T-Shirt Design
Concepting, Typography, Illustration, Branding
Over the past three years at Brooksee Race Productions, I've created a series of designs for merchandise across 10+ races. These designs were adapted for T-shirts, pint glasses, stickers, sweatshirts, and even photo ops/expo decor.
While concepting, I've had to be aware of our brand. However, I've had more freedom with brand guidelines when creating merchandise, allowing for more creative and unique designs. I've worked within certain limitations, such as limited Pantone colors, limited shirt colors and budget restrictions. As a result, I believe we offered some of the best merchandise in the marathon running industry. My approach is to create something I would want to wear, rather than just slapping a logo on a T-shirt.
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Programs Used
Before creating this design, I researched the Big Bear, California area, and noticed the prevalence of fog and cloud cover, especially at the beginning of races. I wanted to integrate these clouds using old-style typography, aiming for an etching or woodcut feel.
My intention was to create a monochromatic design suitable for printing on a pint glass. Simpler, single-color designs generally work best for pint glass printing. The final print on the pint glass looked great, and the level of detail didn't detract from the overall design. I also specifically designed it with a long shape to complement the pint glass form factor.
This design was heavily influenced by Shepard Fairey, and I wanted to experiment with negative space in the screen print. The darkest shapes are cutouts, which allow the dark blue of the garment to show through, adding depth and contrast.
At the top, I've used two triangles to separate "Denver" and "Colorado," which is a nod to skiing in the Rockies and pays homage to vintage ski designs. Additionally, I created the tagline "Run Wild" to give runners something fresh when purchasing merchandise, as this tagline hasn't been used before. The Revel logo is subtly placed in the bottom left to ensure consistent visual branding.
My concept was to highlight the nickname of the state of Utah. I know that many runners come from out of state and are trying to complete a marathon in all 50 states, and when they travel, they often want to come back with a souvenir from that state.
I’ve added the shape of the state of Utah as a small nod to the beehive state, its official nickname. I also tried to make this design unisex to appeal to both men and women, and I think the colors I chose work well for both sexes.
My goal was to capture a snowboarder style aesthetic. During my research, I noticed that this style often incorporates a grid layout, reminiscent of the Swiss style design popular in the 1950s. I also found that strategic use of lowercase letters was a common element.
One important component I wanted to include is the elevation loss experienced during the marathon and half marathon. This is a defining characteristic of REVEL races, which are known for being fast, scenic, and downhill. I was also excited to incorporate the "Colorado C" into the design, as I think it adds a unique touch. Finally, I felt that the Helvetica typeface would be a perfect fit, complementing the overall design with its clean and modern aesthetic.
My inspiration came from old western posters, which often feature unique borders and embellishments. Given that the REVEL Race Series takes place in mountainous regions, I knew I wanted to incorporate mountains and pine trees into the design. I was able to integrate the pine trees into the border, creating a connected and cohesive look. While I typically avoid using bears in every Big Bear design, I felt that this particular bear complemented the other elements without overpowering them. I hand drew this design on procreate and then cleaned up a few of the rough edges in illustrator.
If I could change one thing, it would be the overall shape. In retrospect, a more rectangular design would have allowed for a larger placement on the back of the shirt. Right now, it feels a bit too square to accomplish that.
This t-shirt design was heavily influenced by Joseph Muller-Brockman. Unlike my other designs, this one utilizes a DTG (Direct To Garment) print method instead of screen printing. This new printing process was a valuable learning experience, especially in creating suitable output files.
Finding a DTG-compatible shirt presented some limitations. My options were limited, and I needed to adjust the design's colors to ensure sufficient contrast for the print. To emphasize the course's elevation loss, I incorporated smaller text elements. The design also integrates several photos that I've combined in Photoshop to represent the course, trees, and mountains in a single image. I am considering adapting this design into a poster or a rectangular format in the future. I’m really pleased with the final result, particularly the small text and other details throughout the design.
Working on the Mt. Diablo race was a really fun experience. It's a half marathon, and what's unique about it is that it features one of the most significant elevation drops of any race in the country.
I particularly enjoyed the branding aspect. The name "Mt. Diablo" offered a creative opportunity, and my aim was to design something playful without being overly dark. I think the simple fire design with rounded shapes hit that mark. I also created custom lettering for "REVEL MT DIABLO" by modifying existing fonts and adding texture and sharp curved lines. The addition of the pitchfork as a separator, with its curved tail, added a fun touch. The final design translated well onto a pint glass, with all the details printing clearly.
I've always dreamed of designing a deck of cards. It's still a project that I'm considering, and designing the Las Vegas Marathon shirt gave me a lot of experience and ideas about how to make that dream a reality.
The branding for the Las Vegas Marathon focused on the classic side of Vegas, rather than the gambling aspects. I felt that having a very detailed design helped maintain that upscale branding. Other than the typography, this design was all hand drawn. It was inspired by the Victorian style details of Fabien Barral.
When I started concepting for the Las Vegas marathon, I knew I wanted to do something Elvis-related. I integrated a whimsical-looking Elvis with the iconic "Las Vegas Sign."
The biggest challenge of this design was getting the line thicknesses consistent. I illustrated this on Procreate, and there was a lot of back and forth with importing it to Illustrator to get the lines right. I didn't want them to be too rough, but I also wanted to keep the hand-drawn feel. The race ended on Fremont Street, so that's why there's a sign on the palm tree directing towards there.
I've used this graphical style, turning a photograph into a screenprint, for a few different races, and it's been a high-selling item in the merchandise shop.
For this design, I wanted to depict Vegas without overtly showing the Strip, considering that the Las Vegas Marathon doesn't actually run on the Strip but does pass near the Stratosphere. The most time-consuming part was finding the right image: enough detail to be recognizable, but not so much that it required too many pantones in the print. I also experimented with several different color palettes to get the colors just right. I was able to use the negative space in the design to incorporate an extra color, which is the dark blue of the shirt itself.
This design was used for a pint glass and printed in a few different colors. It is inspired by the vacation and hotel scene of vegas. I love the old 1970's hotel signs and design. I wanted to include a design in the merch line that had a look of that. I played around with the colors but I settled on colors that were similar to the brand colors of the race.
I was really excited to do this design. It has a similar vibe to my deck of cards. I wanted to include all three distances of the race, and also a few little elements of the Vegas scene within the design as kind of hidden easter eggs.
I did this design by illustrating one side of the spade and then duplicating and mirroring it. This turned out to be a longer process than expected because I had to fiddle around with the design and how it would create negative or positive space in order to fit other elements inside those spaces. I also used a typeface that I really love that has lots of flourishes and drop shadows with it to create depth.
This design wasn't used for a fashion tee but rather a race shirt. It followed the brand guide a lot more than the other designs I have shown in these projects. I used the same brand colors and the elements were ones used for this year's signage, arch, medal and other assets. I did really like this shirt because of the simplicity and being able to stay within a brand while making it interesting and unique.
Having lived in the northwest, I wanted to do a Sasquatch design for the Portland marathon. It ended up being the most fit to be on a pint glass so I added a pint in his hand. I had to play around with the line thickness of the fur in order to give areas more or less contrast. I used playful and textured typography to match the hand-drawn feel.
Having experimented with this style at other races, I wanted to do one for the Portland marathon. Instead of doing a design that felt more informative like the ones I did for REVEL Rockies, I looked at vintage travel posters for inspiration. I used Futura because it is such a versatile typeface and was frequently used for vintage posters.
I had to do treatments in photoshop on several photos of the city of Portland, foliage and Mount Rainer to get the desired effect. I added in the tagline at the bottom to tie in the design and create some balance with the rest of the composition.
This style is similar to the Vegas skyline I did. I knew it would sell well in Mesa like it did in Vegas and so I did the same style and similar format. The element of this design that really made it stand out was the color palette. I love how the orange pops off the dark blue garment color. I had to spend some time finding the right contrast with this shirt and pantones.
This doughnut design for Portland is one of my personal favorites. I am guilty of creating this design just so I could take a shirt for myself. I'm a big fan of doughnuts and I know Portland is known for many doughnut places in the city. Doughnuts are also a very popular post-race snack for runners. I wanted to make this design look like an old sign. I found a way that I could tie in the different distances in a playful way.
The tagline for the Mesa marathon is "Earn the Bird" since the medal always features the phoenix on it. This was a play off of that tagline with an homage to southwestern style design. I enjoyed using bright colors and simple shapes.
I'll start by saying that I stand by this design and am really proud of my use of the CMYK style.
Having said that, this shirt did not sell very well. I think there could be a few different factors to this. I've seen that in merch sales, sometimes white shirts don't do as well. It might be a psychological issue that a white shirt is seen as cheap. I also think this design might have been more suited for a different purpose than a shirt. Possibly a hoodie or even a photo op. I think the bright pink can be kind of polarizing so that doesn't result in high sales.
I include all this to say that merch design can be really tricky and the best designed shirts don't always sell like you'd think they would. Designing something that I'm still proud of but have learned a lot from to me is a very valuable experience and one that makes future designs more profitable.
The state tagline for New Hampshire is "Live Free or Die" and so this design was a play off of that. It initially was "Run Free or Die" but we wanted to make it very obvious where the tagline came from. I had a fun time illustrating the skeleton and selecting a typeface that felt to fit. Locals really enjoyed this design and I saw that researching an area and doing something unique to a region can pay off.
