I have to say that this shirt could look a lot better than it does now. It LOOKS like it was thrown together with Microsoft word, and not very professional as a result. It's cool if you don't have the bucks to have this professionally designed - I understand completely - but maybe I can make you aware of a few finer points of design work.
1. Don't use more than 2 different fonts for the copy. Any more than that and it's a dead giveaway that a font-happy rookie created it.
2. Keep overall geometry in mind. There should be a nice flow of content that the satisfies the eye and has a conclusive end. A
continuity is essential. Designs that have the viewers eye skipping all over the shirt to make sense of it, loose the whole point of the advertising in the first place. People will not work hard to "get" the message.
3. Keep in mind competition. Not the competition from other companies, the competition of each graphic element in the design. In this case, the speaker completely dominates the design and it is depicted realistically, while the guitar player is depicted in cartoon form. Not a bad thing for seperate graphics but the way they are now they just look too "pasted up". A better option would be to position the guitar player standing on the speaker itself, and use that as ONE graphic element.
4. Last thing to consider is simplicity. Many times a simple graphic with the less text the better. For example, get rid of the guitar player completely, and replace it with a pickup skewed on an angle and on top of the speaker. Then reduce the transparency of both, maybe run them through a Photoshop filter to "roughen" them up, then place the text boldly over the top. Simple but professional.
Just so you know - I do this for a living. My main job is commercial illustration, but I often do straight design work as well. Past clients include Larry Dahlberg's "The HUNT for BIG FISH" television show (I created the logo, T-shirt designs, and DVD packaging graphics -
www.huntforbigfish.com), Snoloha apparel company (I create the lion's share of their T-shirts designs -
www.snoloha.com) various work for BAE systems (catalog illustrations, photorealistic vector illustrations, web illustrations, etc. -
www.armorholdings.com) to name a few.
I just wanted to mention my credentials so you know I am not talking out my ass...
Oh, and by the way - I WILL WORK FOR TRADE!!! Yep, that's right. Should you need any assistance I can save you a lot of money, while delivering corporate level quality graphics. Basically I do the work for you at a very competitive rate, while you "Pay" me in trade for your products at full pop retail. Try and find a graphic designer that'll do that!!!
Anyway, if you are interested, send me a pm with your email address, and I'll send you my complete portfolio with work samples included.
Hope this helps you!
L
