A little something about the project
I had the great pleasure of working with a high school band director in Adrian Michigan on his students yearly marching band t-shirts for five years. Each year, we discussed the theme, the playlist, and any initial thoughts that he had on the direction to take the design. The most important criterion was to make a design that students wanted to wear any chance they could. The first year's design was the band director's first year in charge of the shirt design and wanted to have a design based in sheet music and was a start to a great work relationship.
Following years, we had been granted further creativity for the designs. The band director and I discussed having 2018's design used the school colors, royal blue and gold, and their mascot, a trojan, in a classic rock band tee design. Heavily inspired by the intro to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", the stylistic lighting and shadows helped give the trojan a new and intimidating look as to say "don't mess with our band".
In 2019, the playlist included "Detroit Rock City" by Kiss and "Cleveland Rocks" by President of the United States. We decided to make the tee shirt double sided and look like a rock band tour shirt with the Detroit skyline and set list on the front and the Cleveland skyline with the band schedule on the back. The grunge texture used helped age the design so that it looked like the shirt was out of the late 70's and was found by the students wearing them.
While working through the complications of playing band in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a group of four students that took on leadership roles to help with their sections. These three students and the band director were included in the design which was a play off of a postcard of Mount Rushmore. The typography was also inspired by Schoolhouse Rock! and fit the rough and imperfect nature of stone.
2021's theme was far more traditional and due to budget restraints, the design was pulled back from previous years. A trumpet is the most identifiable piece in the band and worked well to be easily manipulated for the design. The tuba is also included as a nod to the band directors focus in college.
While never being in band, I was involved in many music classes in school and I experienced how influential the classes could be and I wanted to be part of that for these students. Student's money went towards these shirts and with the school being in a rural area, I made sure that the students were recieving something they wanted. Select students were allowed to critique the designs before going to print to ensure they were satisfied.
The "Heart Breaker" shirt concept was a 80's mixtape that was a love mixtape that ended in heartbreak, the ripping out of the tape. The design included the track list for that years performances and broke away from the school colors for a pop of pink, the color of love. Working with a high school band budget, I assisted with the budgetary restraints by trying to keep the prints to as few of colors as possible and incorporating the shirt color in the designs.