Since there seems to be a shortage of classic arcade t-shirts despite the large demand from my generation, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Although I am a traditionally trained artist and design websites for a living, I just sketched out my concept and took them to my graphic designer on staff at my company and had him work up the concept in illustrator. The joke being a twist on the hip-hop phrase “Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy.”
The initial concept turned out exactly as planned on the short sleeve Fruit of the Loom shirt, however, the “chocolate” long sleeve shirt is a bit darker cloth for Gildan. Oh well, it still looks classy. One interesting thing I had to consider which I never thought about before is finding a perfect size for the actual screen print that will make it acceptable on BOTH medium and XXXL-sized shirts. Unless you want to be charged extra, the print shop only prints one size screen and you have to find an acceptable medium so that the graphic doesn’t show up tiny on a big shirt.
If the demand is there, I may print another batch of these, but for right now, my eyes are set on future concepts like the Mr. Do! idea below.
I am open to ideas on which classic arcade characters or themes need to be created next. Got an idea? share it with me by posting in the comments section of the site.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:01 am
I like the monotone of the Dig Dug shirt….and I am a huge Mr. Do! fan….
I don’t think I’d wear that Mr. Do! design if you made it into a shirt. I think it is the stark color choices that were made for that Mr. Do! artwork (which you didn’t do obviously) with the red and the yellow.
I would almost like to see that as just white on a dark grey with maybe the Do! text in red….or maybe do some sort of weathered, textured, faded look so the colors aren’t quite so in your face. That boldness may have been in touch with arcade presentation back in the day, but I think that is different than something you wear around in public.