Crazy Shirts March - April Design Review
Aloha Freelancers,
The topic for this March-April design review is Florida. We have one very busy store in Sarasota and two stores in Key West.
Listed below are topics we will be targeting. We are open to others ideas, but keep those design ideas mainstream. You want to be sure the shirt design will appeal to most of our tourist customers.
Sarasota:
Sailing
Sunsets – painterly and also graphic style
Funny beer designs with catchy phrases – word driven rather than fully illustrated
Siesta Keys lifeguard tower – include the location in the design: Siesta Keys and Sarasota. If you can, it’s not a bad idea to design the location within the design.
Key West:
Vintage/retro style depicting Old Florida
Pirates
Southernmost Buoy
Cuba: coffee designs, Cuban club designs, vintage Cuba (old streets and cars), old postage stamps. Be sure brand/club names used are bogus and don’t carry existing copyrights.
Map of the Florida Keys – looking for a fun design that show key points of interest. Not a serious map that normally comes with your rental car.
There are a couple specific signs that you could design around: Mile marker 0, Highway 1 END. Make it interesting-don’t just send the sign.
Key Lime dyed shirts:
I’ve attached a couple key lime shirts for shirt color reference.
For women you could design using the lime plant and blossoms.
For men and women – drink designs.
Take a few minutes to browse our website. It will help you get an overall feel for our designs, www.crazyshirts.com. Send us a new concept/technique/layout; something we haven’t done and will complement our existing merchandise.
I’m here to answer your questions.
Renata
PRELIMINARY REVIEW SCHEDULE
Designs must be received before the morning of the scheduled preliminary review; otherwise it will be held and reviewed a week later.
In anticipation of a purchased design begin your computer file at 300dpi and actual print size (average 17 inches wide for men and 14 inches for women). Jpgs are requested for the preliminary reviews - image size approximately 4” x 4” at 150dpi. Individual emails should be kept under 2mb.
After each review I will email comments so you will know what revisions to make or if we are passing on the idea and you should go on to an entirely new concept.
Reminder: all preliminary work is submitted on the speculation that we will purchase your design, but only when a design is actually purchased is the artist compensated.
FIRST Preliminary Review March 27 - designs do not have to be in full color or include intricate details, but a clear and complete design (even pencil drawings) will have the best chance to move forward. If your drawing is too rough and does not attract the interest of the reviewers, it will be passed over. Strong bogus names and catchy tag lines are a plus; they help separate your design from the rest of the submissions. In other words, do not spend hours and hours detailing all the intricate lines of an object without spending some time on the basic layout and typography.
Second Preliminary Review April 3 – still accepting new and reworked concepts.
Third Preliminary Review April 10 – still accepting new and reworked concepts. New concepts should be well thought out, beyond a sketch, and include color.
Fourth Preliminary Review April 17 – still accepting new and reworked concepts. New concepts should be fully thought out, close to finish, and include color.
Last Preliminary Review April 22 - NO new concepts will be reviewed on this day ONLY approved designs from previous preliminary reviews will be considered. We will use this time to concentrate on fine-tuning designs.
April 25 by 1:00 Hawaii time- PRESENTATION BOARDS are due. By this time I will have sent you a link to files and instructions on how to create your own presentation board. If you do not email me your board by the deadline your design will not be considered for the final review.
I will request the proper production file with complete layers and correct image size after your design is purchased.
There will also be time after the review to fine-tune your file for our production needs, but please do not make any noticeable changes to the color or art unless you inform me first. After all, we are buying your design based on the last image seen. This is also the time to create front/pocket, long sleeve or any accent designs to complete the shirt design.
April 26 through May 2 - comments from our store managers and staff will be collected during this time.
May 3 & 4th- the Selection Committee will make their FINAL PURCHASE SELECTIONS during these 2 days.
Please wait until I contact you with the results. It may take an additional day to finalize all the details.
IMPORTANT: If art submitted to the review was not done on the computer, and at the time of purchase you are unable to supply us with a digital computer file for color separation purposes, we will need to renegotiate the $1000 compensation. Please discuss this with me before submitting designs to avoid confusion.
*Be aware that any and all images presented in any particular design must be your original art, and free and clear of any copyrights so Crazy Shirts will not run into any legal difficulties. Crazy Shirts will own the design outright upon purchase.
At any time I may request your references before we finalize any actual purchases, please be prepared to show documentation for the images; this includes any stock photo images used to create a design. Use of images from books or magazines or other printed media, does not mean that they are public domain and does not mean the artist is free to use them without permission. Photo and illustrated images must be original and clearly owned by the artist submitting the design and they must be able to transfer the rights of these images to Crazy Shirts upon the purchase of their designs. Artists will be held legally co-responsible for any infringement issues that may arise. Clipart, whether free or paid for is not encouraged. We feel and do our best to set ourselves apart from other apparel companies by offering art that is one of a kind.
All preliminary work is submitted on the speculation that we will purchase your design, but only when a design is actually purchased is the artist compensated a one-time payment of $1000.
These guidelines will help you to prepare your purchased designs for color separation purposes:
ILLUSTRATOR CS4 or lower version
1. Place tiffs on a separate layer for Illustrator, but also send the psd tiff separately.
2. Group main elements and label the layer. For example: text one group/layer, background one group/layer, texture on e group/layer.
A flower starts out with each petal on its own path. Before you send the file merge those petals so the layer doesn't have all the individual paths.
3. Do not flatten/expand gradients. Keep as gradient.
4. Begin file with RGB colors.
5. Deselect “overprint” when creating colors.
6. Include the font file. True Type font only. Convert font to outlines.
PHOTOSHOP
1. When using vector art in Photoshop include original vector file.
2. Begin your document as RGB.
3. Separate each main element into a new layer.
4. Don’t punch out shapes from the underlying layers - just layer them.
5. If you chose to index your file, sent the original (high resolution) RGB file as well.
CONTACT Renata Sasaki at [email protected] for more information.
