To start the heart of daggers, I had to cut out the sword shape to make sure it’s background was transparent. I then copied and pasted many daggers around the heart shape. Using a transform tool, I changed the angle of each dagger. Once all the angles where right, I gave the daggers a slight border and bump mapped. The finishing touch was to place a semi-transparent Gabriel Angel Design logo over the top of the design. I hope those that enjoy or even hate Valentine’s day can enjoy the design.

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.

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%.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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” .