No Man Walks Alone is thrilled to announce a collaboration between Tony Shirtmakers and graphic designer Bang Tran. We asked both Tony and Bang to talk about the process of creating the shirt, which will be live on our website Friday, June 14. This is Tony's design diary; you can read Bang's side here.
When Kyle approached me on creating a special edition run with graphic artist Bang Tran I was very excited. I am not used to having help with design, but I enjoyed the collaboration.
Bang and I discussed some ideas and agreed we wanted to do something in my camp cut. We wanted a design that was fun but also refined and not as commonly seen as a Hawaiian floral.
Bang's research and design provided me with a layout of options. I had a hard time deciding whether to use a combination or one singular shape.
I decided on one singular shape - the fern - for two reasons. First, I thought that choosing a single design instead of a combination would do a better job showcasing the artwork. Clean. Each print Bang designed was so beautiful and unique, I didn’t want a combination to take away from the individuality of each print. Second, the shape of the fern alone works best with the type of printing and layout we use for our shirts. The shape is long and has varying widths which creates beautiful negative space.
I also wanted to print with black ink, to carry that aesthetic over from Bangs beautiful hand made prints. I chose a muddy clay color linen for the base fabric. The earthiness of it provides fertile ground for the ferns. And I love black and brown together anyway.
Printing process
Our print process is very organic. We first cut panels, then print. We have one screen with the individual fern. This fern is then hand printed and rotated one print at a time. This gives us placement control and the ability to create an imperfect repeat print. We rotate depending on placement and negative space.
This process relies heavily on no maker errors and is very labor intensive. A printing mistake could result in cutting a new panel. But printing after cut gives me the most creative control, which I like.
I'm delighted with how the shirt came out. I think both Bang and I honored the aesthetic the other brought to the process, and the result is a shirt as timeless as the fern.
No Man Walks Alone is thrilled to announce a collaboration between Tony Shirtmakers and graphic designer Bang Tran. We asked both Tony and Bang to talk about the process of creating the shirt, which will be live on our website this Friday, June 14. This is Bang’s design diary; come back on Friday to read Tony’s side.
When Kyle and I first started talking about doing a collaboration shirt with Tony Shirtmakers, I knew we had to do something with the Camp Collar Pocket Shirt—it’s simply the perfect hot weather style.
My process for designing graphics and illustrations begins with thinking about the “feeling” I want to evoke with my visuals. The spirit of the Aloha shirt lives in hot summer sunsets, balmy and breezy beaches surrounded by lush, verdant palms and greenery. I wanted a botanical design, to offer the Aloha spirit something of its natural habitat.
I was also thinking of Tony’s process of creating the shirts. Tony’s shirts are cut and sewn by hand. Prints are screen printed by hand. This makes for a very labor intensive garment. How can I bring that handmade feeling to my design?
I decided to do my own work by hand rather than digitally as I often do in my other design projects. In the past, I had worked briefly for in herbarium preserving plants through pressing, and I thought prints of real pressed plants would be the ideal medium to infuse the shirt with the Aloha spirit.
Flowers are a little too delicate to use in this way, and I wanted to avoid cliched florals anyway. Ultimately, I decided on a theme of “ancient plants,” plants that have been around for longer than humans have: ferns, magnolias, and ginkgos. With that in mind, I ended up hiking around two state parks to collect specimens for the design.
Christmas Ferns and Lady Ferns from the harvesting trip
After harvesting the plants I needed, I used a sponge to cover the leaves with india ink and pressed them on cardstock. I did multiple inkings of all the specimens, to have the right size, edge clarity, and different ink saturations to bring forward different details in the leaves. I ended up with over fifteen sheets of paper filled with different ink prints.
The print used for the final design is in the top right
From there, we put together a few different digital mock-ups of what the shirt might look like; Tony eventually used a print of a Netted Chain Fern.
Current families and species of ferns appeared around 145 million years ago, well into the age of dinosaurs. The netted chain fern is a species common in the eastern states, named for the vein patterning that makes it look like netting. They grow in moist, boggy soils, which made for a messy time when collecting them. It’s an especially beautiful fern because it’s pinnatifid, meaning its pinna (the individual “blades” on the stalk) aren’t completely separated from the leaf stalk, which you don’t see quite as often as other leaf patterns in ferns.
If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’ve learned something about both ferns and shirts. When you’re wearing it on that balmy, breezy beach and someone compliments your shirt, you can say, “thanks, the print is of a netted chain fern. It’s pinnatifid!”
I’d like to think that summer style icon Dr. John Hammond would appreciate appreciate your knowledge of ancient flora.
I wasn't sure if I should proceed with this design or not. A part of me wants to scrub it from the internet. It feels uncomfortable, but healing is not meant to be comfortable. Healing is supposed to hurt, the fire that burns is supposed to cleanse you. Embrace it.
Alpha and Luna were created in the same breath — two sides of the same wound.
His defiance and her fury - different echoes of the same pain.
Looking back, I see how much of myself I poured into them - not just the pain, but the control reclaimed through creation.
Even the discarded drafts tell the story. The entire series became less about revenge against others, and more about revenge against silence.
Revenge Series | Design Diary: The Brutality of Healing
The “healing” phase of the project was the hardest.
It wasn’t healing. It was clawing through the ashes, trying to find the parts of me that survived.
Designing through what felt like rewriting my own story.
Every design is a choice: keep what tells the truth, delete what hides it.
Healing isn’t grace - it is grit.
**Digital Perspective only** These neutral colors vibe look easy on eyes. We felt stress levels in office can go down by counteracting with these restful tones too. #designdiary #interiordesign #interiordesignph #commercialproperty #sheedesignph #office #officedesign #art #artwork #colors #construction #digitalperspective #perspective #rendering #minimalist #modernminimalist (at Bonifacio Global City) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCDhcUjFQ2p/?igshid=158aq9immt7vu
