Jeff Finley » Design for Others

Jesus Stabs Devil with Sword – Disciple

Jeff Finley — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:40:18 +0000

The lovely folks at Disciple Clothing asked me to draw Jesus stabbing the devil with a big sword. I did exactly that! I drew this one by hand with pencil and paper first and then scanned my shaded artwork and added the colors and details digitally. I’m quite happy with how they printed it huge on the shirt like they did.

Bold is Beautiful

Jeff Finley — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:21:53 +0000

This is a rather “old” design, but it’s not one I should forget. You can buy this tee here, but first, listen to the back story. This design has been the subject of lots of criticism and praise. When I originally designed it, it was for Jedidiah clothing back in 2007 but was not accepted. The design just sat in my portfolio for quite some time and people either loved it or hated it. They hated it because they told me it was unprintable, too many colors, and too big on the shirt. They told me I wasn’t being considerate of my client and wasting their time and money designing something that wasn’t even printable.

Well, for one, the design wasn’t approved (not because of the color or size, but because it “looked like Star Wars”). However, plenty of people said they couldn’t believe it was not accepted and they would buy it in a heartbeat. Everyone seemed to want the shirt to be printed, but I did not have the means to actually do it. I had some friends, like Jimmy Heartcore have a shot at it, but it was not practical and didn’t work out.

My fellow designers at Go Media wanted to launch a clothing line called “Go Mania” and this was going to be one of the first shirts. But since nobody I knew could print it without sacrificing the size, colors, or design integrity, the line never left the ground.

In 2008, I submitted the design to Design by Humans after a little pressure from folks over at Emptees. Basically, if it got enough votes and was well-received by the community as well as the owners of DBH, it would get printed and I’d get some cash. Only catch was they’d get rights to the design for a year or something like that. After I submitted the design up for voting, I did a little promo for it and told our blog readers and Myspace friends to vote for it. My friends at Emptees really helped me out and the votes on that shirt skyrocketed to record highs much to everyone’s amazement, including my own.

A month or so went by and the design had the most votes for a shirt ever, but still it was not confirmed a shirt of the day and I was doubting if it would ever be printed. Eventually I got an email on my 26th birthday from DBH saying that they had selected my tee as shirt of the day! It was then posted on the site for sale. They finally printed it! And what a good job they did! Take a look at my excited blog post about it here. It did pretty well and made shirt of the week. It eventually sold out and was restocked a few times to my knowledge. I think you can still buy this tee on the DBH site. Crazy, huh?

Justin “Rocket” Silverman Calling Cards

Jeff Finley — Wed, 13 May 2009 04:46:58 +0000

I was contacted by Justin Silverman of the New York post to do an interview about the resurgence of the calling card. He asked me questions about why I thought they were coming into popularity again and what makes a good calling card. I simply told him that they’re more personal than a business card.

When you casually meet folks at an event, you might not want to strike a business deal, you might just want to start up a conversation or go out for a coffee one day. A calling card is a perfect way to infuse your personality into your contact information. These were some cards I designed for Justin in addition to the interview.

Paint the Stars – Skulls and Scrolls

Jeff Finley — Wed, 06 May 2009 04:20:50 +0000

Dave Pearson runs a pretty gnarly clothing company in the UK called Paint the Stars. The playful aesthetic stems from the mid to late 90′s pop punk scene and the brand is completely content not growing up. They contacted Go Media and looked for me to create a “horror-themed” t-shirt design that “took up the whole shirt.”

I got to work and sent off some sketches for approval. Dave loved everything right off the bat and had them manufactured “cut & sew.” Soon after, they were literally flying off the shelves and being picked up by distributors. He has since come back to hire us for multiple projects and we’re getting better every time.

Paint the Stars – Candy Lettering

Jeff Finley — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:10:49 +0000

Dave from the sarcastically playful clothing brand Paint the Stars (from the UK) hired me to work my magic on a few new tees for him (summer 2008). He’d seen my candy lettering style and asked for it by name hoping I could adapt the look for his brand. He wasn’t just asking for it because it looked cool. He knew the style already fit his fun loving aesthetic.

This was more challenging that the other “candy” lettering jobs I had done (Fergie, Funkrush) simply because there were more words! He was pretty satisfied with the final result as he printed stickers and even used it as their primary header graphic for their online store. Some may say it’s difficult to read, but that’s kind of the point. It’s definitely got a graffiti influence, although I’d never consider myself a graffiti artist.

Coastal Concepts – Wormy

Jeff Finley — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:33:03 +0000

This crazy illustration was something I came up with when commissioned by the company Coastal Concepts. They asked for something wild and imaginative so I poured myself a cup of coffee and worked my Wacom for about 9 hours. I think it took me a couple of days to do this and draw every little detail. Overall, I quite like how the drawing came out, but feel like I could have done more with the background and how it fit on the tee.

Funkrush – 3D Typography Fun

Jeff Finley — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:29:50 +0000

Pete Harrison of the fashion brand Funkrush asked me to do a few tee designs for him. This was in 2007, and I had been doing a lot of 3D typography experiments. So I thought it would be cool to try something out for Pete. Most of the work was done in 3DS Max and some post production done in Photoshop. Here is some detail:

Tough or Suffer Ornate Lettering

Jeff Finley — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:34:20 +0000

An old client of mine, Brandon Wesson, had asked me to design him a tattoo based on the words “Tough or Suffer”. He wanted something ornate and scripty. I was up for the challenge so I showed him this. While he loved the design itself, he decided to not get the tattoo (which he had planned to get across his chest). It’s too bad, I would have love to have seen this in the real world. However, I would never want someone to get a tattoo of something they didn’t 100% believe should be on their body for life. So maybe it’s better he never did get it, it was a pretty large tattoo after all. But alas, it lives here in my portfolio instead.