[Project Complete] Musselman Triathlon t-shirt design, $200

[musselgirl]

(Admin code added by Michael - 1RC980881E)

The Musselman Triathlon is a swim-bike-run multisport event in Geneva, New York. The race actually consists of three different distance races - a half-ironman distance, a sprint distance, and a kids race - all on the same day. If you want more information about the race in general to help you get a feel for what we do, you can visit our website at: www.musselmantri.com. Though we are not a non-for-profit entity, the proceeds from the race support the Boys and Girls Club of Geneva.

We are looking for a t-shirt design (front and back) for the race. Last year, my husband sketched a cartoon for the front of the shirt using our musselman mascot (little mussel dude, we call him). We would like the front of the shirt to remain consistent with the "cartoon" theme. Each year we'd like to create a design where the mussel dude is doing something different. Last year is basically a black and white sketch, but we are open to a design with colors this year.

The back needs to include our logo (color version) and our sponsors logos (b/w versions). We will have approximately 16 sponsors logos. Any design feature to liven up the back of the shirt (break the monotony of logos) would be nice.

Somewhere on the shirt -front or back - we'd like to see the following text: July 17, 2005
Geneva, NY
Half-Iron - Sprint - Kids

Visit the following url for last year's t-shirt design, our event logos, and our sponsors logos: [EDIT: Link Removed] .

Here's a preview of last year's front and back design... http://www.musselmantri.com/tee/2004/t_shirt_front_300w.jpg http://www.musselmantri.com/tee/2004/t_shirt_back_400w.jpg

Here are some brainstormed ideas for the cartoon front. If you have your own idea, we're definitely open to new thoughts.
1) The little mussel dude running through a crowd of big people, but all you can see are the peoples calves and shoes.
2) An awards podium with buff, muscle-men on 2nd and 3rd, but the little mussel dude victorious on 1st place.
3) the Evolution of the Musselman, sort of in the same vain as the series of drawings you see depicting the evolutionary development of man, from all fours to homo sapiens. The mussel would start off in the water, swimming (maybe with flippers on), the scene would then evolve to him gaining land and riding a bike, and would then evolve to him running on his own two feet.

Thanks in advance!
Melissa

[imot]

Hi Melissa thanks for the oportunity, i´m in...

[musselgirl]

Thanks Agustin. Let me know if you need any more info/supplies to work with!
-melissa

[imot]

Hi Melisa,

Do you have the logo converted to outlines or in a hi res image?
I don´t have the tipography of your logo :(

thank´s

[musselgirl]

Hi Agustin,
My husband will create an outline version tonight and we'll add it to the Musselman Artwork folder when you follow the "artwork files" link in my original post. Which version of Illustrator do you use so he knows how to save it? We have Illustrator 10 but can save as 9 or 8... let me know.
-Melissa

[imot]

Hi Agustin,
My husband will create an outline version tonight and we'll add it to the Musselman Artwork folder when you follow the "artwork files" link in my original post. Which version of Illustrator do you use so he knows how to save it? We have Illustrator 10 but can save as 9 or 8... let me know.
-Melissa

No problem, i have illustrator 11

[musselgirl]

Agustin,

We've uploaded the outline version of the Musselman logo. Still found in the Musselman artwork folder with a title using the word "outline" in it. Hope this works for you, otherwise my husband said something about embedding the font in the file if need be. Let me know.

-Melissa

[musselgirl]

I know there are still a few week left in the contest, but it's also been a few weeks since we opened the contest. Just wondered if anyone out there is actually interested and working on a design.

-melissa

[Trysen]

Yeah, me!

Sorry i’m thinking of ideas. Would an animated illustration be okay? I had an idea, what about if a crab and a seagull where running along side of the mussel man in the competition?

Maybe if you have an idea where you want to take this? Could make it easier for everyone and maybe more entries would pop up.

To be more clear, what do you envision the musselman doing? Running along side of more mussels? Do they have running shoes? What would make the character more fun, more alive?

[musselgirl]

I think your seagull and crab idea sounds fun... though I'm not sure what you mean by animated illustration. I'm going to sound ignorant here, but how do you make them animated on a t-shirt?
Do you mean like in a cartoon where there are several frames?

In response to your question about what we envision, we had included a few ideas in the original post:
1) The little mussel dude running through a crowd of big people, but all you can see are the peoples calves and shoes.
2) An awards podium with buff, muscle-men on 2nd and 3rd, but the little mussel dude victorious on 1st place.
3) the Evolution of the Musselman, sort of in the same vain as the series of drawings you see depicting the evolutionary development of man, from all fours to homo sapiens. The mussel would start off in the water, swimming (maybe with flippers on), the scene would then evolve to him gaining land and riding a bike, and would then evolve to him running on his own two feet.

I don't know if you missed them or if they did not provide enough information. BUT, we are open to other creative ideas also. Basically we want a fun, cartoon-like scene with the musselman doing something involving swimming, biking or running, or all three. It can be one color or many colors.

Does this help at all?
-melissa

[Trysen]

(cartoon like) is what i meant to say. I used the wrong word (Animated Ack! I’m Canadian what can i say :blush: ).

I got it! Yeah this information really helps :D

I’ll start working on it now. Hehehe this is going to be really fun. :D

[Kimpossible]

Hi there! I thought I'd give this a try. I had a little fun a did a simple "cartoon" for the front of the shirt. I went with your suggestion of the musselman running in the crowd, however - I actually put three musselmen to symbolize the "triathlon". I gave a few different versions (another idea evolved as you will see by my samples). I didn't work on the back yet... just feeling out if you like where this is headed. It's very simple and bright.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/fountainvalleygirl/feet.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/fountainvalleygirl/circle.gif


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/fountainvalleygirl/musselmanshirtfront5C.gif



Thank you - Kim

[musselgirl]

Thanks Kim! It's definitely got the playful, cartoony look that we are hoping for, but (there's always a but!) you need to play with spacing a bit. Right now, both versions make it look like the mussels are being crushed by large feet instead of running through the large feet. I think there needs to be some semblance of where the ground is, too, instead of the appearance of feet and mussels sortof flying around in space.

I don't know if it is possible to render the appearance of the mussel running faster than the humans in a still drawing, but something to think about...

Thanks again. We look forward to seeing any changes you can make!
-Melissa

[Kimpossible]

Hi Melissa! No problem :) ... I will make some revisions. What did you think of the other idea (the circle divided into pie with the mussel dude riding the bike, swimming, and running)?

[musselgirl]

Hi Kim,

Yeah, our initial response is that we like the peace sign mussel collage... we could add the text "peace - love - mussel" or some such hippyish slogan. My husband (the race director) unfortunately is crazy busy tonight and doesn't have time to critique it in detail, but I promise we'll get back to you with any changes we'd like to see in the next day or two.

-Melissa

[Kimpossible]

Sounds good... I will have the other revision posted by either tonight or Tuesday (4/12). Thanks for getting back to me! ;)

[musselgirl]

Hey Kim,

Here's what we need to see. Can you mock up a sample shirt with the small peace sign centered rather than over the pocket? Then can you play with adding in smallish text "peace, love, mussel" each word stacked vertcally on top of the next below the peace sign. Like this:
peace
love
mussel

We just want to see how that would look.

Now, if we wanted to keep it larger for the front, even the three wheel version, we are thinking we would have to remove the background color from the three pie pieces. Unfortunately when it prints, it will just end up being a big plastic patch on the front with that much saturated ink. Can you show us a large version without background color?

Btw, we love the swimsuit on the swimming mussel!

[Kimpossible]

I'm glad you like the swimming trunks! ;) I'll post either tonight or tomorrow ALL revisions (the peace sign version(s) and the running feet/mussel version with the mussel beating out the other runners) so you have everything at once to compare. :)

[Marcusfizner]

Here is the artwork close up. And here (http://www.marcusfizner.com/DO/musslemans.jpg) is an example of the t-shirt front and back. Let me know what you think. :)

[musselgirl]

Marcus,

We definitely like it. Very cohesive and full of detail. We would probably eliminate the text above the graphic and are contemplating eliminating the swim-bike-run words beneath... just letting the graphic stand by itself. Or what about replacing the swim bike run with the half-iron sprint kids? Can you show us that?

Also, if we have that much color on the front (which we like, don't get me wrong :) ) we will probably go with just a 2 color back. That would just mean that the sponsors logos would be grayscale (or black) and the Musselman logo color would be the second color.

Thanks so much!
Melissa

[Marcusfizner]

Thank you for the quick reply. I'll make the changes and post a.s.a.p.

[Kimpossible]

Hi Melissa - here is one revision of the "running feet" version I did for you. Still working on the pie/peace sign one. I took liberty with the "musselman" logo colorwise, however, also took the same revision and deleted the logo if that is a definite "no-no". - Kim ;) (Link to these versions on T-shirt: TSHIRTDESIGN2 (http://www.geocities.com/kimleiningerdesign/musselman2.html))

Without logo:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/fountainvalleygirl/musselmanshirtfront412B.gif

With logo:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/fountainvalleygirl/musselmanshirtfront412A.gif

[Marcusfizner]

Here are the revisions. And here (http://www.marcusfizner.com/DO/musslemans.jpg) is the t-shirt example. Any more suggestions? :)

[Kimpossible]

Okay... here's what I have for "peace, love, mussel" - I did a couple of different things and punched up the color due to taking out the background. I still have to post the original "small" version with the text underneath - will do soon. I kind of went "off on a tangent" here, but thought it looked "fun". Let me know what you think. Here's a link to the shirts: TSHIRTDESIGN3 (http://www.geocities.com/kimleiningerdesign/musselman3.html)

Here's the logo versions:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/fountainvalleygirl/musselman413A.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/fountainvalleygirl/musselman413B.gif

[musselgirl]

Kim,

The mussel running through the crowd is much better than the original. Your guess was right on about the logo, though. We will probably not change the color to match the shoes in the artwork. We would probably just save the logo for the back shirt design.

The new peace sign is great... tho we probably won't be choosing the purple curly-cue one since I can't imagine our male athletes being too psyched about it. Also, with all the different colored borders on that three-wheel version, it seems a bit busy, like your eye can't really decide where to focus. I like the simplicity of the single peace-sign.

I look forward to seeing the small colored original with the new text mocked up on a shirt.

thx, Melissa :)

[musselgirl]

Marcus,

The front is fabulous and I really don't have any more suggestions. As for the back, we need to have Lyons National Bank (the LNB logo) larger than the rest, and potentially to work in the fact that they are the "Presenting Sponsor". Do you think it'd be too busy (or too repetitive?) to try to work in a mussel or two?
thx,
Melissa :)

[musselgirl]

For all designers working on a Musselman design, I just wanted to let you know that we are going to move up the deadline to Wednesday, April 20. This is due to a change in our local screen printer's schedule. Sorry for any inconvenience this might cause :eek: I hope this still gives any artists who have already started working on a design enough time to submit an entry.

-Melissa

[Marcusfizner]

I'll see what I can do with the back. Thanks for the feedback. :D

[Kimpossible]

Hi Melissa! Yea... I DID think about the "feminine aspect" AFTER I posted! That's what I get for working on three hours of sleep! :banging: Going back to the original, here is the small "peace" version for the front (centered) with "peace, love, mussel" underneath (I got rid of the red so the colors are more consistent on this one). I worked out a matching back as well. Please note that I did not put the logo from the Boys and Girls Club of Geneva on the back for now as I did not see it in your folder. I could cut it from the jpeg of the complete back artwork you supplied. Just let me know if this logo will in fact appear on the shirt. You can see how the front and back on a T-shirt will look here: TSHIRTDESIGNfront&back (http://geocities.com/kimleiningerdesign/musselman4.html)

Here is the artwork for the front:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/fountainvalleygirl/musselman414Afront.gif

Here is the artwork for the back:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/fountainvalleygirl/musselman414A.gif

Thanks for all of your feedback. Let me know what you think. Thanks! :)

[Marcusfizner]

Hello musselgirl. Here (http://www.marcusfizner.com/DO/musslemans_2.jpg) is the link to the revisions. Let me know if there is anything else you want to see. :D

[musselgirl]

Thanks Kim and Marcus!

I'll be going out of town for the weekend and as I posted yesterday will be making a decision on Wednesday next week. We'll see if anyone else jumps into the fray before then, but I think you two have presented awesome options.

cheers,
Melissa :)

[musselgirl]

Hello all,

Unfortunately we are having a bit of technical difficulty moving this contest to the "designer chosen" section, but I wanted to let you know that a designer has been selected. Thank you to both Kim and Marcus for some clever and inspiring designs. We had fun seeing each new iteration.

We have selected "marcusfizner" as our t-shirt designer. Marcus, I'm not sure how to proceed with this since the system is not automatically moving the project to the revisions forum. If you are not in too much of a hurry, we can just wait until the webmaster solves their problem and moves our contest off the public forum.

Thanks again,
musselgirl

[Marcusfizner]

Thanks for choosing my design, it was a fun project. :D Are there any changes that you would like to see?

[Michael]

Moved to the revisions forum

[musselgirl]

Hi marcus,

Congrats on being selected! We absolutely love your design for the front of the shirt and honestly, do not want to change a thing. We will need the design as a vector illustration (adobe illustrator or comparable as we might need to scale it for printing). Or, it can be a 300dpi Tiff, sized to print 8 inches wide.

The few revisions are on the shirt back. We actually need to add a few sponsor logos (and delete a few from last year). My husband mocked up a quick .jpg file to demonstrate how we'd like the logos arranged (sized and placed based on level of sponsorship). The ultimate files need to be in Vector format (Adobe Illustrator or comparable) because they will need to be scaled for the shirt printing. We expect to have a 12x12 area to print the back of the shirt design in.

Also, we wondered if you might add a frame around the logos in a similar fashion to kimpossible's back design (see posts). If it had a color, we'd like it to match the Musselman logo blue color). We liked how the frame managed to incorporate the mussel in the corner... that way we don't have to add the random mussels running at the top.

Oh, and the colors need to be in CMYK format... hopefully this works for you.

The new logos and the mockup can be found here:
www.musselmantri.com/tee

Let me know if any of this is confusing or otherwise problemmatic.

Thanks,
Melissa

[Marcusfizner]

I'll make the changes and post trmw evening. (Fri 4/22) :D

[Marcusfizner]

Here (http://www.marcusfizner.com/DO/mussleman_back.jpg) is the link to the back of the t-shirt with the revisions. :D

Did you get my private message regarding a shirt?

[musselgirl]

Perfect! We love it :D Thank you so much for your efforts.

Can you send us the final files?

And do you know if I have to do anything to notify the Design Outpost webmaster that we are done with revisions? I'm really rookie at this! :confused:

I wrote back to your email inquiry... most definitely!

Thanks again,
Melissa

[Marcusfizner]

No, you don't have to notify anyone. I will do that once I post the link to the files. I sent you another private message regarding the t-shirts. It's been a pleasure. :D

[Marcusfizner]

Here (http://www.marcusfizner.com/DO/musselman_print_files.zip) is a link to your t-shirt files. Thanks again! :D

[musselgirl]

Aaron,

Thanks so much. Everything looks great. I think it will look awesome on the shirts... and everyone we've shown the design to thinks it rocks!

all the best,
melissa