I will create a one color hand crafted, custom lettered t-shirt design using either Photoshop, Illustrator or Adobe CC Mobile apps on the iPad. I will be introduced to what makes a good t-shirt design. I will evaluate several typographic solutions, learn the steps to creating a t-shirt design as well as being responsible for creating a unique, well thought out type design of your own. Once the designs are complete, we will be going on a field trip to Ink Lounge. This one day workshop covers the basics of screenprinting on T-Shirts. You will cover art, film prep, screens, mesh, emulsion, squeegees, inks, exposure, registration - pretty much everything I need to know to get up and printing.

To figure out the design that I wanted on my shirt I first did some minute sketches.

I began by writing a few different ways I could put type into my designs. Some are more blocky, but others are fluid. I then created actual items. I like shoes, so I thought it could possibly work well as a logo. I then made a smiley face out of the word smile, and created mountains out of the word Colorado because it has many mountains.Finally, on the last page, I came up with more ideas of making things out of the words like some glasses with the words 'chill' and 'relax'. I also thought of doing the Nike logo except formed by Adidas, and vice versa.It was then time to go to critiques to choose a final design.

The smiley face and Nike "Adidas" logo were liked best by my group. I then chose the Nike "Adidas" one as my T-shirt design. I quickly sketched out two renditions of the logo. One with negative space around the letters, and one with negative space as the letters.

I chose to do the letters with negative space around it because I felt it would look more natural on a shirt. Originally, I only had the 'Adidas' without the swoosh around it. Once I added the swoosh outline, the logo really came together and I was ready to start my emulsion process. 

The emulsion process starts by putting emulsion on a screen. Next, you dry the screen for a short period of time. As long as the emulsion is in the dark, it will not set even though it feels hard after being dried. I then took a print of my logo and taped it onto the screen. I put the screen in light to allow the emulsion around my logo to set, but the logo is behind the print so it stays dark. That allowed me to wash out the area that was not set, leaving the screen open where my logo is. I was then ready to print my design on some shirts. I picked out black ink, and flooded the screen. The last step is pulling the ink backwards multiple times. 

I finished my first shirt and did a couple others. I kept the logo small and put it on where a pocket would be each time. This allows the Nike swoosh to be seen easily as well as the Adidas to be read at a closer distance. After printing on each of the shirts I used a heat press to set the ink, allowing for them to be washed without the ink going away. Some shirts came out better than others, but overall they each came out exactly how I had imagined.