Restore

Restore is the name of a youth group which is run by my good friends Lizz and Ism... and their 7 children... no for real... 7 children. I believe the Catholic Church has them up for review as being Saints... you don't have to be a martyr for that do you? Eep!

They asked me to design a tshirt for their group. Here's the problem, I am about as out of touch as you can be with today's youth... I was out of touch with the youth when I was 14. I didn't understand how they thought when I was one of them, so the idea of me designing a tshirt that they would actually wear?? They might as well have asked me to design pocket protectors for them... which actually wouldn't be a bad idea... who has designer pocket protectors? Nobody... but they will...

So yeah, my first reaction was to do research... but I quickly vetoed this idea when I considered the idea of sitting outside a high school with binoculars... the thought of prison does not amuse me. So I just looked up what youth are into online... which may or may not have me flagged by the FBI, we'll just have to wait and see.

Four things kept popping up:
- Video Games
- Sports/Xtreme Sports
- Rebellion
- iPods

So I just went with that. Though I fear using the PSP for the video game in my design may have been a poor choice, I'm pretty sure that system sucks. Well in any case, she seems amused. Rebellion was tricky too, the dork in me wanted to draw one of the kids as Luke Skywalker... if you don't get the reference... you probably didn't get beat up in High School. I decided to go with spray paint and emo cloths. The iPod girl looks artsy enough to use an iPod and the others I just winged it, bike, skateboard, basketball. Though I doubt kids wear helmets, that's such a mom thing. Let alone elbow pads. But I gave the little hipster sunglasses.

All in all it turned out pretty well I think, they were happy with it, the youth seemed happy enough with it and it got made into a t-shirt which I'm sure got worn to... do yard work or something...

My parents don't understand me,
~ Mark