Design Story: Abbey Road 2023 T-Shirt
Abbey Road at the Glow 2023 t-shirt design, created with Adobe Illustrator.
Solving a Design Problem
I love it when I get the occasional graphic design request! Earlier this year a colleague of mine needed a t-shirt design for their Abbey Road at the Glow concert at Glow Plaza Festival Grounds. The direction was straightforward: a 60s-inspired, “psychedelic” design, with a silhouette of the band and utilizing the colors of the Glow Plaza.
The Design Process
I wanted to create a tight, exciting graphic that would work on the small real estate of a t-shirt to commemorate a weekend of innocent nostalgia for the attendees. To create this graphic, I used the image trace tool in Adobe Illustrator to create the silhouette of the Abbey Road band, and adjusted the linework manually. The font was distorted to create a warped, “psychedelic” effect that is reminiscent of the organic shapes found in 60s-era graphic design. This piece took about 6-8 hours to complete from ideation to final approval.
The Inspiration
The graphics above are some examples of the design mood board in my mind when approaching the graphic for the client. Luckily, they knew exactly what they wanted and the aesthetic wasn’t something that needed to be reinvented or difficult to execute!
The Final Result
Close-up of the design
This was a quick and fun design solution to create! The client was extremely happy with the first version of the graphic, which is a rare and fortunate occasion. They let me know that the printer was impressed with how clean the design was in the file because it made the production of the shirts very easy. They were also pleased with the sales and positive feedback about the artwork from the attendees who purchased shirts. All of those years as a production artist for an e-commerce website for custom screenprinting really paid off.
What are your thoughts on this design? Would you buy it at a Beatles Tribute concert? Let me know!
