2nd Departure: Double the Cross

(Double the Cut)

So, it's time for the next "variations" blog post! Someone pointed out that "deviations" is what they call things on deviantART, so I figured I'd call it something else...maybe.

Anyhow, as with the 1st of these, I will be going over designs that are derivatives built from the components of some of my other original designs. In this instance, it is the main components of the first two backstabber designs; the KA-Bar and the tanto. The origin of the following is exactly the same as the origin of the "Twins!" designs linked at the top of this paragraph. I was playing around with the solo KA-Bar design, and thought "Hm...This would probably work better if I put another one in there..." And, voilà! That was it. That's some exciting origin story, huh? I hope to give my future children origin stories about themselves that are just as exciting. Hahaha....

So, here they are! The KA-Bar Cross and Tanto Cross (Click image for full size)

Again, as with the "Beaut(y/ies)" designs, I chose to combine these to make the design possibilities cheaper to purchase. Initially, only the "edge out" versions existed, but as I played around with them, I realized that an "edge in" variation would look better if the design is flipped tips up, and thus I made and uploaded an "edge in" version for both of these.

And, actually, one of the reasons why I've delayed as much as I have with this blog post is because I've been fighting myself about several other two-blade design arrangements. Fighting, because part of me is lazy and doesn't want to do it, and because the other part of me is all like "Dude, it's too late. You already thought of them, you might as well arrange them and upload them to Spreadshirt!" But I decided to just make an addition to this post when I get around to that. It would take less than half an hour to work on the arrangement and so on, but I'm just not in the mood at this moment.

Also, I've yet to find any sort of caption to add to these. Like, putting "Twins!" at the bottom of the Beauties design just made sense. Here? I'm kind of drawing a blank. If you've got any suggestions, feel free to share. Just know I won't compensate you for it. Haha...

That's it for that one. By the way, that brand redesign that I had been blabbing about (WOW! That was all the way back in January? FML!) for a while got finalized and produced at last, a short time ago. Either I was going through some sort of creative block that just kept me from visualizing it, or I am undermining the genius of the idea and what the minimal amount of effort required was going to be, just to get close to visualizing such a nebulous concept. Either way, it doesn't matter anymore. It is done (For now. I am meaning to tweak some minor things.) and I can move on to visualizing and producing the next twenty concepts ricocheting around in my head. So, until the next time, I leave you. Carry on!

J, out...

1st Departure: Are Two Girls Better Than One?

(...many seem to think so)

But I'm not here to make a statement or to educate anyone on latent (??) sexual preferences (heh). This is about a deviation (sounds more fun than calling them "variations") born from another design, and the first of its kind.

This first one was born from a part of the Danger & Beauty design. One third of the design, to be exact. The following four deviations came from the "Beauty" design. Both the original one, and the negative space bikini one were used. They're no surprise, so I'll go ahead and show all four of these puppies, and then expound on how they came to be. I believe it will be easier that way...

(Click images for larger versions)

Unless you're half blind (or spatially challenged...), then you've probably noticed that the girl on the right of each of these pairs is simply a mirrored image of the one on the left. No voodoo magicks there...

The way that first pair (without the "Twins!" font) came about was from my messing around with combining designs to display as examples of what anyone browsing through my shop could arrange themselves, to put up in the shops "product examples" section. As I might have mentioned before, each part of my Danger & Beauty design is available to buy/use individually.

So what I did was take two and stick 'em on a shirt, then I horizontally flipped the one on the right and voilà! There it was! But...I noticed that the price on the product with two designs on it was too high for my linking, so in the spirit of keeping the cost down as much as possible for any possible customers who might like that arrangement, I went back into Illustrator, replicated what I had done in Spreadshirt with both the bikini and bikini-less designs, and uploaded each back into Spreadshirt as two color, single designs!

Next, during another session of messing around with the Spreadshirt product designer, I added "Twins!" underneath  the girls and placed it on a t-shirt to display on the product example window. As any of you who've gone and at least messed around on Spreadshirt know, adding font adds to the cost. Things remained that way for a while after...

Fast forward to this post, and while simultaneously messing around with my designer shop and writing the blog, finding the whole "Twins!" thing funny enough to keep around, it came to me that I should probably unify the two girl design with the text myself, and upload it all as a three color design (meaning anyone can change the color on either of the girls and the text independent to any of the other elements), thus what you see just above. Hm...

(stepped away and wrote down a bunch of new ideas)

Anywho, that's about it for how those designs came to be. There is no philosophy that fueled these designs, or any crazy revelations received while hanging out in a cave, simply opportunity, and my aim to keep my designs affordable. You can find these designs under "Twins!" and "Beauties", "Alpha" for the the ones with bikinis and "Beta" for the bikini-less. I'll have posts on other deviations coming soon. Stand by.

J, out...