Pretty excited with how this turned out. The illustration I draw last week is now on a t-shirt and I think it looks great. Fairly minimalistic on the front and a nice colourful image on the back. A big reason I wanted to start designing my own t-shirts is because I’ve been looking for some unique “automotive” inspired t-shirts that were a little more unique and less meme-ish. There’s plenty of designs out there and while I do enjoy them, sometimes I think a little original and personal flavour fits the bill better.

The one problem with designing is that you have a ton of ideas in your head but it’s hard to put them down on paper or it just doesn’t quite come out the way you imagined it. There’s a lot of “back to the drawing board” with it and when I finish one, I usually sleep on it for a few days to see how I feel about it after. This was one of the designs that I enjoyed after all that deliberation.

No, I’m not looking to be the next best hit or be the new kid on the block. For the most part, this is just for me. If there are people interested, then I’m more than happy to do a group buy or single designs if people are willing to pay for the single print. I’d like to wait until I get a few more designs printed and prototyped on different garments before I start offering them though – just to ensure everything looks and feels right. If the design is A+ but the garment is F- then the overall package is still a failure to me. I’ve got a few more coming, but it’ll take some time to finish up – I’ll share when I’m done though!

Let me know your thoughts! I’d be happy to hear them – positive or negative.

This is the original illustration. Just a simple anime-styled girl with some race-themed accessories (headband and wristbands) over top an aggressive Work Meister S1 3P in all black with gold hardware. I spent a lot of time choosing colours that weren’t so plain jane and ended up with a sky blue and purple mix and I liked it a lot.

The Japanese on the left says: “I love it!!!” to match the “Deeper is Better” theme of the shirt.

Club-A was just a name I came up with on a whim with Aria being the first thing that came to mind – so I went with it and it ended up working well. I brought the colours from the back to the front to match.

And finally the design on the back of the shirt. The colours ended up turning out awesome and the size was perfect. The print was done on an ATC 1000 t-shirt which is mediocre but I don’t think I’m a fan of the cotton. I’ll have to see how it looks after the first wash – but next time will likely be on a Gildan Ultrasoft t-shirt.