For the last three years our friends Brian and Johnny have hosted a Dodgeball tournament for local youth groups. This year we teamed up with Fredy (one of our alums-turned-intern-extraordinaire-who-is-waaaaaaay-better-at-Adobe-Illustrator-than-we’ll-ever-be) sponsored the event by helping provide custom illustrations and tees for each team. It was hype.
Fredy is one of the most talented illustrators around…and he’s an all around good dude. If you aren’t familiar with his work under the moniker of Sugar Coated take a break from from reading and go check out his eye candy. DO IT NOOOOWWWW!!!
Fredy’s process is pretty straightforward. Once he gets the basic forms nailed down on pencil and paper he scans it into his computer and gets wild with Adobe Illustrator.
If you’ve ever gotten down with the pen tool then you know how time-sucking it can be. I have massive respect for Fredy and the level of detail he puts into his illustrations. That takes a massive level commitment. Even wilder? He does it all on the trackpad! THE FREAKIN’ TRACKPAD!!!
Hours later (and lots and lots and lots of pen-tooling) the final emerges and is exported into Photoshop where half-tone shades are dropped in to add a little tonal variety. All this for a t-shirt…well, not just a t-shirt.
Let me explain – events like Crosstown Dodgeball Throwdown are brilliant. They take the time, effort, and coordination of adults, mentors, students, and organizations to pull of. When done well – it’s magic! Example: this year’s event. The whole environment was electric. Super positive; not a harsh vibe in the building (well, except after the occasional facial). I can’t help but think if more things like this existed the world would be a better place. I have so much respect for Brian, Johnny, Dave, Alex, Nate, and their volunteer teams. MASSIVE THANK YOU for taking time out of your week to work with students and make their worlds (and ours) better. This kind of youth culture is a good thing.
In closing, here are some shots of the tee’s and teams. We had a blast being part of this event and we can’t wait until next year!
