How to Make it in America T-Shirt Contest

***Some How to Make it in America spoilers***

Since this week's blog post focuses on the designing of tee shirts for an HBO original series that some readers may not have seen, I am going to preface it with the show's synopsis. Synopsis from Wikipedia.

How to Make It in America follows two enterprising twenty-somethings hustling their way through New York City's fashion scene, determined to achieve their version of the American Dream. Trying to make a name for themselves in the city's competitive fashion scene, Ben Epstein and his friend and business partner Cam Calderon use their street knowledge and connections to make their way up. With the help of their well-connected friend Domingo and Cam's cousin Rene, who has ambitions of his own—a new energy drink called Rasta-Monsta—the burgeoning entrepreneurs set out to make it big.

By the end of the first season, Ben and Cam had decided that their clothing brand would be called Crisp NYC and had started making tee shirts.

The second season of How to Make it in America (HTMIIA) started on Oct. 2nd. Between the 1st and 2nd seasons a few months to a year past, Ben and Cam have gone to Japan to promote Crisp. On their way back to New York City they smuggled in a hundred or more blank shirts that they had purchased for cheap in Japan. 

The night the season premier ran HBO announced that a T-Shirt contest would be held to design the next Crisp NYC shirt. Fans could submit their designs to the HTMIIA Facebook page for two weeks and then voting on the designs would begin on Oct. 24th. 

"The Showdown" was what the voting process was called. Two shirt designs by random were put side-by-side and the voter choose which one they liked more.  After two weeks of voting, the top ten most voted for designs were put against each other in scaled down version of the "Showdown" to find the winner.

Five First Place Winners (Those ranked 2nd - 6th) received:

• How To Make It In America Season 1 on DVD and Blu-Ray
• A New York City Eats Its Young T-shirt
• A Wilfredo Gomez skateboard deck and hoodie
• A How to Make it in America Logo T-Shirt
• A How to Make it in America “It’s All About Respect” T-Shirt
• The How To Make It In America Mixtape (Volumes 1 & 2) on CD.

The Grand Prize winner received everything the First Place ones did and a $5000 check. The Grand Prize winner's shirt design also had the possibility of being made and sold by HBO.

After reading these rules on the HTMIIA Facebook page, I wanted to enter and win. The five thousand dollars would be nice, but I wanted to win for a different reason. Having a shirt with my design on it be made and sold to thousands of people is one dream I have. So I went to work brainstorming ideas.

Here is the first design I came up with. It is largely based on Season 2 Ep. 1. Half way through the episode, Ben started to freak out because he had smoked marijuana with one of their clothing brand rivals and thought he was too high.

Ben ends up running all over the city until a homeless guy tells Cam to have Ben put his head underwater for five seconds. They found a fountain and dunked their heads down together. Head dripping with water Cam exclaimed "This is what Crisp is all about, Loyalty. You think the Brooks Brothers had each others backs like this!?" 

I am not quite sure why, but there was a fake apple in my kitchen. So I took a few pictures of the apple under different lighting and then imported them into Photoshop. In the Summer of 2010, my family went to New York City for the PGA Open. I still had pictures from this trip on my computer so I chose the four best skyscraper pictures and imported those into Photoshop.

I then put the buildings inside the apple in a way that would make it look there were actually located there. The How to Make it props department has made shirts for the show with a Crisp NYC logo, so I modeled my own version after it.

The apple on the front has a few meanings. The obvious one being that the show is set in New York City which has held the nickname "The Big Apple" since the 1920's. Apples are crisp to the core, and Ben and Cam hope "the Big Apple" will become Crisp to the core. Crisp was made out of loyalty.  Lastly, Crisp hopes to become the fashion industry equivalent to Apple (iPhones, Macs, etc).

My second and favorite design was one that I had been considering making into a shirt over half a year ago. The base is a photograph of a NYC street that was vectorized (made into shapes).  I had always felt that the design was lacking something though.

HBO releases a mixtape made by Broke Mogul before the start of each season of How to Make it in America. Between the songs, there is either a sound clip from the show or one of the actors talking about the show.

When I heard Lake Bell say "The Hustle Never Ends" after Austere, I knew that it was the perfect saying for the shirt. A crowded NYC street, where the idea of the American Dream was born, behind the text was just the epitome of what I was going for. Ben and Cam work every day on those NYC streets trying to get their version of the American Dream.

The Crisp NYC shirts used in the show have a graphic and then below have the Crisp Logo. To make my shirts as authentic as possible, I placed my version of the logo below the crosswalk in the street. Then I used the HTMIIA title card text (how HBO prints the name anywhere) for the back.

I thought that a design that incorporated a map of New York City would look pretty cool. When brainstorming I had come up with the phrase "You gotta get down to go up" and I really liked it, but wasn't sure what graphic would go with it. I decided that close up of a skyscraper would work well with the saying and then I could overlay the map to combine the ideas.

The last design I came up with was a simple one. Just a large Crisp NYC logo on the front of a white and grey shirt. This shirt would be used for promotional purposes by Ben and Cam. 

I submitted all five of my designs on 10/22. I was able to vote on my designs when the "Showdown" began on 10/24, but by the next day all of my shirts had been deleted by HBO. No email or reason was given by HBO as to why my all of designs were deleted. 

I am going to make one of my shirts anyways. Which shirt do you like the most?

Streetlights

Just like The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (DSAT) this video is part of Good for Great (GFG). This video is set right before the DSAT; there is an additional transition between the videos, but I am saving that for the GFG release.

I have always enjoyed the night. After the sun sets, the outdoors have a different feel. There are bright lights and the rest is different shades of darkness; there is a greater contrast between everything. Unlike the day when things are clearly visible, at night you don't know what could be happening around you. The dark creates an air of mystery and freedom from judgement.

I have been an avid fan of Kanye West for a few years now and the song Streetlights from 808s & Heartbreak has been a favorite song of mine since it came out in 2008. The lyrics of the song fit the mood I was trying to create in GFG of a man who is on a journey and knows where he wants to go, but just isn't there yet. 

Streetlights' Chorus:

Seems like street lights glowing

Happen to be just like moments passing in front of me 

So I hopped in the cab and I paid my fare

See, I know my destination but I'm just not there 

The beat and sound of Streetlights fits the described ambiance created by the night. The song is just very emotional. It isn't lyric-filled though, its expresses its message by creating an overall feeling.

When I was working on Good for Great's woods stop motion sequence, I took pictures for so long that by the time I was walking to my car it was pitch black out. I was walking down a bike path and at the end of the path was a street lined with street lights.

When I saw the view created by the darkness, trees and lights (as in the above pictures), I immediately thought of Kanye's Streetlights. So I took some more pictures before my camera died and headed home.

I wasn't sure how I would make the rest of the Streetlights video. I thought of long exposure photos, but I wasn't sure if that fit the song. Up to this point in Good for Great production (it was late-March 2011) I had only been doing stop motion work; I had only been taking still pictures and then I would put them in order and time it to the beat of the song. 

It wasn't until mid-June that I returned to Streetlights. I had shot  Zombies 8 Feet Below (explanation to this video will come soon) and had begun to experiment with videography. At this point in Good for Great, the boy who was "Lost in the World" now knows where he wants to go. But he's just not there, so he begins to travel in hope that he will find his place.

The HBO series How to Make it in America uses a mix of still images and video in its episodes, which I really like. So I decided that I would use the same method in my videos. I began by taking more photos at night, this time focusing on entering my car and driving it.

Next I videotaped myself driving. Yes, I know highly dangerous. When I showed my family members this video the first thing they all had to say was "Were you driving the car as you used the camera ?!?!" 

Just playing the video of me driving would be rather boring. To fit the lyrics "Seems like streetlights happen to be just like moments passing in front of me", I sped up the film by 20x. I took the footage of me driving and I played it forwards & backwards and experimented with sounds.

Finally, I took pictures and videotaped the highway at night to provide the illusion that I was getting on the highway, which leads into the transition between Streetlights and The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.

Senior Powder Puff T-Shirts 2011

"If you are creative and would like to help with designing the powder puff t-shirt.  Please bring your design drawn out to Mrs. Kozar, Mrs. Bottini, or Lauren Fouts. 

The senior class t-shirts for the powder puff will be purple background with white writing (keep this color scheme in mind when making your design)."

After reading this email from my class advisor, I thought that I would give designing the shirts a shot. I knew the shirts should have a clever design and make clear that the senior class of 2012 dominates. I just wasn't sure of what this design should be though and what the witty saying should be on the shirt. 

So I started with the obvious, a football. I drew it with a sharpie and then scanned it in. I made 2012's instead of laces on the football. I had two ideas for sayings initially; "Straight up #Winning" which is a play of Charlie Sheen's tweets and "Bigger, Faster, Stronger" which is from Kanye's "Stronger".

After messing around here for a little, I came up with these designs:

I felt like these designs were rather bland though. In my opinion, the designs lacked character. So I went to work trying to come up with another shirt design. At our spirit assembly that happened on Friday, there was a chant that stood out to me. It was "This is Our House", which was yelled by the senior class.

At first, I was thinking maybe I should draw out a house with a sharpie marker, much in the same fashion as the football was. But I couldn't get past not using "#Winning" or "Bigger, Faster, Stronger", I felt that these were winning lines (pardon the pun).

Before I went to the Homecoming football game on Friday night, the idea came to me; I could use these lines and others to make the house. When I got home from the game, I went to work making the design.

None of the fonts that come pre-installed on my Mac or in Photoshop suited my fancy, so I went online and found a Marker font that I quite like. It provides that sketchy feel I wanted without my terrible handwriting.

The hardest part was coming up with more sayings. I have another Kanye related reference with "Watch the Throne Juniors", which is relating to 'Ye and Jay-Z's recent collaboration. The saying that people so far have had the most difficult time understanding is "Twenty One Two is gonna' own you"; Which should be read as "20 1 2 is gonna' own you".

One somewhat hidden aspect of my design is my placement of "#Winning". If you recall, I originally had it as "Straight Up #Winning" and now "#Winning" is oriented straight up and down.

Here is the design I made:

I was quite pleased with the design. I made the "Juniors vs. Seniors PowderPuff Game 2011" larger and more prominent after receiving some feedback. 

My mom thinks that this design is not feminine enough, so I made a second design. The second design is a play off of the "Life is Good" shirts and tweets.

I drew the lady football player and scanned it in. 

Then I edited it with Photoshop to add the football, text and proper coloring.

What do you think? Would you vote for either design? If so, which one?

If you would, there will be a quick vote after school on Friday Oct. 7th in Mrs. Kozar's room 265.

"If you are interested in purchasing a powder puff t-shirt, they will be available to the entire senior class.  Shirts will go on sale 10/10-10/17 for $15.  Please bring cash OR check made out to ALHS Student Council."