Fantastic Blognanza!

Go MediaZine have been releasing some pretty great tutorials about vector graphics that are relevant to designing t-shirts. Their tutorial about ‘Designing Ultra SceneXCore Apparel‘ has been around the tee blogs, but there are a couple that have been neglected. So I’m going to bulletpoint the important aspects of each one and show pictures of tees designed using these techniques. Even though the tutorials use commercial programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, the same principles can be applied to most any raster or vector graphics program that you might have. I’ve been able to do similar techniques using the Gimp (raster) and Inkscape vectors. You might just have to dig around a little for the proper tools. Anyway, enjoy!

1. Designing Ultra SceneXCore Apparel

This Tutorial Covers

• Photo selection tips
• How to reduce a photo’s colors
• How to vectorize a photo

Example

T-Shirt Design for A Wilhelm Scream

2. From Sketch to Vector Illustration

This Tutorial Covers

• Sketching tips
• Scanning tips
• Tips and techniques for digitally inking sketches using vector lines
• Tips and techniques for coloring vector illustrations

Examples

T-Shirt Design for Van Halen

T-Shirt Designs for Ozzfest

3. Beautiful Vector Illustration

This Tutorial Covers

• Photo selection tips
• Limiting details and value ranges
• Tips and techniques for tracing photos
• Exaggerating positive aspects of photos

Example

T-Shirt Design for Fergie

4. Intricate Patterns in Illustrator

This Tutorial Covers

• Creating brushes from swirlies (i.e. pretty things)
• Applying these brushes to vector shapes
• Making very complicated patterns

Example

An intricate pattern!

Well, that’s it! I hope you’ve found some of this stuff useful, or at least enjoyed looking at the pictures. You can see more examples of apparel design by Go Media here and read the GoMediaZine, an excellent design blog.