Megan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ferrumaeternum) wrote2010-03-02 08:10 pm
ferrumaeternum) wrote2010-03-02 08:10 pm
Entry tags:
The Threadless Assignment of Doom
My design is finally up for voting on Threadless! It was just posted today, since there was some downtime on the site over the weekend.
I wish I had more time to work on it, but it’s still one of the best out of all the Intro to Design classes, so I’m satisfied with that much. We also were only allowed to use the pen tool in Illustrator for the project, which didn’t help in terms of time management or the rendering of the illustration. I would rather have included some more painterly elements by using the brush tool or directly scanned parts of the drawing or watercolor. The next time I submit something, it definitely won’t be as cartoon-y or flat. Most of the other students just had solid shapes with an outline, while I at least tried to add some shadows in the style that Brian Ewing uses for his poster art to give it some more dimension.
I was also not happy that we were told we had to use Threadless’s 640 x 640 template with the background image as the design and a smaller version of it PhotoShopped onto one of their model's shirts. Our original designs were done in a very vertical format, so I would have liked to extend the template down further, which is allowed by Threadless. We also weren’t allowed to use the Flash option or display our designs any other way, which I’m worried is going to hurt this in the end because a lot of the detail is more difficult to see this way. We also could not submit our designs for a critique first. This would have been fine if we actually had a proper critique during class. His idea of a critique was to put up all the designs for five minutes, and point out a few things he liked in some of them. WTF! That is not a critique!
This is just another reminder why I switched my major from Graphic Design to Painting and Drawing. When we started the project, the teacher told us not to worry about deadlines. So, two weeks ago on Thursday evening, he said that the Illustrator file would be due next week and the actual printed and mounted project would be due the Tuesday after that. When we all showed up to class last Tuesday, he decided that the project was going to be due two days from then instead of the following week. I had a one-on-one critique with my Advanced Drawing teacher the next day, so I couldn’t work on it Tuesday night, which left me with Wednesday to pretty much do the entire project. This would have been fine if we were allowed to use the brush tool, but no, the whole thing had to be done with the pen. I was up until 4:00 AM playing connect the dots with every curve on every line you see here. I also worked on it the following morning and afternoon and still didn’t have time to get all the shadows and detail in that I had in my drawing, but I could live with what I had.
I got to the print lab half an hour before it closed, thinking I had plenty of time to get my project printed. There weren’t any open computers. Twenty minutes later, I’ve got my paper in the printer and my file ready to go when the hipster bitch monitor tells me I’m not allowed to print. WTF? I did not just stand there for twenty minutes listening to her blast that Interpol shit and not get my project printed before class. Considering how much the university charges for lab fees for studio classes, I should not have been asked to leave while the lab was still open. Yet another reason I will never donate money or ever give a talk to this institution.
After accomplishing nothing, I went back to the dorm to cut my matboard before class. When I got to class and told the teacher what happened, he said I’d have to print it later and if that happens again, I should quickly go over to Kinko’s and get it printed there. Too bad that’s not an option, since I don’t have a car here and if I took the bus I would be very late for class. I ended up not making the critique (if you could even call it that) and went down to the lab during the break to print my project. I missed an additional hour of class because once I could finally get on a computer, the printer ran out of ink. After the ink was replaced, it still wasn’t printing correctly. The entire time I was there, I kept getting hit on by some French or Spanish guy that was also trying to help me with all the technical errors and trying to manually fix things for me, which just screwed everything up more. In the meantime, I was trying to ask the lab monitor who actually knows what he’s doing. He also gets bonus points for playing Apocalyptica in the lab and being nice and helpful. ;)
Once I finally got something printed, the colors were a bit too dark and the dull blade on the box cutter messed up one of the edges of my project. At that point, all I really cared about was getting it in before the end of class so I didn’t get a 0 on the project, consequently failing the class. Luckily, I got it printed and mounted by the time class ended. I just hope I never have to go through anything like this again and that I will get a passing grade on the assignment. I also didn't have time to add a couple different t-shirts to my illustration with the design on them to show placement, so who knows what I'll end up with on the project.
After class tonight, I learned that most of the students’ designs were rejected by Threadless, which makes me feel a lot better about the whole thing. If your design isn’t even accepted to be in the running, that’s a good indication that it totally sucks! ;)
I wish I had more time to work on it, but it’s still one of the best out of all the Intro to Design classes, so I’m satisfied with that much. We also were only allowed to use the pen tool in Illustrator for the project, which didn’t help in terms of time management or the rendering of the illustration. I would rather have included some more painterly elements by using the brush tool or directly scanned parts of the drawing or watercolor. The next time I submit something, it definitely won’t be as cartoon-y or flat. Most of the other students just had solid shapes with an outline, while I at least tried to add some shadows in the style that Brian Ewing uses for his poster art to give it some more dimension.
I was also not happy that we were told we had to use Threadless’s 640 x 640 template with the background image as the design and a smaller version of it PhotoShopped onto one of their model's shirts. Our original designs were done in a very vertical format, so I would have liked to extend the template down further, which is allowed by Threadless. We also weren’t allowed to use the Flash option or display our designs any other way, which I’m worried is going to hurt this in the end because a lot of the detail is more difficult to see this way. We also could not submit our designs for a critique first. This would have been fine if we actually had a proper critique during class. His idea of a critique was to put up all the designs for five minutes, and point out a few things he liked in some of them. WTF! That is not a critique!
This is just another reminder why I switched my major from Graphic Design to Painting and Drawing. When we started the project, the teacher told us not to worry about deadlines. So, two weeks ago on Thursday evening, he said that the Illustrator file would be due next week and the actual printed and mounted project would be due the Tuesday after that. When we all showed up to class last Tuesday, he decided that the project was going to be due two days from then instead of the following week. I had a one-on-one critique with my Advanced Drawing teacher the next day, so I couldn’t work on it Tuesday night, which left me with Wednesday to pretty much do the entire project. This would have been fine if we were allowed to use the brush tool, but no, the whole thing had to be done with the pen. I was up until 4:00 AM playing connect the dots with every curve on every line you see here. I also worked on it the following morning and afternoon and still didn’t have time to get all the shadows and detail in that I had in my drawing, but I could live with what I had.
I got to the print lab half an hour before it closed, thinking I had plenty of time to get my project printed. There weren’t any open computers. Twenty minutes later, I’ve got my paper in the printer and my file ready to go when the hipster bitch monitor tells me I’m not allowed to print. WTF? I did not just stand there for twenty minutes listening to her blast that Interpol shit and not get my project printed before class. Considering how much the university charges for lab fees for studio classes, I should not have been asked to leave while the lab was still open. Yet another reason I will never donate money or ever give a talk to this institution.
After accomplishing nothing, I went back to the dorm to cut my matboard before class. When I got to class and told the teacher what happened, he said I’d have to print it later and if that happens again, I should quickly go over to Kinko’s and get it printed there. Too bad that’s not an option, since I don’t have a car here and if I took the bus I would be very late for class. I ended up not making the critique (if you could even call it that) and went down to the lab during the break to print my project. I missed an additional hour of class because once I could finally get on a computer, the printer ran out of ink. After the ink was replaced, it still wasn’t printing correctly. The entire time I was there, I kept getting hit on by some French or Spanish guy that was also trying to help me with all the technical errors and trying to manually fix things for me, which just screwed everything up more. In the meantime, I was trying to ask the lab monitor who actually knows what he’s doing. He also gets bonus points for playing Apocalyptica in the lab and being nice and helpful. ;)
Once I finally got something printed, the colors were a bit too dark and the dull blade on the box cutter messed up one of the edges of my project. At that point, all I really cared about was getting it in before the end of class so I didn’t get a 0 on the project, consequently failing the class. Luckily, I got it printed and mounted by the time class ended. I just hope I never have to go through anything like this again and that I will get a passing grade on the assignment. I also didn't have time to add a couple different t-shirts to my illustration with the design on them to show placement, so who knows what I'll end up with on the project.
After class tonight, I learned that most of the students’ designs were rejected by Threadless, which makes me feel a lot better about the whole thing. If your design isn’t even accepted to be in the running, that’s a good indication that it totally sucks! ;)