Structural Patterns

Once again working with The School for Practical Philosophy & Meditation’s Director of Marketing Jaime Sears and Marketing Consultant Adam Wasserman, I launched our initial meeting by sharing two of my favorite MTA commissioned illustrators – Jillian Tamaki and Sophie Blackall. I recounted how upon seeing these illustrations in the subway cars, I would get lost considering all the characters these artists created and the New York archetypes represented. Both Adam and Jaime were taken by Sophie Blackall’s illustrations in particular – one of a crowded scene within a subway car. Adam thought it would be fun to have our own past campaigns mounted as the advertisements within the car. Either at this initial meeting or the following meeting, Adam shared an image of a person in a meditation pose that appeared to be created from layered construction paper. In doing so, he proposed a shift in aesthetic to try something new. Adam used Adobe’s generative AI tool, Firefly to create the image. It was an exciting departure from the vector-based illustrations that I had been creating for The School and Jaime liked the aesthetic, so I agreed to give it a try.

After spending a bit of time with Adobe Firefly, I realized that getting a successful image would be a great deal of work. The tool generates a lot of odd glitches when it comes to details and of course even with highly detailed text descriptions, it cannot generate what one has in mind. Fortunately, my years of painting as well as digital composting, helped me formulate a plan – I would breakdown the image from background to foreground, treating each element individually and I would need to provide precise reference images. I would also need to correct obvious glitches.

One morning, I got up early to photograph an empty subway train as well as individual passengers to use as reference images. I composited multiple images of one side of a subway interior, to delete the center pole and expand the width of a single bench. The empty car composite as a reference successfully generated the setting for the poster. The image below was the team’s favorite.

I removed the backgrounds of individual riders to simplify the reference images. However, even with this step, I needed to carefully mask the Firefly characters from their backgrounds to set them on the subway car bench and of course digitally corrected many oddities.

I considered the elements that make riding the New York City subway unique in comparison to other cities such as musicians and dancers. Online I found a mariachi bassist, as well as a pole dancer to use as reference images. All three of us, Jaime, Adam and myself, felt that these two characters were what made the image engaging. Unfortunately, upon review, the MTA flagged the two characters and they had to be deleted.

I recycled past illustrations to generate a few of the characters such as the two women toward the left of the poster, the central meditator and the man reading a book at the far right. The dog in a hand bag was the result of searching for countless reference images and coming across an article about the COVID uptick of dogs on the subway. The aura behind the meditator required masking, gradients and fiddling with opacity to get it right.

Lastly, I worked on the subway car windows and the elements outside the car. Between Illustrator and Photoshop, I created a gleam as a window effect. I found a photograph of a flying pigeon as a reference and used NYC skyline images to help generate the buildings in the distance. To the right, I added a blue gradient for the copy and fussed with text to have it fit nicely.

The Marketing Team came up with the catch phrase “ELEVATE YOUR EVERYDAY.” We tried a few fonts before landing on the sharp and clean Futura bold with a drop shadow to finalize the poster.

The platform poster was a good deal quicker as it consisted of one character, reuse of the aura and relatively minor digital editing of the background. However, I consider it a boring poster that does not reflect the nuances of New York City.

As much as I enjoy the final in-car image, my takeaway regarding Adobe Firefly is that it’s useful for quick brainstorming and quick graphics for social media and email announcements. However, for a high-quality print image, Firefly generated images require a great deal of planning and painstaking digital retouching. Also, I did not mention the many many images generated before getting the ones that I could work with.

As the School for Practical Philosophy & Meditation prepares for the fall registration, I again worked with creative director Jaime Sears and digital consultant Adam Wasserman to create the new advertisement campaign. We began by considering current events and New York City realities – the protests due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas War, upcoming national elections, heightened political tensions, rising rents… And yet New Yorkers are incredibly resilient. Tourism appears to be thriving. Based on the heavy daily traffic, it appears that the city is hard at work. New building projects are everywhere and there isn’t enough housing. New immigrants are increasingly integrated into the city life… We sought to create an advertising campaign that captured the ongoing unrest while also celebrating the resilience of New Yorkers and adjacent to it all, the peace that one may achieve through philosophy and meditation.

I created a few new illustrated characters in meditation, two were selected. I scoured the web for New York City silouette landscapes and combined and reworked vector files to generate a city background. I also reworked silouettes of people protesting. I created two variations of this scene, one with characters that I had created and another only with silouettes. For the platform poster, I used a graphic AI to generate images of NYC residents protesting. It took many prompts to have an image generated that I wanted to work with. I vectorized the image, reworked it and then superimposed one of the meditating characters along with the text theme we landed upon: “PEACE BEGINS WITH YOU.” And the copy begins with the question “Struggling to find your place in a chaotic world?” The greater space of the platform poster permitted us to broaden the copy with a few of the outcomes from the introductory course “Philosophy Works”: learn timeless wisdom, focus, happiness and inner-strength.

The winter MTA subway campaign’s in-car poster remained consistent with the fall design. However, the characters were given winter coats, beanies, the LGBTQ revelers became New Year 2024 revelers. The two men arguing along the bottom left were given NY sports team colored beanies. The mom and daughter to the right are making a snowman instead of tending to a garden. The bike deliver person has been given a winter coat, gloves, helmet and food delivery backpack. If one zooms into the helmet, it is decorated by WAK – WAK is the pronunciation for the Mayan hieroglyphic representing the number six. Places labeled six are cosmic realms in Mayan writing. As an ear decoration, this rendition of WAK wears a smart phone.

For the subway platforms, the creative director, Jaime Sears requested a new design. She envisioned a woman against skyscrapers, at ease as if meditating amidst the magnitude and intensity of New York City. Following her concept, I created a series of glass towers from the street perspective and placed a young woman with her eyes closed at the center, the towers rising all around her.

Lastly, I was asked to create a design for the Wallkill postcard. The budget was small and I was asked to work with existing assets, so I created a new setting and recycled the NYC characters. Linda Engler, a longtime member of the School who lives near the Hamlet of Wallkill where the School has an estate took photographs of New Paltz Main Street. Linda took the photographs to provide me with source material for the postcard. I used a photograph of the Indigo Velvet and Rock Candy Vintage building to help illustrate a New York town setting. I maintained the concept of an individual in meditation as the central element while other characters go about their lives. Hopefully, the postcard will visually engage viewers and draw them into learning about the School of Practical Philosophy and Meditation.

“The School of Practical Philosophy & Meditation offers a journey of self-discovery that guides students toward understanding their innate wisdom and appreciation of the underlying unity connecting us all. Philosophy Works, the introductory ten-week course, prepares students for mantra-based meditation, an offering upon completion.”

THE CHALLENGE
In-person enrollment has been dropping for the last two years. The brand identity has gone through many iterations. We need a campaign that will once again establish the School as the NY community hub for Practical Philosophy.

THE GOAL
To reach our audience more efficiently, speak to their pain point and engage them with the benefits of PHILOSOPHY WORKS. We expect to increase our in-person Philosophy Works classes on the Upper East Side and Tribeca.

MY DESIGN APPROACH
When on the subway, I seek out the illustrations commissioned by the MTA and I tend to lose myself in the stories that the illustrators create. I do not seek out advertisements. (Of course, I don’t need to as they can’t be missed.) Generally, the advertisements are not engaging. My approach to this project is to be a visual artist and storyteller, not an advertiser. My goal is to create an in-car advertisement that people may lose themselves in through illustrated New Yorkers and the possible interactions and activities of these characters. The School’s Creative Director, Jaime Sears felt that the advertisement needed to speak to the difficulties and uncertainties (“pain point”) commonly experienced by New Yorkers at this time. Ideally, the scenarios in the illustration will be familiar to most New Yorkers.

With these concepts in mind, I rode the subway and traversed the city. I photographed fellow commuters and eavesdropped on their conversations, observed their interactions. Specific individuals and life moments are represented in the final illustration. The majority of the characters in the final composition are real New Yorkers – commuters, pedestrians, recyclers, and even our infamous subway rats…

THE CAMPAIGN
As meditation is a key element of the School and a practice known to calm people, I elected to have meditation be the central element to the design. Without the funds for a photo shoot, I searched online for people meditating. I found an attractive young woman sitting on the floor with her hands’ index finger and thumb touching. At the School, people generally meditate in a chair, however, design-wise, I felt that the chair would take up too much horizontal space, so I purchased the rights to the photo of the woman on the floor in a criss-cross applesauce pose and changed the hand pose. I based the central illustration on this photograph. I also wanted to make the name of the School central, so I placed the School’s name on her t-shirt at the very center of the design.

I surrounded the meditating woman with vignettes of everyday life from subway to street. Moving from left to right: subway musicians, a Hasidic commuter studying, a young woman with her earbuds in place, a businesswoman busily texting, two men in conflict, an MTA maintenance worker sweeping as he watches a business dandy toss his coffee cup on the platform floor with a trash can nearby… At the center, a woman meditating with a fiery aura outlining her figure. Then to the street (right side of the design) – a young female pedestrain wearing a surgical mask, PRIDE revelers enjoying life, an older man observing the street scene from his window, a mother and daughter gardening, a food delivery guy on his bike, and people recycling. A few of these illustrations, I had already created for past projects. The subway musicians and female subway rider I rotoscoped long ago for a series of animations reflecting New York City life. The rat and delivery guy are from a 2D video game and installation, una geografia de ser. Recycling past illustrations was necessary as the turn around on this project was very tight. However, the rest of the work is new.

I created a version of the graphic illustration with thought bubbles or spoken text for the various characters, but the School preferred that viewers interpret the illustration for themselves. Throughout the illustrations, I attempted to represent points of conflict that are common to the density of New York City.

The platform poster is much simpler and hopefully striking. It merely presents a woman meditating. Since people are on the platform for a shorter span of time, waiting to get on a train or exiting the station, I wanted to create a graphic that would immediately speak to the commuter.

Here are images posted in the subway cars and in the platforms:

Custom t-shirts are more than just an excellent way to express yourself, they’re also incredible ways to get your artwork in the public space. Whichever you’re placing a custom order for, it’s important that your art or design comes out the way you want it to.

There’s nothing worse than seeing your work of art fail to translate to what you had in mind, which is where following this guide can help. Here’s how to get the best screen printing results from your art submission on sites like The TeeHive or Threadbird.

Using Vector

Vector based images and screen printing are a match made in t-shirt heaven. These files can be resized at any scale without losing an ounce of detail thanks to the mathematical equations surrounding their magnitude and direction. Even better, these images use both lines and curves.

When it comes to color assignment, vector is superbly clean. All you’ll need to create a vector image is a program like Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, or Inkscape.

Using Raster

Unlike vector images, raster uses pixels instead of lines. This makes using the correct DPI crucial from the get go, but it translates wonderfully to screen printing when done correctly. For reference, a web image looks stellar at 72 DPI while screen printing requires at least 300 to look decent.

While you might not be able to scale up with a raster image, you can create images at the same size they would be on the t-shirt. This gives you the ability to pay close attention to small details, which also helps in translation. Programs like Photoshop and Gimp utilize these types of images.

Screen Printing 101

The true secret to achieving a fine quality print is using highly defined artwork. That can be easier said than done, as many people find themselves with excellent art that simply isn’t ideal for screen printing.

Often times, individuals opt to do a test print first to make sure their design will translate like they want it to. While it’s always a good idea to test out a company’s quality first, test prints are often made using a different technique. Most of the time, companies will use a digital print or direct to garment printing.

The best way to make sure your art will look fantastic after the printing process is done is to contact the company you plan to work with. It isn’t uncommon for their artists to be able to recreate your image in a more screen print-friendly version. Always double-check to see if that comes with an extra cost, though.

Tips and Tricks

When uploading files to print, make sure they were created in the proper format beforehand. Simple saving something as a .pdf or .eps isn’t going to cut it when it comes to the quality you’re looking for.

Avoid using:

• .jpg
• .png
• Photographs
• Sketches
• Or anything with a low resolution

If you are dealing with hard copies of your artwork, it’s best to email the company you’re considering working with. Most have designers on hand that can work with you to ensure your work of art translates properly to the screen printing process. If you happen to live close by, it never hurts to drop in for an in-person chat.

Getting the Color Right

If your design is pre-made and ready to go, then all you’ll need to do is pick the color garment you think it would look best on. Try out different option to see what you like the most, and don’t be afraid to use multiple colored clothing items.

When designing from scratch, you have more ground work to do but a lot more room to play with. Simulate both ink and garment color combination by creating mock-ups first so your can proof the results before placing an order.

Most printing services use Pantone colors, but it’s important to keep in mind that the colors you’ve used in your vector or raster piece might become slightly off during the printing process. This happens because computer monitors vary widely in color, brightness and contrast.

What you see on your monitor might not be the same the printer sees on their screen. If you own a Pantone Solid Coated Formula Guide, then making a note of which shade you intended to use will solve this problem. If not, the printer will choose the closest available Pantone based on what they see.

Nailing the Best Prints

Getting the best screen print results for your artwork takes some time and dedication, but the above advice will help your work translate the best it possibly can. You’ll have a slew of awesome t-shirts ready to go before you know it!

This articles has been written by Ashley Lipman

I’m ordering this t-shirt for myself.

So I export a lot of my illustrations or frames from my animations to images that can be printed onto various products from t-shirts to coffee mugs to stickers and I post them to RedBubble or Society6 or TeePublic. This design I really like and I partly do this because I want to wear some of the stuff that I draw, and this is such a case.

This past fall, I entered in to a conversation with a man named Jerry who sat near me on a downtown Brooklyn bench. Jerry was very interested in what I do for a living and asked me to teach him any skills I may have. I told him that I’d be happy to, gave him my card, but told him that he’d have to show up sober. I haven’t heard back from Jerry yet. Some weeks later, I photographed people recycling in the Lower East Side during an afternoon walk about a week before Christmas 2015. There was no particular reason to take the photo other than I liked the composition. Here is the photograph as an animated illustration and a small portion of Jerry talking about the social contract in U.S. culture… According to Jerry, we all play a role in the project that is this country and he wants to play a larger role.

I have been working on a series of portrait illustrations of individuals that I consider akin to dictators over the past year. The series is titled “Drunk with Power”. The intention of the illustrations is to make them into animations which is happening very slowly. Occasionally, I’ll make a quick animation, such as the one above. There is also a web version of this animation that uses code for the background rather than triangles colored using markers: http://rmz.nyc/mugabe.html

I’ve been following closely the dispute between Russia and the Ukraine regarding Crimea. At first, it seemed to be no more than a power grab by Russia for all sorts of reasons from capitalist power to cultural identity to saving face from a post cold-war reality. I’m not sure that this is not all true from the perspective of Russia, however, from the view of those who dissented and revolted against the Ukraine, it seems even more complex. Without living the reality, who knows, however from a distant observation, I couldn’t help, but create the GIF below.

Putin’s Twitch

There’s more to come soon!

Putin T-Shirt

I’ve added new art work to my Society6 site. Now you can get vector illustrated portraits of Putin and Stalin on everything from t-shirts to tote bags to coffee mugs to clocks and more…

Stalin Tote Bag