Branded T-shirt Illustration for Battersea Social Dance Group

Dancing flower t-shirt illustration for Battersea Social, a community dance social group in SW London area. The design has a full illustration of dancing flowers on the back with hand-drawn lettering of the group name, and the front lapel has a smaller treatment of the title with a cute small dancing flower icon.

The Brief: To create a unique and fun t-shirt design that embodied the chill, friendly spirit of Battersea Social, a community social dance group and meetup in London’s Battersea area.

Role: Illustrator and lettering artist responsible for concept, design, and implementation of all lettering and illustration and color palettes.

Tools Used: Procreate app, iPad Pro, Apple pencil, Photoshop and Illustrator

Battersea Social, a community dancing and social meetup that helps people learn to dance in an approachable and social way, wanted to team up with a local Battersea-area London illustrator to create a t-shirt design that embodied their chill ethos of “Make friends, dance and eat sandwiches.” Their meetups are very relaxed, friendly, and they wanted to steer away from the stale “spicy” imagery that is often paired with salsa and tango dancing lessons. They were drawn to some of the illustrations from my illustration portfolio of flower characters and wanted some dancing characters that were fun and in movement, so we decided to include flowers and feature playful characters in various dance poses.

After an initial consultation of the general relaxed, friendly vibe they were seeking, I got to work sketching out some ideas. I wanted to give a spectrum of illustration versions that featured more human-based characters to leaning entirely toward plant-based character illustrations. I also tried out various lettering styles and including some local landmarks, as well as a few different layouts with the typography. After the client selected a sketch direction they liked best, we combined a few elements from several sketches to build a new sketch with some new lettering styles to give some options with the layout we’d chosen.

When we reached the color stage, I selected a few palettes that were more relaxed, warm and friendly, similar to coffee-shop or wellness studio vibes that suited the social atmosphere they aimed for at their gatherings. They had also considered using the illustration just as an outline without or with limited colored fills, so I also experimented with mixing some areas with color fills and others as outlines for the final design. They loved the final designs, stating “We can’t decide which one is our favourite,” which is always a compliment to an artist! In the end, the client selected a nice warm color palette and full colored fills for a bright, vibrant, and playful design. This design will be made into t-shirts that will be worn by the organizers of the events, as well as offered for sale to attendees and fans.

For the initial sketching phase, I tried out a few variations on human vs. flower characters, and played with the placement of the typography and local landmarks.

After the client selected the sketches they liked the most, I tried out some different color palettes, as well as lettering styles and variations of full color and partial color mixed with outlines to see what suited them best.

After the client selected their color palette, I had some fun with related lapel designs for the front of the shirt, including a combo of just lettering ones, character-based ones, and one with just flower icons.

The final design for the back and front lapel of the t-shirt, featuring playful hand-illustrated flower characters, hand-drawn lettering, and a warm and inviting color palette.

The client was so happy with the final result, that they ended up making an alternate t-shirt design in a cropped shirt with the main lapel design on the back, and even created a tote bag too! I’m so pleased with how the illustration came out, and it was a true collaboration to create with my style, their key words and desired composition, and including playful dance moves too. These will be for sale soon, stayed tuned for the shop link in case you’d like to purchase one yourself!

The final main t-shirt design. The client liked the lapel design so much, they created a separate cropped t-shirt version with it on the back. Cute!

A bit of process, me modeling the final tshirt, and even a tote bag with the design. What a fun project!