My role at Greensource Apparel

As a Production Artist of a smaller team, I experienced a variety of roles and responsibilities. Greensource Apparel fills orders for large retailers like Walmart, Kohl's, and Sam's Club. They work with a number of freelancers to produce new designs based on trends, previous sales, or researched ideas. I also contributed new designs by creating original illustrations as well as applying stock vectors. This company had a fast-paced environment, requiring me to complete designs quickly in addition to fulfilling other Production Artist duties. New shirts are created from a screenshot idea, a phrase, or a new version of an old but popular design chosen by one of the art directors. My central role consisted of creating new artwork, catalogs, presentations and formatted placement for each design and program grouping to be presented to the buyer. After the buyers make their selection, a file is created for every detail of the garment. This included the design sizing, special placement, pantone colors, back neck stamps, hang tags, and more. Keeping all these files correctly organized on the public drive was a constant priority to produce quick revisions possible. Speed coupled with accuracy was always a priority.

US State shirts were one of our biggest ongoing projects. Once a state design was approved, this would then be expanded into the other requested states. The company always pitched state programs using Arkansas as an example and then expand into approximately 38 different state versions. Many of the garments Greensource sells have tags on them with an image of someone wearing the product. I was the model for many of the men's garment tags that included an image of the garment being worn. My input throughout this step would be considered for fitting alterations as a result.

The gallery below shows examples of shirts I designed. It displays options that were bought by a retailer, pitched but not chosen, and some determined to be too "fashion-forward" for the client. The majority of new shirt art is created with specific buyers in mind. The combination of family-friendly, seasonal and social media categories kept the work fresh. Some days would be dad jokes, while other days would be fresh, outdoor-themed shirts. I enjoyed the challenge in the variety of design responsibilities and diverse styles.