Hack Memphis 2016

HACKmemphis is is a yearly hackathon sponsored mainly by the Memphis Technology Foundation. The event encourages developers, designers, and makers from all around the city to come together for a three day weekend of collaboration.

Each year the organization reaches out to a different local artist to design an event shirt that embodies the spirit of the event.

Isometric Illustration

For the 2016 shirt I decided on a deconstruction of the H logo with each of the ascenders of the letter representing a different aspect of the event. Ideas represented include layers reminiscent of 3D printing, blueprints for physical construction, a section dissolving into pixels to represent digital aspects, and an x-rayed section showing design insight.

Not only did the design represent constructed elements, but it was also built this way in Adobe Illustrator. The entire form was built in grayscale from groups of three-side cubes, and was later simplified. This allowed me to do many iterations of a complex geometric shape by deleting boxes and already having constructed what would appear behind them. A longer timelapse of the process can be found on Vimeo.

The original design was constructed in grayscale tones and converted to color after the original concept was approved. The only stipulations were that the preference for the shirt was a dark color, and that the budget was for a two color print. Shirt and ink colors were limited to what was available on CustomInk.

Halftones for Two Color Screenprinting

Because the inlay needed to be a different color than the body of the H this left one color to be used for all sides of the cube.

Converting the shades to halftone and allowing the darker color of the shirt to show through. This worked well as I was able to match the angle of the halftones to the planes of the cube to emphasize the volumetric illustration.