Merchandise Design

Overview: Project I

I was commissioned by my high school to create hand-drawn logo designs to be printed as merchandise for a club known as the Global Citizenship Program.

This was my first ever design project for merchandise, and through challenges, failures, and feedbacks, I learnt a great deal about the capabilities and limitations of creating images to be printed.

Problem & Solution

The head and coordinator of the GCP program at HCS had a great passion for the club, and creating merchandise for the students to commemorate the various trips that were held was a part of his mission, but he had little artistic ability to design the articles himself. The coordinator, Gordon Robideau, sought me out to complete the project in his place after I was recommended by my peers and teachers.

• A design that is unique to the school: unites the group and ties all who wear it to the values and reputation of the program. • A creative showcasing of the program’s chosen destination of 2020. • Must include the acronym ‘GCP’ or ‘HCS’ and the year.

Process

I began with full creative freedom to invent any design of my choosing to represent the school as well as the location of travel.

This project was limited to being hand drawn by traditional means, but I knew that this was the copy that was likely to be scanned and transferred directly to be printed on the hoodie, so I worked to keep my shapes steady and lines clean. A reference was used in order to accurately imitate the skyline of New York.

I knew I wanted to have the base of the design be a compass, as it’s general connotations fit with the theme of travel and allows for lots of freedom to alter, add, and play with. My intention was for the compass to be the base—the continual logo—for all future GCP programs and merchandise through the school. Unfortunately, the program was discontinued in the event of the pandemic, so I never got to see the development of my logo in the following years.

Fine line work and details is where I excel, so the final product ended up being simpler than my elaborate vision for the design. However, after seeing it printed, I now understand the extent of what embroidery both is and is not capable of according to size, fabric, and printing quality.

Results

Just under 40 of these jackets were printed and bought by each GCP member that attended the expedition to NYC.

•   •   •

Overview: Project II

Similarly to the previous project, I was chosen by the HCS student body to lead the design committing in creating a hoodie for the graduating class of 2020.

It was both a great honour and a challenge to create a design, choose a colour scheme, and select a style that all of the graduating students would be happy with. The experience both tested and improved my ability to compromise, consult with big groups, and expand my limits in order to provide a large variety of options to choose from.

Problem & Solution

Every graduating class at HCS is expected to create their commemorating merchandise themselves, and when the class of 2020 lacked an artist and consultant, I stepped in. I bridged the gap between ideas and action, between imagination and reality in order to develop an answer to the question of what would make a great graduation hoodie.

A logo that is both unique and timelessly significant to the class involved and approved by such.

Includes at least one of the school’s theme colours: teal, white, grey.

A basic approach that won’t clash with most other clothing items.

Process

This was a significantly more tedious and demanding process than that of my first commission as it required hours of brainstorming a dozen different logo ideas, had much stricter requirements, and had to be discussed upon and approved by a body of 42 people.

I began by sketching out as many logo ideas as I could, relating individual significance to each of them before presenting them and narrowing down. The party gave their inputs, suggestions, and critiques, which gave me a better understnding of what was desired and expected and then it was back to the drawing board.

The final design was refined, and the students gave me the authority to choose the colour scheme and font, which lead to the final piece being one that all 42 individuals were satisfied with.

Results

After learing from my first merchandising project, the end piece came out much cleaner and according to my vision. All students involved were happy with the results and purchased the hoodies with intentions of keeping them as mementos for their grad class.

Gord Robideau: Founder and organizer of the Global Citizenship Program.

Takeaways

Since then, my art has moved from traditional to digital as it allows for clean lines, easier revamps and alterations to the clients requests, and eliminates the need for complicated scans and transfers that risk distorting the image and don’t allow for accessible PNG applications.

These projects also taught me the significance of simplicity, both for accuracy of transfers and prints as well as for communication and general satisfaction. To this day I use the knowledge I learnt in my smaller ongoing projects.