For the blog this month, Jason and I sat down to discuss what goes on behind the scenes in the design process at RokFit, Inc.
Grammar police: with the Q&A format we’ve decided to keep the answers flowing in a conversational tone as opposed to editing them to be grammatically correct. Yes, these are transcriptions from talking. Yes, there are swear words. Yes, we are okay with that. We are enlightened.
Design: FULL DEPTH
Where did the inspiration for this design come from?
I’ve always been into nautical art, especially since being involved in the tattoo industry. The octopus has always been a fav of mine, I mean, I even have one tattooed on my leg. In January of this year, I got to thinking one day, we need an octopus on one of our shirts, while probably gazing into space with my leg propped up (that has the octopus tattoo) and in the foreground. Then immediately starting working on ideas.
Do you have a design process that you follow for each design?
I do not have a specific design process that I follow for each design. Every design process comes differently, as do our designs, each is its own in many different ways. This specific design called for a hand sketch to get what I needed to see down on paper. After a quick sketch, I went back over it with solid / thicker lines to pin point the areas I’d like to stay, with the shape and overall feel of the design. After that, comes the tracing paper, to get new clean bold lines for the art. Once the final line work is complete with ink pen, I scan it in and tweak it digitally to clean up all lines. Then finally, make it screen print ready. Then, I send to my business partner ‘The other Jason’ here at RokFit, to check it out. This is where the thing can become real or not with a reaction to move forward. Whether it’s a ‘you’re crazy what is this’ response, or, ‘that’s fuckin bad ass let’s move forward it’. Luckily the latter response is what I got for this one! Onward with the design!
What makes a good design and what makes a not-so-good design?
This is a very tough question. You can get in to a lot discussion as to what makes a good design, each designer will think differently on almost any design, as to whether it’s perfect or not. But that is what makes this process cool, and our designs unique. You, as a customer get what we think is a good design, which makes it our style. What we look for in good design for our style, is readability, composition, layout, color schemes, and of course, RokFit awesomeness approved! This has gotta be bad ass and something you’d want to wear. I always look at our designs as if I would want to wear it at any point, at the gym or out and about. Something I personally get pumped about getting this thing on a shirt and wear immediately. Because that’s what it’s about too, I love what I’m doing, and I should love to wear what I’m producing. Then, hoping you share the love of the art with me.
How long does a typical design take from start to finish?
This varies from design to design. But typically, as long as things are going right with my concepts, maybe around a week. Well that’s about what this one took. I started with the sketch and concept, then went through all the steps, tweaking, trying out color choices, etc. That’s about a week, and boom, we have a new design!
What do you want people to think when they see the Full Depth design?
Of course I would love people to think what think when I see this design, is ‘wow, that’s sick and I gotta wear it’. Though, I’m also looking for a shock factor too, something that if you’re scrolling down our line, or see this on facebook, it makes you stop, double take it, and take a minute to look at it. With a unique style, and color, as something you haven't seen before, makes you want it, and want to be a part of RokFit represents as a brand. That’s what it’s about too. Not only reppin’ a cool design, but reppin’ a brand / company that you support. Whether it’s because you like our designs, you like what we stand for, you want to make a statement, or you just simply like comfy shirts, because we take pride to print high quality design work, on high quality shirts. This is huge for us to make sure both, are top notch.
And that sums it up. Super regimented and methodical, right?
Thank you for spending some time with us, and happy training.
-Jason Boag (the other Jason)
Here is a link to the final product
