Protest and Suggest the Cure for the One Percent

Now that Time Magazine has named the protester as person of the year, it’s safe to say that somethings are finally changing. If 1 % of the population has most of wealth, then there is something wrong with the system. Could it be that the 99% are all lazy and are bad with money? Or could it be that people get paid more for being famous (like reality stars) rather than for actually helping people (teachers, police officers, etc..). People are tired of the system and want a cure for the 1%.

cure for the one percent written in blood on a guillotine blade printed on a buttoncure for the one percent written in blood on a guillotine blade

This is what inspired the Cure for the 1% design. The more recent Occupy Wall Street (and other city’s) movements have resurrected some of the feelings that inspired the French Revolution. It must have been quite a sight to see the starving masses drag aristocrats to the guillotine. For those protestors that are a little more old school, the “Viva la Revolution” guillotine design was created.

viva la revolucion written in blood on a guillotine blade printed on a green t-shirtviva la revolucion written in blood on a guillotine blade

Both guillotine designs that were created have that unmistakable shape and texture of the angled blade made famous by the French Revolution. The text on each design appears to be written in blood, except for the Gabriel Angel Design logo which is semi transparent along the blade.

While you are deciding whether to be a part of the revolution, remember this: the way you look upon those panhandlers begging for change at busy intersections is probably the same way that millionaires and billionaires look upon us 99%.

Italian Football Flag for Italia Pigskin Pride

After successfully revamping the pigskin football design, it was time to update the Italian version. The flag of Italy was shaped and cut out to fit the pigskin ball. All the twists and turns of the laces were trimmed out. I was already halfway done with the Italian football at this point.

italian football flag stadium blanketitalian flag on a football

The Italy football design needed a little bit of bump mapping to complete and then a touch of shading. This helps the bumps to really show through. The logo was integrated into the ball as usual. It has been uploaded to all our stores.

Get into the NFL with this American Flag Pigskin Football

Keeping with the popular sport ball flag designs, I created a version just in time for a past NFL season. Although it was a nice design, it didn’t live up to the standard that I imagined it. With the new season here, it was time to update the American Football design.

American flag football on a pint glassAmerican flag on the surface of a pigskin football

This new American flag pigskin football design needed to be higher quality. I started out with a football design from the laces out perspective. Using a higher quality USA flag, it took a few tricks to wrap the flag around the ball and trim the edges to the exact shape of the ball. I cut out the laces shape from the flag to make it appear to be painted only on the pigskin portion of the ball. The last step was to integrate the logo and then it was off to the game. Touchdown, my team wins!

Vermont Graffiti for the Green Mountain State

It was time again to knock off another state from the list of graffiti designs to complete. Vermont came up while performing a Google search, so I ran with it. I took a cue from Vermont.gov to get the color for the Vermont graffiti design.

Vermont graffiti long sleeve dark t-shirtVermont in green graffiti style lettering

With that Vermont green selected, I created the spray paint style lettering of the state name. While I was working on it, I couldn’t help but wonder how many other state designs the color would look good on. I have been selected colors that are often associated with the state, but it would be nice to have a quick way for everyone to select the color of the design (hint hint all you print on demand services). The last step was to integrate the logo and it was off to all of my stores.

Canadian Hockey Puck to Cool you Down in the Heat

During a hockey season years ago, I created my original Canadian Hockey puck design. It has sold well, but I’ve been wanting to create a better version. It’s become painfully obvious that Canadians love their ice hockey. I settled on an original style hockey puck to place the flag of Canada on.

Canadian hockey puck on a white hoodieCanadian flag on a official hockey puck

This Canadian hockey design would start with that official puck with transparent background, then I took a good version of the signature maple leaf flag. I positioned the flag to match the puck and trimmed it up. Some lighting effects were added to give the flag a bit of shine. The store log was curved and added subtly. It’s a power play and this design scores.

Get Tribal with this Evil Hand-drawn Skull

My wife put together a drawing of a tribal style skull. The sharp edges were unique and I knew it would look great on a shirt. She tried to help me out by coloring in the design with a sharpie, but the thick tip ran over some of those sharp lines. The design was scanned in and I realized that I would have to trim out the rounded sharpie edges of the tribal skull.

tribal skull on black hoodiewhite skull made up of tribal lines

Cutting out the sharp edges of the tribal skull sharpie overflow took a lot of time and effort, but I’m glad I did it. Once it was cut out, I had to fill in some of the empty space that was not colored in correctly. With edges cut out and coloring complete, I inverted the black to white. The white allowed me to give the shapes a beveled appearance. I gave it a black shadow all the way around.

The final touch was to re-size and integrate the company logo. The finished product was uploaded to the wall Tribal Skull wall. Twitter was sent the update right after. Now it’s only a matter of time before a complete stranger passes us by while wearing this design.

Day of the Dead Skull Like No Other with Roses for Eyes

I’m a big fan of designing and putting in work on my site, but cleaning is no fun. The wife enjoys cleaning, or rather can’t go long without it. I made an argument that she needs to think about hobbies that make money instead of those that cost money and are no fun. She’s very talented and began drawing some tribal skulls and then came up with a drawing for a day of the dead skull.day of the dead style skull on a canvas bag
day of the dead skull original drawing scanday of the dead style skull with drawn rose eyes
She scanned the day of the dead skull drawing and emailed it to me. I cut out the white of the paper and sharpened up some of the imperfections. The outline was filled in, flipped to white, and then given a beveled effect. I placed the hand-drawn style roses in the eye sockets. To make it stand out on white, as well as black, I gave it a nice black shadowed outline. The last step was to integrate the company logo. It was now ready for the next dia de la muerta celebration.

It was uploaded to Zazzle first and quickly won a “Today Best Award” for the day of the dead skull canvas bag. It has now been added across all of our shops. It’s not a big seller yet, but there is definitely a lot of buzz for so early on.

Iowa Graffiti to Celebrate Your Own Black and Yellow

The state graffiti designs have been selling well, so it was time for the next state to get the nod. I looked at the map and saw Iowa. It’s a state that I did not yet do, so I got to work. I did some quick research and found that the University of Iowa’s team, the Hawkeyes, use the now famous black and yellow colors. These were the perfect colors for the Iowa graffiti design.

Iowa graffiti on a gym bagIowa in black and yellow graffiti

Although the state of Iowa was not the subject of Wiz Khalifa’s “Black & Yellow”, the combination still seems suitable for any Hawkeye fan. With the colors chosen, I gave the graffiti style lettering that beveled look with some highlights to make the yellow pop, and then gave it the black shadow all the way around. I integrated the company logo into the “A” and sent it off to my Zazzle wall under the Iowa Graffiti section. It was then added to my main store through my Cafepress connection (click the pictures above to get there).

The Pepper Life, Because Some Like it Hot

Here in the Tampa area, you can see those Salt Life stickers everywhere. To me it seemed like such a simple design that reminds me of a font that I had seen in the past, but yet it’s popping up everywhere like it’s the best design ever.
Pepper Life on a fitted t-shirtPepper Life in flaming letters with red chili in the middle

I have to admit that as a designer myself, I was jealous of the popularity of such a simple design. There are so many designs that look so much better, yet don’t get these kind of sales (not even counting mine). Once I started seeing it on t-shirts around Tampa, the jealousy started making me annoyed. I no doubt have to have respect for the Salt Life brand since I enjoy those same salt sports and the marketing is definitely working for them.

Talking with my wife, I wanted to make a parody design. At first, we started to think of doing a Pepper Life design with a pepper shaker or something to that effect. I like spicy food, so it didn’t take long for me to decide to incorporate a hot pepper into the design. The chili pepper looked the best, so I stuck that right in the middle. The font for the Pepper Life needed personality.

Using flames for the Pepper Life letters was a perfect fit for a hot food inspired design. The black lettering was going to be problematic on dark shirts, so I gave it a white hazed border to make it pop against blacks. I realized how good the design came out, so I wanted to make sure to integrate my logo nicely, so I blended it into the chili pepper. Once I completed the design, it was added to my Pepper Life section over at Zazzle. It was then added to my main store (links from pictures above). I then took some time to added it to my neglected spreadshirt store (here’s the link: Pepper Life with Red Chili) which I admit needs more “window dressing” .

Spike this USA Volleyball at the Beach this Summer

I’m really happy about how my recent sports designs turned out, so I decided to go with volleyball just in time for summer. It’s time for the beach and walks in the sand, so I wanted a gritty beach type volleyball. I took the flag and wrapped it around the ball to create the USA volleyball design.
USA volleyball on a tank top
USA flag covering the surface of a dirty volleyball
Trying to get the USA volleyball design right, it took a lot of adjusting, but the detail was worth it. It was quickly added to my USA Volleyball section at Zazzle, but adding to Cafepress took much longer. It’s a fun balance between ease of adding designs versus the shear variety of products available.