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STL Made T-Shirt Design

Role: Graphic Designer
Date: Summer 2021

Summary:

The Olivia Rae Design Academy is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that hosts sewing lessons to ALL beginning sewers with a special focus on teaching children age 8-14. I was commissioned to create a T-shirt Design incorporating the phrase STL Made.

Challenges:

My client wanted the shirt to capture the artist culture of St. Louis, coupled with the black experience. We brainstormed from my sketches to find something modern and playful.

Process:

I had actually created this design in 2014, when I and the client took classes together. Though I changed the design due to my updated years of experience, it was exciting to revisit my past ideas.

The design included a sprinkling of Adinkra symbols from Ghana.

( Adinkra symbols )

After some feedback from the client, I was inspired by graffiti designs and wanted to combine the pan African color palette into a gradient.

I presented a few color combinations to my client, but decided on a black and white design due to printing costs for extra colors.

Result:

Olivia Rae went on to sell the t-shirts online and inside of a local African clothing store at the beginning of Juneteenth, and promoted the shirt serval times on social media.