Chili Cook-off Shirt Design Entry (2024)

Adobe Illustrator

This was my entry for a competitive assignment: Design a shirt for the city of Russellville to use at their upcoming Chili Cook-Off/ Fall Festival at The Train Depot. It was a contest between the entire graphic design class of that semester.

I wanted the illustrated elements to reflect the event and the setting it was taking place in. The client, Russellville, wanted a "sage green" shirt, and only two colors of ink on top, so I was rather restricted in color choice. I decided to create the work in a triadic color scheme, the shirt, orange and purple. The event took place in autumn, so I toned the colors to reflect that. Illustrated is the statue, central to the Depot area, animated and holding a bow of chili, the subject of the client's competition. While the illustration is complex and eye-catching, if gracefully leads the eye to the bowl, and to the script. Instead of floating, I decided to put the script on a standing sign, commonly seen outside of small business. Oftentimes, anecdotally at least I've observed, these signs are chalkboards. I originally wanted to make a handwritten message, or even use a chalky script font, but it ended up being illegible, especially at the angle it's tilted. I decided to use a slab serif font with chalky graphical elements for legibility's sake, and to mimic the Depot/ Downtown area feel of Russellville, AR. The location isn't the most illustrious, especially compared to neighboring cities/towns, so it received the bottom of the text heirarchy. To top it all off, depth is achieved by having the composition explode and reach past the frame it's in. The Conductor statue is also wrapped around the sign.