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I helped judge a contest that was also the final project for an illustration class at one of the best public art schools in the US of A, Mass Art (Massachusetts College of Art.)

The teacher is a very good teacher and

good guy, Bob Maloney.

He has been teaching illustration for five years there and obviously does a good job.

The project was to design a t-shirt for a hot sauce company, Mad Dog.

Tonight we gave feedback to the students who had all done three preliminary designs, and we also picked one for them

to take to completion.

This art was better than 80% of the art we receive, even supposedly by “professional.”
What there was not:
- no full squares or rectangles of ink
- no circles or ovals of ink
- not one was too “inky”
- not one superfluous blend or fade
- not one design wrapped around the whole shirt or went over the shoulder
- not one was over five or six colors
- not one boring typeface
- no clip art

What there was:
- some nice hand done type
- classical references without being boring or pretentious
- bold illustration
- some whimsey
- great use of the t-shirt color within the design
- illustration that looks good from across the whole room, which is key on a t-shirt which is basically a moving palette
- designs that told a story
- designs that took risks with unusual color combinations

I hope that tomorrow, I don’t see a design that has three blends and wraps around the whole shirt.

I really am hoping for that.

Stay tuned for the w inner, to be picked

in two weeks.