HAWAIIAN SHIRT - Introduction to Digital Media
INTRODUCTION:
For this project, we were given a template to create our own rendition of a Hawaiian shirt. This included the construction of the shirt, a unique pattern, buttons, and a company tag.
MATERIALS:
Inspiration was found through Google searches and Pinterest. I used Adobe Illustrator to create the entire assignment i.e. the construction of the shirt, pattern, buttons and company tag.
CREATIVE PROCESS:
I knew I wanted to create a calm and relaxing design, but also something with a vintage feel. I found the inspiration for my colour scheme from vintage Hawaii tourism posters. I like that the posters were always colourful and interesting but the colours had a muted and aged tone, that held a sense of calm. I then tried to think of what relaxing but not boring things could be associated with Hawaii. I had first thought of dolphins, but realized that they were probably overdone on Hawaiian shirts. But then I had the idea to use a sea turtle. I felt that the sea turtle alone wasn't enough so I added the plumeria flowers around the design to tie it all together.
https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/453574360/art-print-hawaii-nouveau-retro-style
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/1947-fly-to-hawaii-by-clipper-pan-american-travel-poster-retro-graphics.html
https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/reptiles/sea-turtles
https://www.floresdelcorazon.com/en/frangipani-flower-national-nicaragua/
PRODUCTION METHODS/WORKFLOW and TOOLS:
I created my pattern first. For the illustration itself I used inspiration photos to reference the outline of the sea turtle and plumerias. I utilized the gradient tool for both illustrations, using the linear option fro the arms, legs, and head of the turtle and the petals of the plumeria. Once I was happy with my design I grouped it together and went on to make my pattern. Using the pattern tool I decided to use the brick by column tile option, and created more space between each tile. This felt like the best option for my design and the concept of the Hawaiian shirt, the other options like grid or brick by row felt too linear.
For the construction of the shirt I used the layering method which worked really well, only being very precise when necessary. I used the shape tool to create pieces of the shirt when abstract or organic shapes weren't involved. For the other more detailed areas I used the pen tool, which I prefer over the pencil tool.
I also added my pattern onto each piece as I went along, creating less work for myself later on.
After completing the construction of the shirt I went back in to create shadows, labelling every sublayer made this step much more simple and easy. I used the opacity option along with the gaussian blur effect to make realistic shadows.Using the anchor point tool to shift the shape of the shadows also helped create a more natural shape.
After completing the base of the shirt it was time to create some buttons. I used the ellipse tool to create my initial circle, and then went on to use the gradient tool with the radial option to create the coloured gradient of my button. I then created placed 4 more circles using the ellipse tool, and placed them equally spaced in the centre. Then using the shape builder tool I subtracted them from the larger circle. To create the thread going through the button I used the line segment tool, to perfect the lines I clicked on the stroke menu and adjusted the weight and added capped ends. To create shadows around the button, button holes, and thread I duplicated each shape and then played with opacity and added the gaussian blur effect until I was satisfied with the outcome.
This was the first rendition of my company label. I used the texturizer and chose the canvas option to give it a more rough appearance, I chose to do this in a darker colour so that the font would pop. To created the thread going around the label I used the line segment tool and chose dashed lines, I created a slight shadow effect on the thread again shifting the opacity and adding the gaussian blur effect. I also lowered the opacity to the text and imagery on my label so that the texture of the canvas would show through.
I still wasn't happy with my first label, so started to tweak it. I decided to change the "water" font to something more straight forward, while I loved handwritten feel to the previous font, it wasn't legible. I also added a black border tp the text to make it pop against the new background that I switched to a light coloured burlap. I preferred the burlap texture, and felt that the label matched the feel of the shirt much better which these changes.
FINAL WORK:
CONCLUSION:
Overall I am happy with how my Hawaiian shirt turned out, I think the colours work great together and I think I really achieved the relaxing feeling I set out to create. However, I had many difficulties throughout the process in creating my shirt. Almost all were technical difficulties that I figured out through trial and error. Even though I watched many explanation videos in preparation to this, there were many points where I wanted to achieve a certain action but just couldn't figure it out, or at least it took me MANY tries to work it out. I think this will continue to be easier the more I learn and use Adobe Illustrator, because after this project I am much more confident in my abilities using the software. If I could do it again I would change a couple things. The first being the pattern sizing, I would have made the tiles bigger and more offset because I think it would look better as a Hawaiian shirt. The second just being to do more research on the subject matter. I am not very familiar with Hawaiian shirts, and I made the mistake of thinking that part of the collar was cut, therefore I created a shadow there, but have since realized that is not the proper construction of the shirt.
