Shirt Design - For Philadelphia Flugtag Champs!

Whoa, two days, two posts! Imagine that. 

A few weeks back, a buddy of mine from work had asked me if I would help him with an illustration for some shirts he needed done. Of course, I would have said "yes" anyway, but when he told me it was for his Flugtag team, how could I say no? He was participating in the Philadelphia Red Bull Flugtag competition, his team, The New Kids on the Dock. Their flying machine was a giant lobster, and they were going with the whole nautical theme. 

He had showed me the sketches he had come up with for their vessel, and had an idea for a promotional t-shirt to raise awareness of his team. I received his sketch on a post-it note, and he asked if I could "do my thing" on it. No problem... here is my version of what his vision was...

(Click Images to Enlarge)

He also informed me that they would probably be printed as white on a navy blue tee. Drawing on my previous experience working at a screen printing shop, I set to work creating an inverse version of this, and setting up the printer file for him...

After sending him the final artwork via e-mail, (I included the original ink-work) the reaction was priceless. Sheer and unbridled excitement, and plenty of words I can't use here later, it was apparent that I had nailed it. I was told I'd be getting one a few days later, and that he wanted to "reimburse me" for my efforts. I said, just give me a shirt, no worries about reimbursement, when you win, give me an autograph. We had a deal. And now, the final product:

But it gets better... Not only did he take part in Flugtag... HE WON!! So who knew I'd be designing the shirt for the Flugtag champs. Crazy how things work out. Now I scored one of the shirts, and an autographed Red Bull can from the New Kids on the Dock pilot himself. Awesome.