Interview with the winner of Derby 27
AlvinPing is another old-timer -- here since the 2nd derby. This is his 2nd shirt and his first #1 win. Here's some more about him.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
#2 (Heat) / 4 / 2. My first Derby entry was for Derby #2. It featured a bundle of flames on the bottom left and smoke curling up on the top right. If I were to submit the design nowadays, it'd be rejected for transparencies! This will be my second printed shirt, the first being the Coupons slogan tee. Back in the Consumerism Derby, my first design didn't do as well as I would've liked, so I tested the waters with the Coupons shirt. Before I knew it, it rose to the Fog and eventually pulled third place. I was glad to see the previous, non-text entry for that derby make a return in The Big Do-Over.
What are you tools of choice?
Paper, pencil,
Photoshop. I'd love to get a
tablet and learn
Illustrator sometime soon.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
Typically, I'll brainstorm on paper and eventually sketch up a very rough concept or design. Any elements that need to be hand drawn will be sketched, cleaned up, scanned in, and cleaned up again. When using pre-existing elements, such as those incorporated into "What Dreams Are Made Of," the cleanup process quickly becomes very tedious as many of my sources are low resolution or otherwise unusable as-is. The elements I need for my designs are almost always part of a larger source image, and none are vector. After extracting the sections I need, I use various techniques to "match" the art in terms of crosshatch shading, light/dark separation, etc, and then bump them up to printable resolutions. Once everything is ready to go, I reference the earlier sketchup and put the elements in place. When doing abstracts, composition is absolutely crucial in the overall look of a design, so the positioning of objects can take me a few hours to get perfect. Even just a percent of scaling or few degrees of rotation can make all the difference. Next comes layering and color, the latter being quite difficult when working in Pantone colors (the cloud behind the fairy in What Dreams Are Made Of used to be a dark green, but had to be changed last minute due to potental visibility problems on the shirt itself).
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
Mainly B&W photography, manipulation in Photoshop (e.g. old photo restoration), and a little web design here and there.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
If I could make a comfortable living doing design full-time then yes, absolutely. Not quite sure what my dream job would be, however. Maybe to work in professional advertising campaigns, or something.
Any plans to sell your designs outside woot?
No plans as of yet. There are some incredible artists out there; it'll take me a lot more time to get to the artistic level of many of today's designers. Until then, I'll refine my techniques, submit to the Derby if a concept hits me, and see what comes.
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
Determination is imperative. If a design you've worked on for 8 hours straight only manages to collect a handful of votes, do not be discouraged. It takes time to find out what voters want, and being a regular submitter has its perks. Your name becomes recognizable, you get more feedback, and also a little well-deserved attention.
