210

Threadless WINNERS!

First Place: Len Hendricks!

Second Place: Colby Brooks

Third Place: Ellen Spector

Stay tuned for details and prizes. huzzah! Congrats to ALL. Really nice group of shirts everyone!

Drew's class edition: What the HECK are we doing?!

March 9: Download the articles from the art server. Read them, write down your thoughts, and starting developing illustration ideas. Choose which article you can illustrate best, and sketch at least 20 different ideas in class. Scan them, add them to your Flickr stream, and add a few of the strongest to the group pool.

By noon, March 9: add your T-shirt designs (three images) to the PSU Threadless Submission Group on Flickr. We'll vote from this pool on paper in class Thursday. The group will be locked after noon today!

March 11: Bring in refined sketches or prints of your progress. We'll do small group crits and work on your illustrations in class.

March 18, 8:00 A.M.: Final meeting time! We'll do a final critique of your illustration. Print your illustration oversize, to fill an 8 × 10 sheet, and also in place on the newspaper page provided.

FINAL ILLUSTRATION: due in my drawer in the green room by 5:00 Thursday, March 18.

Tidy up your Flickr stream. Make a set for each project we've done, including all your process and final pieces. Use the Description field to describe what we're seeing in each image.

ONWARD AND UPWARD.

What the HECK are We DOING for the REST OF THE QUARTER?!?

March 8th: Read articles (I emailed them to you yesterday).

As you read, start writing down your first impressions. 

Start sketching ideas and during class pick the article you want to illustrate for. Once you have picked the article I want you to create 20 different ideas and then pick the best to start refining. I want to see ALL process. upload thumbnails to flickr (no need to add ALL of them to the group pool - just your favorites)

AT NOON: Editorial Illustrations GURU: Jennifer Daniel, will be beaming in so come at her with questions about what the heck you are doing. Also, be sure to have looked at her website and ask her about her work! She also PICKED the articles that you are illustrating!!! THANK HER!

March 10th: Bring in refined sketches and/or computer quick prints- upload progress to flickr - small group crits and workday.

March 17th at 10 AM / Final Meeting Time -  DUE: Final critique of editorial illustration. Please have final illustration printed out large (no larger than 8x10) and also place within the article at actual size.

FINAL ILLUSTRATION DUE in my 210 drawer in the Green Room by NOON on Thursday the 18th. 

Be sure that your flickr is ORGANIZED. Make a set for each project that you have created in 210 that includes all of your process and finals.

Help me, Help you:  Have a tip to share? secret tutorial? sneaky skills? Write a blog post describing your process (with images). Email me with what you want to do and I will email you the access to the blog. Post must be online by the 18th!

Your FINAL Assignment! You are HIRED! aka: editorial illustration for The New York Times

You have all just been hired by The New York Times to complete a front page illustration for the Letters to the Editor section. (see, wasn't it EASY to get a job?!?)

One of the most important things you can do for this assignment is to READ and COMPREHEND the letters that you are going to illustrate for. I am giving you two sections of letters to choose from and you need to read both, think of sketches for the two and ultimately pick ONE that you are going to run with.  

Your illustration may be in any medium.

Please choose from the following articles...

 

FOCUS: Heathcare

FOCUS: Joblessness

YOU WILL PICK ONE OF THE ABOVE TOPICS TO ILLUSTRATE

Fit your illustration so it will fit in the space where the current illustration resides - You may change the size of your illustration, if you wish, but if you want to stay true to the space in the article, then the final print size is 2 x2.5.

It may be in color or in black and white.

THINK about the space you are inhabiting. THINK about the article and how your illustration will help showcase the content of the piece. Think about color, composition, impact, mood - how does it communicate?

DUE DATES!

March 8th -

Read articles (I emailed them to you yesterday).

As you read, start writing down your first impressions. 

Start sketching ideas and during class pick the article you want to illustrate for. Once you have picked the article I want you to create 20 different ideas and then pick the best to start refining. I want to see ALL process. upload thumbnails to flickr (no need to add ALL of them to the group pool - just your favorites)

AT NOON: Editorial Illustrations GURU: Jennifer Daniel, will be beaming in so come at her with questions about what the heck you are doing. Also, be sure to have looked at her website and ask her about her work! She also PICKED the articles that you are illustrating!!! THANK HER!

March 10th: Bring in refined sketches and/or computer quick prints- upload progress to flickr - small group crits and workday.

March 17th at 10 AM / Final Meeting Time -  DUE: Final critique of editorial illustration. Please have final illustration printed out large (no larger than 8x10) and also place within the article at actual size.

FINAL ILLUSTRATION DUE in my 210 drawer in the Green Room by NOON on Thursday the 18th. 

Be sure that your flickr is ORGANIZED. Make a set for each project that you have created in 210 that includes all of your process and finals.

OBJECTIVES: communication, creativity, process & research, technical achievement and presentation.

What the HECK are We Doing THIS WEEK (and a little bit of next week too)? March 1st and 3rd and 8th

3/1: Crit One. Bring in finished quick prints of your trio of shirts for a crit. 

Be thinking about excellent presentation! Don't forget that your three shirts must use the Threadless templates and formats (I asked Mig for high-res versions of the templates). Be pushing this further if your series is finished. Your shirts MUST each have names. Perhaps this is the time that you create your clothing line. Perhaps you start thinking about hang tags and labels. Time to push this as far as you can.

There are lots of presentation helpers on the Threadless site.

3/3: Crit Two. Bring in finished quick prints of your trio of shirts with your final presentation for a crit. All shirts must be uploaded to flickr, titled with a short description and placed into a flickr set.

3/8: VOTING DAY // Upload FINALS to Flickr // Bring in three printouts on nice paper 11x17 to hand in. Introduce final editorial illustration assignment // Skype Show and Tell with editorial guru Jennifer Daniel at NOON!

What the HECK are we Doing THIS WEEK? February 22nd and 24th

2/22: DUE: upload your thumbnail sketches and digital concepts to flickr. I am going to pull up each of your flickr streams and you are going to share with the class what you are planning on doing. Ask us questions about direction!

We are also going to go over the tutorial that Drew posted about applying designs to your shirt.

ALSO: we are going to discuss a short mini project that involves you, this blog and sharing knowledge. Each of you will be responsible for a short, informative blog post where you each share a technical tip (ie: a tutorial, shortcut, printing tech, paper help etc). I will be inviting you all to the blog and you will each have access to make a friendly, thoughtful and helpful post. More details soon!

2/24: Upload process / refine / small group crit. I will be handing back your grades today! I would like to be able to meet with each of you shortly to discuss your progress.

Mocking up your tee designs

Here’s a recap of how to mock up your shirt design on a photographed model. You might need to tweak these steps if you’re working with a dark shirt.

1. Find a good tee model. I’ll use a photo by Flickr user seventh.samurai from the Threadless Blank Tee Photos pool.
   
2. We’ll need a grayscale version of the model to make a displacement map. Open the model picture in Photoshop, select Image → Mode → Grayscale. Bump up the shadows by pressing ⌘L and moving the middle slider. Save this as a Photoshop document. Hang onto it for later.
   
3. Open the model image in Photoshop. Copy the Background layer and, using the polygonal lasso tool, select the t-shirt only.
   
4. Click “Add layer mask” at the bottom of the layers palette to mask out the model and background. Hang on to this layer for later.
5. If you need to change the shirt color, ⌘-click the shirt mask to load it as a selection. Click on the Background layer and press ⌘U for Hue, Saturation, and Lightness. Click the “Colorize” checkbox and play with the sliders to get the shirt color you want.
   
6. Open your t-shirt design. If it’s in Illustrator, select the design and copy it to the clipboard. If it’s in Photoshop, select all your design’s layers.
7. Paste your art into the model image in Photoshop as a Smart Object
   
   (or, if the design’s in Photoshop, select its layers, press ⌘E to merge them, and drag the resulting layer onto the model image). Press ⌘T to change the size and placement.
   
8. Play around with blending modes for your design’s layer. Depending on the design colors and the shirt color, different blending modes will look better.
   
9. Select Filters → Distort → Displace. 3 is a good starting place for both settings.
   
   Click OK, then select your grayscale model image. Your design should bend around the folds on the shirt a bit.
10. Now to add the shadows back in: drag your masked tee layer to the top and set its blending mode to Multiply. Adjust the opacity to taste.
    

There you go! Fancy model in your fancy design.

What the Heck are We Doing THIS WEEK? February 15th and 17th

Monday:

DUE: Bring in print outs of ALL parts. 

Total amount of parts and pieces: Cover, Back cover, Two - 2 page spreads, title page and related patterned end pages. 

IN-CLASS: FINAL CRIT ON EVERYTHING! / introduce new assignment

NOON: Show and Tell with Mig Reyes!

Wednesday:

DUE: FINAL Children's Book Assignment DUE: Please have all parts and pieces revised, printed on GOOD paper (no need for mounting) and all ready for final turn in at the beginning of class.

Look and Review new T-shirt assignment. Spend the day making sketches, thinking of concepts and making moodboards. Upload all progress to your flickrstream.

Up Next: RAD Cotton Apparel Series

t-shirt by Print Liberation via Rumplo (example of an image only shirt)

Congratulations. You are all now fashion designers and your substrate is the most utilitarian, accessible piece of clothing in the world...the T-SHIRT!

Required: A series of THREE designs.

Your series of three must include a similar color palette and concept that ties them all together.

one shirt must be purely image illustration

one shirt must be purely a typographic illustration

one shirt must be an all over pattern/image illustration

The three must relate in concept and color. 

Example of a Type Tee via Rumplo

If you have a TOTALLY different idea, yet it is still a series of three shirts, talk to me. You might want to make them all three an all over pattern illustration or you might want to make all three an image only illustration or you might want to make all three a typographic illustration. GO FOR IT, but your concept must be solid and smart. I am open to your ideas. Don't be afraid to ask...I don't want to get in the way of greatness!

You may also experiment with t-shirt styles (tanks, v-necks etc). 

Example of an all over image/pattern tee

Remember: your t-shirts must relate in color and content.

Helpful links: 

Rumplo

Threadless

Threadless Select

Threadless Type Tees

t-shirt templates and model images:

Illustrator and Photoshop Templates

Model Images to impose your finished designs onto!

MORE MODELS

t-shirt blogs:

Hide Your Arms

I love your shirt

T-Critic

Cottonable

PreShrunk

DUE DATES:

2/17: intro assignment, start working on designs and concepts, upload t-shirts that you like to your flickr stream

2/22: DUE: upload yoru thumbnail sketches and digital concepts to flickr. Small group crit.

2/24: Upload process / refine / small group crit.

3/1: Final Crit. Bring in finished quick prints of your trio of shirts for a final crit. 

Threadless Select Shirt by The Little Friends of Printmaking - example of a detail zoom on model presented next to flat artwork

Threadless Select by Travis Millard - example of a zoom out tshirt on model presented next to flat artwork.  

3/3: DUE. You will be presenting each design as follows - Three print outs, one print out for each shirt. Each page will contain your design printed flat and off model and then the other image will be of your model with your design superimposed on shirt. See examples of acceptable t-shirt presentation above.

What the Heck Are We Doing THIS WEEK? Feburary 8th and 10th

Hello! Hello!

Monday, February  8th: 

DUE: Your finished (or almost finished) front cover, back cover, spine and two page spreads uploaded to flickr.

We (Heather and I ) are going to be checking on your progress. WORKDAY.

Wednesday, February 10th:

DUE: I won't be here, but PLEASE still come to class. Heather will be here to help you. Please take advantage of her extreme helpfulness! WORKDAY.

Please continue to upload work to flickr.

Monday, February 15th:

DUE: Bring in print outs of ALL parts. 

Total amount of parts and pieces: Cover, Back cover, Two - 2 page spreads, title page and related patterned end pages. 

INCLASS: FINAL CRIT ON EVERYTHING! / introduce new assignment