manly designs

Recently I was asked to create a logo/t-shirt design for the men’s group at my church. It’s always a challenge when I have to put on my “masculine” lens and try to design something that will appeal to men. My husband is a great help. He is soooo picky! If he likes it, then most men will. On the flip side, the men’s group at my church is not too picky and usually like the designs I give them. This time, the t-shirt went through a few revisions.

For my first pass, I found some vector clip art that I was able to pull elements from and combine for a unique design. (I would love to say that I created this all from scratch, but with the reality of caring for 3 little kids I use all the shortcuts I can get.) I also referred to C28 shirt designs for reference. I wanted to use the “grunge” style that is so popular right now. This is what I came up with:

At first, the feedback was great. They loved it. Shortly after, they asked for thorns instead of “grass.” That makes perfect sense – it’s more manly and reflects the crown of thorns that Christ wore. I’m a bit embarrassed to share this, but I found a clip art of roses with thorns to replace the grass. It was a lazy solution, but, hey, I’ve got enough to do already! This was the next draft:

You can guess what the feedback was at this point: it looked too much like branches from a rose bush. I needed to make the thorns bigger, like they really hurt. There was no point in delaying the inevitable. The shirts needed to be ordered ASAP, so I stayed up one night and pulled the points of each thorn, editing curves in Adobe Illustrator. I altered the artwork until it was truly my own. This is the final result:

A lesson learned once again – when I am flexible and allow myself to be shaped, the result is much better than I could have come up with on my own. I started with cloudy vision for this project, but with input from others, it turned out to be just right. It’s the same in my life. I need to be in community with others. And I especially need to let the Lord speak to my heart so the fruit of my life turns out better than I could have made it on my own. That takes vulnerability and flexibility. Sometimes I’m embarrassed and sometimes it hurts. But it is always better!

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17

Thank you, Lord, for always teaching me. Thank you for caring enough about me to speak to me when I need to hear You. Thank you for people who influence me for good, for Your glory. Make my heart soft so You can use me.