Role
Visual Designer

Core Responsibilities
Concept development • Illustration • Visual design • Composition • Digital artwork preparation

Key Deliverables
T-shirt graphic • Digital illustration • Presentation mockups

Project Overview
Commissioned to create a t-shirt graphic for The Experiential School of Greensboro as part of a student design contest. I developed the winning concept from an initial hand-drawn sketch into a polished digital illustration, refining the composition and visual elements for both audience appeal and apparel production.

The Challenge
The design needed to communicate the spirit of an experiential school while remaining visually engaging and recognizable on a physical garment. Unlike a design created primarily for a screen, the graphic needed to work within the limitations of apparel—including print area, scale, composition, and legibility.

Design Approach
I started with the original hand-drawn concept and refined it digitally while preserving the character of the sketch. I focused on simplifying and organizing the visual elements so the illustration could be understood as a cohesive graphic rather than a collection of competing details.

I also considered visual hierarchy and composition when refining the artwork. Larger or more visually distinctive elements were given greater emphasis, while supporting details were reduced or balanced to keep the graphic from becoming visually crowded. This made the design more readable at a glance and better suited to a wearable format.

Because the final piece was intended for apparel, I also refined the artwork with production in mind, considering scale, line clarity, and how the composition would translate from a digital illustration to a printed shirt. I used presentation mockups to evaluate how the design would appear in a real-world context before finalizing the artwork.

Outcome
The final illustration was selected as the winning contest concept, transforming an initial hand-drawn idea into a polished, production-ready t-shirt graphic. The project demonstrates my ability to develop concepts, refine visual systems, and make design decisions based on both audience communication and real-world production constraints.