Epcot Badge Shirt Design

This week's design is second in the series of shirt designs based off the 40th anniversary merchandise. Moving on from the Magic Kingdom shirt design, let's jump to the next park that was built, Epcot! Epcot has always had a special place in my heart. Nothing beats a day walking through the pavillions of world showcase or enjoying one of the seasonal festivals. There's plenty of space, a world of different cultures and flavors, super fun attractions (Soarin', Spaceship Earth), and - of course - Club Cool!

This badge design was placed on all sorts of merchandise for the 40th anniversary celebration last October, but I thought it needed special attention. I thought it looked drowned out by all the other retro logos, posters, and designs surrounding it. I found it really appealing; I loved how the Spaceship Earth sphere is depicted with World Showcase behind it. It gives that dynamic retro feel that I love! I made the design vector-based and added distressing.

Thanks for stopping by this week! There's more in the works for weeks to come. :)

Ink and Paint Shirt Design

As an art student, you're required to do exercises that help you develop skills for concepting and critical thinking. These exercises can easily become tedious, time-consuming, and sleep inducing. It's exercises like these where I find it necessary to give them more of a purpose. So when we had to do symbol concepting in my design and color class, I took the opportunity to spin the concepts into a Mouseology shirt design!

The exercise was to sketch 100 concepts of potential symbols that reflected your personality. Most of mine were Disney-themed (surprise), including this one, which I thought had the most potential. It features Mickey's hand (I'm a Disney nut) in a thumbs up pose (symbolizing how I'm optimistic), holding a paintbrush (I like to paint). Instead of simply turning in the concept sketches, I wanted to take it further and actually develop it in Illustrator, completely in vector form. Applying it onto a shirt gave it even more dimension. Seeing the finished product, it reminded me of something the Ink and Paint Department would wear, given how it's very "Disney" yet very artsy.

Although this design doesn't pertain directly to Walt Disney World, I promise the next one will! That does it for this weeks shirt design. Stop by next Friday for a new one!

Epcot Button Shirt Design

Hi everyone! This week's shirt design (yes, I'm going to try to post a new design every Friday) draws inspiration from an old Walt Disney World button:

This button is third in the series of pins passed out to cast members and Imagineers during the construction of EPCOT. The first was a purple button with the words: "We Can Do It!", the second was red with the text: "We Are Doing It!", and the third was worn on EPCOT's opening day, proudly exclaiming: "We Did It!".  I own the third one (a lucky find at an antique shop) and love great Disney history it stands for. These buttons were to excite and motivate the imagineers as they built one of the most revolutionary theme parks in history.

I wanted to re-create the design and apply it to a shirt. How cool would it be to see merchandise that was reminiscent of EPCOT's opening day? The design is completely vector-based and features the retro logos of both Walt Disney World and EPCOT. I added some distressing to finish it off; after all, the button's from 1982! In the end I like how it turned out!

That's it for this week. Stop by next Friday for an all-new shirt design, along with other creations that might be posted in the future!

Character Silhouette Shirt Design

This following shirt design was created last year for me to wear during my upcoming Walt Disney World trip. I wanted to make something that would unique to me and be fun to have the characters autograph!

  

I found pictures of all of my favorite characters from the classic films and traced their silhouette with the pen tool in Illustrator (it takes a lot longer than it sounds). Then I treated the silhouettes like puzzle pieces - arranging them and playing with their size to form the shape of Mickey's head. Finally, I cut the vector paths using a vinyl cutter at my school and applied the vinyl onto a shirt. Taking the shirt around the parks was definitely one of the highlights of that trip; watching all the characters react to the design and getting great responses from all the cast members was a blast!

It was a fun design to make and actually apply it onto a shirt! Can you name all the characters?

E-Ticket Shirt Design

Because I used the 1970s WDW ticket books as inspiration for the new layout, I thought it would be fun to make a quick shirt design based on the E-Ticket. The E-Ticket coupon could be used to experience  the Magic Kingdom's most popular attractions. Jungle Cruise, "it's a small world", 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Haunted Mansion, Hall of Presidents, and Country Bear Jamboree were considered "E-Ticket Attractions" back then.

The shirt design is simple and faithful to the original ticket books. It's re-designed into vectors so it could be applied on a wide range of mediums. The "E" is a royal purple color and the background is a light green like on the ticket. I added a distressed layer to give it the vintage feel.

Who knows? I might make this into an actual tee for me to wear on my next trip. I'm a sucker for the old imagery of the Magic Kingdom so it'd be nice to have a shirt celebrating it!

Magic Kingdom Badge Shirt Design

The 40th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom last October was an understated and nostalgic event. One of the big things the park had to offer on October 1st was the variety of limited edition 40th anniversary merchandise. Special pins, purses, shirts, journals, and just about anything else you can imagine could be sold to commemorate the occasion. One thing that really stood out to me was a series of retro-looking badge designs for each of the four parks. These graphics were combined with old park logos and photos to create a pattern that was applied on a variety of merchandise. I thought it would be fun to take a closer look at the Magic Kingdom emblem:

The fireworks and stylized rendering of the castle really capture the magic of the park in the 1970s. I re-designed the badge to make vector-based design, altered the colors and parts of the text, and added a distressed look to make it look good on a shirt.

Surely the Magic Kingdom will continue to be the capitol of vacations for another 40 years! Happy Anniversary, Magic Kingdom!

Retro Castle Shirt Design

Hey guys! Wow, time really flies when you're schedule's overloaded! Again, it seems like I've neglected to update with a new design in way too long. But I've found time to whip up a quick shirt design and start on some things that will be posted in the future!

This design is inspired by the old WDW ticket books from the 1970s. These ticket books (along with some other printed material) featured a fantastic castle illustration that's the epitome of early Disney World: classic, regal, and detailed. I took the castle image into Illustrator, where I made it into a vector-based design (a process that took a total of 2.5 hours). Adding the retro WDW logo makes this design simple and reminiscent of the good ol' days of Disney World.

Happy December!

Hi everyone!

So! It's been a while since I've had the chance to churn out some more Mouseology designs. School has been slamming me with homework leaving me with close to no free time. But with school coming to a close for Christmas break, I think I'll be getting more time on my hands.
Happy December! Can you believe that the big day is just 22 days away now?! Christmastime has always been my favorite time of year, so why not celebrate with a simple & festive shirt design?

277 individual snowflakes come together to make this snazzy not-so-hidden-Mickey shirt design. It started out as a minimalist poster for my intro to graphic design class so that it explains the simplicity. It'd be the perfect shirt to wear opening up presents on Christmas Day! 

Also, thank you so much to everyone who checks in. Last week, Mouseology hit 15,000 views! For as new as this blog is, it's great to see how many people visit. Thanks!

See you soon for more designs!

"Little Orange Nerd" Shirt Design

This next design is based on the Little Orange Bird - Walt Disney World's original mascot. Back in the 70s, Little Orange Bird could be found on signs and brochures, and even on some merchandise. This year, for Walt Disney World's 40th anniversary, this lost character was brought back to be featured on shirts and pins among other mediums. Lou Mongello (from WDW Radio) coined the term "Little Orange Nerd" describing those of us who love The Little Orange bird and the era he came from. I thought it'd be fun to create a shirt design for those "Little Orange Nerds" out there:

I re-designed the character to vector form and added gradients, highlights, and shadows to make it more dimensional. Then I worked on hand-rendering the title in the like of the font found on retro Little Orange Bird books. Finally, adding some glasses for a little fun.

I'm working on a few more shirt designs for the future, including one without any Disney copyrighted material, so it has the potential to be sold if there's enough interest. But for now, that's all! Stop by again soon.