This was such a fun one! Although not a native Memphian, I am a proud one (#memphiscoloringbook) and was so happy to first work with Memphis’ own Victory Bike Shop to get a new commuter bike (which i absolutely love riding on mud island), and then to design this shirt! I met Clark when my mom and I went into Victory and we started chatting about his vision for a “Chewbacca riding a bike” shirt.
Sometimes I kick around a custom job for a while before getting started, but this one sounded weird and fun and different and i was stoked to get going. Hilariously, Clark and I had pretty vastly different visions for what the shirt would be.
This was my first design:
He responded by saying “What about something more like this?”
After recovering from my immediate artist-reaction of “HOW DAAARE YOU”, i started to realize a more aggressive chewbacca could actually be pretty rad….and way more in line with the Victory brand. I usually want to have as much creative liberty as possible, but can now freely admit that Clark’s input definitely made for a more badass final image than I would have come up with on my own.
Clark sent in three inspiration photos which were super helpful in understanding the victory bike kit, the stance of the rider, and the specific bike (a Pinarello) that he wanted to mimic
This was my next progress photo, which is hilariously far from my original:
To which Clark was THRILLED. In his words “So rad! So f’n rad!!!” (sort of a dream reaction)
After a few more small tweaks, this is the final image:
Which is now on these badass t-shirts at Victory! (available here)
