This project was initially proposed as a need for a T-Shirt illustration that related to a song called "Blood Money," which was about the medical industry in the US and how people are extorted for ridiculous amounts of money.
I treated this like an editorial illustration to help drive a clear idea for a band with a very blunt, political message. They aren't very vague and loose with their ideas, so I thought the presentation of their imagery shouldn't be either.
Because of the fact that this was initially designed for a t-shirt to be produced on a budget with no more than 2 colors, I limited the colors to black and a blue/green similar to what is seen around hospitals on scrubs but with the saturation dialed up. I actually really like this color because it is sort of ugly and revolting in a way, which makes me wonder why it used in medical environments since it is sickness inducing. That's what made this color a good fit for the message of the song.
Because of the fact that this was initially designed for a t-shirt to be produced on a budget with no more than 2 colors, I limited the colors to black and a blue/green similar to what is seen around hospitals on scrubs but with the saturation dialed up. I actually really like this color because it is sort of ugly and revolting in a way, which makes me wonder why it used in medical environments since it is sickness inducing. That's what made this color a good fit for the message of the song.
The one thing I did want to avoid was using red or blood spatter. Firstly, it's a little obvious, and secondly, it is extremely overdone with punk band t-shirts.
Aside from a limited color palette, the other limitation of screenprinting with only 2 screens is the lack of mid-tone options. I was not in control of the screen printing process either, so I wanted to be sure that the agency that would be printing the shirts would have no issues with their output and process, so I reduced mid-tone values to ben day dot patterns, keeping the dots large enough even for screens with a low lines-per-inch number. I wanted to be sure that the mid tones wouldn't be reduced to a muddy mess and maintained their separations.
I altered their logo "Evacuate" to fit the shape of the illustration up top and created some hand drawn type for the song/album title at the bottom.
The band ended up wanting to use this as their album cover as well, so I re-oriented the layout with the type into a more square format.
Disclaimer: There are minor variances between my design here and the one the band actually created with their layout designer. The LP cover has an outline border around the design and doesn't have a blue/green spine. Also, the colors of vinyl they went with were an "aqua" blue, a white/black marble and black as opposed to the blue/green I'm showing.
