a graphic designer you are often paid to follow through with someone else's idea, that, to me at least, is pretty fun, but when you get to realize your own ideas it's a whole different ball game!

At my job at Resource Rags I am responsible for a significant amount of the new designs, helping create them and then eventually sell them to our customers. The coolest part of my job is when I am given full reign to do whatever I want in the design department.
We had thrown around the idea of doing costume t-shirts before and decided to go for it and see what happened, so I dove in head first and in five days had designed over 20 different styles and was on my way to the Halloween, Costume & Party Trade Show in Las Vegas. I made lists and brainstormed any idea I could think of, some I was definitely more fond of than others, but here are the results. 

(click to make bigger)

When I was brainstorming ideas for t-shirts, I kept thinking of my favourite costumes that I've seen over the years. There was a family of iPods, the Mom was a Mini and the Baby was a shuffle and the Dad was a Video and it got me thinking about things. First, family oriented costumes, and second, abstract costume ideas, not just the obvious Pirate, Clown, Tuxedo and Cowboy-style shirts. 

Design-wise, as you can see each shirt is high impact even though it uses a limited amount of colours. The only exception being the shirts that we print digitally (Hairy European Guy, Cut Out Abs.)

One of my favourites is the Ninja Turtle shirt, as it is a large print but only two colours, but because I took the shirt colour into account when designing, I was able to portray even more colours with the shirt idea. 

The Chest Cavity tee looks like it uses multiple colours, however, it actually only has a 3 color print on it using halftones and a similar process to cmyk printing. 

Anyways, take a look at the tees and let me know which ones are YOUR favourite!