A New T-Shirt Brand

Today I'm excited to let you know that I've started a new t-shirt brand called Voodoo Island. (@voodoo_island on Instagram).

The purpose of this brand isn't necessarily to sell a ton of t-shirts.

The reason for the brand is to:

1. Have fun and make cool stuff - Hawaii, Bali, and surf-oriented subject matter... with a twist. Lots of fresh lettering & logo designs too.
2. Showcase brand new design ideas - Most of the designs I make for big surf brands are a year old by the time they are printed and displayed in store.
3. Explore new t-shirt printing techniques - Again, no big-brand restrictions with profit margin or concerns for mass-market appeal.
4. Show off real-world results using design resources from TheVectorLab - Want to see what Plastisol Textures or Inside Out Reverse Print Textures really look like when printed onto a shirt? Now you will!

Here's one of the recent designs for Voodoo. The texture for this graphic was applied using one of my favorite tools, the Bad Photocopy Texture Template.

Did you know: Bad Photocopy Texture Template is also part of T-Shirt Design Master Collection, the best deal on the biggest bundle of T-Shirt Design Resources.

That's all for now. If you are interested in seeing more about the new Voodoo Island Brand and also TheVectorLab resources used to make the graphics, you can follow along on Instagram.

All the best,

Ray Dombroski

Instagram

I am posting graphic design inspiration to two Instagram accounts. 

The first is TheVecorLab's Instagram. This feed shows general Graphic Design inspiration, ideas, and tools. 

The second is a much newer Instagram account called T-Shirt Design Workshop. It focuses specifically on t-shirt design. You will see vintage tees, graphic design ideas, and printing techniques.

House Industries Lettering and Printing Workshop

I just finished up attending the House Industries Lettering & Printing Workshop in Portland. It was well worth the trek up north.

The lettering portion of the workshop was led by Ken Barber from House. Ken is a true master of his craft, and is quite good at distilling the information down into a one-day workshop.

We covered hand-lettering a roundhand script. This was not a cursive writing or calligraphy workshop where each letter is quickly drawn with a pen or brush.

Instead, Ken's technique is to show how to sketch your logotype composition with a pencil, while keeping the fundamentals of hand lettering in mind. Each person enrolled in the workshop had the project of creating their own lettering design, using just paper and pencil. Have a look at the bottom image of this post to see how mine came out.

House Lettering and Printing paper

Ken Barber in the Lettering Workshop

House Industries posters printed by David Dodde

The second day of the workshop was taught by screen printing guru, David Dodde. Like Ken, David is also a true master. He has so many great tips and techniques for screen printing on wood and paper. If you ever have the chance to participate in one of his workshops, don't hesitate to sign up.

David Dodde mixing copper dust into clear base screen printing ink

T-shirt packaging printed with the split fountain screen printing technique

Workshop participants were able to experiment with House's screens and print their own posters

Loot stash from the Lettering and Printing Workshop

My hand drawn sketch from Ken's lettering workshop