la bonne cuisine

ever since sumer 2006, i've been asked to create the graphic design for our community choir's summer chorus. each year the songs fall under a theme. this year's theme is "la bonne cuisine," and all of the songs are about, you guessed it, food. it took me a while to come up with this design but i finally got something i like. this design will be used on t-shirts, posters, the program cover and in the cd jewel-case.

program used: adobe illustrator cs3
resources: microsoft clipart collection (office online)
procedure: decide on shirt color (dark green because i have to appeal to men as well), then grab a bunch of clip art. import the art into illustrator. mix and match the art, editing the colors (no more than 4 colors for a t-shirt) and flipping the shapes around, rearranging them, re-drawing some parts, deleting other parts.

i've always felt a little funny using clipart -- i mean, i am supposed to be creating my own drawings, right? but then i realize that i in this case, i am a designer, not an artist. a designer takes resources that others have created and puts them together into an attractive presentation. that happens all the time in book world, for example. most books have both a cover artist and a designer. plus, i heavily edit the clipart i use, so i've made it my own. Clipart rules!!!