My graphic design work and other creative endeavors
So some of you may know that I had this one for a while now with me, however all this time I still did not have the time to shoot it properly and put it on display for you guys. Well finally yesterday things came together as a couple friends showed up and we so happened to have a camera. The shirt is available as usual at the etsy store, enjoy.
Hey guys, so some of you remember the world cup shirt I designed a while ago? well I’m Printing them and for your viewing and buying pleasure here’s the Brazil 2014 world cup t-shirt of A.F.R Lives. I dare you, matter of fact I double dare you to find a better looking world cup shirt, go ahead I’ll wait.
Of course you can get yours at the etsy store with same day or next day shipping in most cases.
This night was a WU-Tang night, I was bumping 36 chambers and got to the classic urban musical portrayal of lower class minority caught in the belly of the capitalism beast – “C.R.E.A.M” and this is what happened
In retrospect I believe my design was a little too campy in comparison to the actual song which had a much more darker tone about it. However I was quite pleased to find the picture of Wesley Snipes in his exceptional role and the cult classic “New Jack City” I couldn’t have asked for a better picture for this.
So it seems that when I designed this one I had Digital love by Daft punk stuck in my head, and there in lies the reason behind the quote used on this design
So this all happened in the the course a week or so, and every night surely I would scroll down my tumblr feed and get something , then I would take to Illustrator while Mr Theophilus London would play in my headphones ( “big spender” is quite addictive I must say, give it a listen). This is the creation of the night
So here you have the picture that inspired me and the result of my work with it.
So I recently got some extra free time on my hands and like the incredibly active person I am, I decided to do something out it. Being an artist the choice was simple needless to say. The result was this, a series of posters, tees, inspired by pics and quotes from my tumblr feed, code name “LateNightToughts” here’s the first of the series
This one was actually a quote I just thought of and decided to make something out of, now that I think about it I probably could of made a poster out of it. Oh well maybe later
So the world cup is right around the corner and guess who’s excited…. This guy! so in celebration of my brand’s very first World Cup I decided why not make some shirts huh? Ladies and gent I give you A.F.R. Lives 2014 World Cup Tees (you can get your own here)
And just in case anyone wanted to see the artwork
in the end I realize the logo for the brazil world cup is a bit different but I quite like this one. Anyhow we printed Nigeria and Brazil already so let us know which one should we print next.
So I took part of this event for my brand to help promote it and etc… and I met a group of really cool people one of them was B Alexis. We spoke for not to long before she asked me to design this idea she had in my for her logo, and of course I said “why not”. this was the result
B. Alexis is a maker of accessories, earrings, cufflinks riddled with african pattern and or paisley (she a paisley lover if you couldn’t already tell). Go check her out!
As many of you know, I started my brand AfrLives a little earlier this year, and I’m glad to say that it’s been doing quite well. We’re looking forward to next january which will be our one year anniversary, yeah! (have you seen the stats? Morbid dare I say).
However It is now winter 2013 and I have yet to release any new designs. Then let us remedy that. I started designing this collection and like many other design jobs went through a couple tries before reaching what I wanted to express, and then it was there, DARE… Dare to be….Dare, to be, African, don’t just be African, don’t just be bold about it, be unapologetically African.
With that in mind, it began.
I revisited some concepts I had previously done gave them a refreshed point of view, took a more daring approach to what I could and could not do in terms of print and budget.
Design now, without any limitations to truly unleash the potential and figure the production and business details later, because if we’re gonna work, we’re gonna work with the best product there is and so I designed everything my heart desired.
Designed leggings an area I’ve wanted to design for before, but never did due to budget restrictions and etc…Come to find out the means were within my grasp this whole time. Richard Bronson said in an interview that he did not enter a business field just for the profit, he did only if thought he could bring something to it, with that in mind the only legging design I like and felt stood apart enough was this one.
With that door being open I thought “why not” and decided to also get a some cargo camouflage pants done for us gentlemen, with this camouflage pattern I had built from different variations of the African map, this is the result.
And so Just like that I find myself with a winter fall collection. Now comes the businessman in me, how do I produce all of these and meet the demand as it comes, will I have the budget to do so? What quantities show I order? How to properly forecast demand and plan accordingly?
So here’s the plan. Each item will be released separately in two weeks intervals. Every other friday, AfrLives will release and new item or a different color wave for one of the new designs until January 2014. Putting us right in shape for our college tour!!!
So one of my return and favorite customers came to me recently with an exciting jobs, ie: something I don’t usually do. Designing a label for a laundry detergent “True”. Seems legit. First up logo.
Second label.
Made sure color reflected the vibrant nature of similar products, it was fun not to design in just 2 to 3 colors for once in a while. Next, back label
And done, for once however I got see the final product which is unusual for me, but happens quite often with this customer actually. So here it is folks.
Noice!
The Dreamer