Sunday, March 31, 2013

The Enchanted Tiki Tee


Welcome back to yet another Retro Tee concept. I hope everyone has had a swell weekend. Last week I had such an amazing amount of fan feedback on the Enchanted Tiki Room tee concept that I decided to roll out another concept I've had collecting dust in the wings.

Unlike my typography case studies, I have enough shirt concepts to get me through another two years if I just posted only concepts for apparel but I'm not a one trick pony and typography is my passion. I had some free time this weekend to actually begin tracking down original typefaces and display font used throughout The Land pavilion.  Hopefully, I will be able to find more vintage research...most likely I'll have to break down and use some of todays fonts and typefaces.

Back to this weeks concept, the design is based on one of the Disneyland marketing photos of Walt actually inside the show building. I decided I really wanted to push my experimentation with frequency and dot angle when it came to halftones, not to mention it has a nice throw back look. I scaled the color of the photo back to a darker shade of the tee shirt color. On top of the photo I overlaid a graphic from a 1963 marketing piece that came from a simple 4 color brochure. 




I went back and forth on color combinations of this design. In the end I decided to keep the color palette 85% true to that simple 4 color brochure, while the colors don't necessarily harken the themes of Adventureland, they do hold true to my original inspiration. 


I could see the shirt paired with a nice pair of deep khaki cargo shorts and sported on a warm summer day. Well that does it for this weeks post. I hope all of you have a good week and see you back here real soon!


Sunday, March 24, 2013

Enchanted Tiki Room


Welcome back to a new Designerland post. I'd like to first of all thank all of your who ordered the new edition of the Tiki Pineapple Whip shirt! I will be placing the order this week and they should be on the print production schedule for next week, be sure to tune in for my updates. Now onto this weeks post...


As I've mentioned before I just acquired a home and have been spending all my free time with this retro renovation therefore the Designerland Typography Case Studies have taken a back seat. Hopefully, I'll get around to our next one in the upcoming weeks as I have some downtime from the home. 


Now onto this weeks post. . .a new Retro '55 shirt. While the content may not be from the year 1955, the ideals and dreams surrounding it come from the yesteryears of classic Disneyland which we all love and enjoy.



This weeks concept is based on the World Engagement print advertisement put out in June of 1963 in promotion of the Enchanted Tiki Room. 




Well that will do it for this weeks post. Tune in soon for more fun Designerland updates. Thanks as always for stopping by and have a swell week!



Monday, March 4, 2013

Disney's Worlds of Oz





Welcome back to Designerland and a long-overdue post. By now you probably know that this upcoming Friday, Disney will release its second trip to the Wonderful World of Oz with their new major motion picture, Oz the Great and Powerful.  I'm truly excited to see how Disney handles it. I hope it fairs well as I love the mythos of Oz and would like to see a franchise with this property. 

I grew up with Disney's first Oz film, Return to Oz, which still remains one of my all-time favorite Disney films. To celebrate both the new and the old, I created a few shirt concepts. The first two are based on Return to Oz and the last is based on the new film. 

The first shirt is based on the Powder of Life and the three magical words spoken to activate it. The design plays heavily with ornate typography and flourishes that pay homage to both the time period and the movie.  For you extreme fans, take note of the typography used on the electro shock machine—the logo is brilliantly ornate. Also, the typography used for the Doctor's newspaper advertisement? The same font used for the home of 999 happy haunts. The back of the shirt has a small tag depicting the Gump.








The second shirt pays homage to my favorite character, Tic Toc. To this day, I love that one steampunk-like mechanical man is the sole army and protector of Oz. The shirt is based on the badge on his left chest. 







The last concept is based on the new movie logo and ornate typography combined with the new letterpress technique.







Well that does it for this week’s post. I apologize for my lack of posts as of late, but I'm juggling a few projects, and one in particular is rather big. I just recently purchased my first house and am in the midst of a complete renovation...so hunting down typography has been put on the back burner for now. I hope to find some time in the next two months to tackle a new Epcot Case Study. Thanks for stopping by and see you all real soon!

I almost forgot to mention, don't forget to order the LE Version 2 of the Tiki Pineapple Whip Tee. I'll be taking orders for another 3 weeks—after that, the design will be retired for good, so don't hesitate.