Mary's Angels T-Shirt Design
Mary's Angels T-Shirt Design
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Every year since my Aunt Mary beat cancer, my entire family heads out to Chicago for the Cancer Survivors’ Celebration Walk, hosted by The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. This year was extra special, as it marked my aunt’s tenth year being cancer-free!
To celebrate, a few of us decided to create a unique T-Shirt for our group to wear on the day of the walk. The theme was “Mary’s Angels”— the name we have always used when registering our group.
Ideation
Ideation
It all started with this tiny piece of paper (image right). My mother and two cousins did the initial brainstorm, resulting in the concepts scribbled onto this note, which was then handed to me.
The general idea was to have our name, “Mary’s Angels”, on the front of the Tee, with the names of those we were honoring/remembering on the back. There were also a few additional details, such as heart icons, a cardinal graphic, and whether or not our honorees were currently battling cancer.
Initial ideation note
Iteration
Iteration
After collecting inspiration, I started sketching out a few versions of the design. I knew I wanted to include an angel wing motif with the “Mary’s Angels” text, which would serve as the main logo. However, the remaining portion of the back graphic was more difficult to work out.
Our original design concept had a divide between those we were walking “in honor of” versus “in memory of”. After trying a few different designs, I decided to eliminate the text “in memory of”, opting to use a halo instead. This choice led to a much less cluttered design, while still communicating the same idea.
In addition to our honorees, I felt it important to include the title of the walk and the year— This way, anyone who ordered a shirt would have a souvenir to remember the event by.
Feedback
Feedback
Once I felt happy with the design and got good feedback from everyone involved, I cleaned up the sketches. You may have also noticed that we decided against including the cardinal from the initial brainstorm. Instead, we opted for cardinal pins that anyone could attach to their shirts, bags, hats, etc!
This new, more polished, version was then sent to my Aunt Mary for approval. She requested that we add in another name, but was extremely happy with how everything looked.
Final Design and Outcomes
Final Design and Outcomes
Below is the final design for the “Mary’s Angels” T-shirt project.
The first thing that jumps out at viewers is the set of large angel wings surrounding the logo. This simple element works to visually convey the support that this group has offered to my Aunt Mary throughout her journey with cancer. The wings are complimented by small four-point stars, which are used as an apostrophe, as well as to balance out some of the text.
I chose to use a variety of simple and elegant fonts, as I wanted to create a mature design that my aunt would be proud to wear. These fonts also match the angelic feeling suggested by the group name. All of these fonts are free for personal use, sourced from Dafont.com. Credits are as follows:
After finalizing the design, I created a few mockups and consulted others about T-shirt color (see above). We decided on a light blue, as we felt it would nicely compliment the purple that survivors are encouraged to wear. From there, my cousin shipped the PNG files off to a T-shirt manufacturer and ordered all the sizes we needed for our group.
The shirts came out perfect, and we were extremely happy to be walking once again with my dear Aunt Mary. It was amazing getting to see our large group in matching light blue Tees, and I am so grateful to have a physical memento of the day.
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