Obama logo and U.S. Soldier

I finished up one of two drafts of “DEAD” by adding grunge style in the design. The description for the product is that “DEAD” with a cross hair on Osama Bin Laden and the sea background as he was buried at sea, and the American flag on the top of “DEAD” with the slogan of “Mission Accomplished. May 1, 2011.” The final product is here.

The other “DEAD” is still ongoing. I just added some shark pictures with the mouth open and tried some layouts to see how they look with the sea background. I will draw sharks with Illustrator later.

As I got an idea and sketched it last week, I put the shadow of a solider holding a gun and aiming at the target on the left bottom of the Obama logo. I wrote the description; cross hair on Osama Bin Laden in the center of the Obama logo, and a U.S. Soldier aiming at the target to kill the terrorist, and “OBAMA got OSAMA” in cool grunge style.

I have been thinking how to add the American flag and Navy SEALs emblem in a respectful manner.

I opened a draft file I created last week and roughly placed the American flag and Navy SEALs emblem, and added the shadow of a solider, and made the American flag in a round shape. I typed “Mission Accomplished” on the upper part of the circle, and “May 1, 2011” on the bottom part.

It seems that Zazzle finished the “Bin Laden Killed” section on the homepage. I still have some ongoing designs and ideas, but I stopped making “Bin Laden Dead” now, and am moving on to the next designs.

More “Bid Laden Dead” T-Shirts

 T-Shirts are sometimes simple. I saw a drum man wearing a peace symbol T-Shirt in a yoga exercise video today. I will make an American flag style peace symbol. I put the American flag on the peace symbol and chose clipping mask with Photoshop. I will add some extra elements on this design later.

So far, I have 4 designs uploaded at the Zazzle site, and eight designs are in progress. I sometimes focus on one design and finish up in a short time or work on multiple designs little by little over a couple of days.

I have been working on two “DEAD” designs. I placed a picture of Bin Laden and the sea inside of “DEAD” by clipping mask, and put the American flag on “A” in “DEAD,” and typed “Mission Accomplished, May 1, 2011.” When I looked at the picture of the sea, suddenly the image of a shark came to my mind. I imaged what will be happened to Bin Laden's body buried at sea.

Draft of "DEAD"

As I sketched the raid scene on the Obama logo yesterday, I placed a black and white picture of Bin Laden at the center of the circle, and a cross-hairs on his head. I tried to place small cross-hairs in different colors around the upper blue part of the Obama logo, but I deleted them since they looked weird. Instead, I typed “OBAMA got OSAMA” along the round part. Also, I have a plan to put a gun or helicopter on the bottom part of the logo so it will look like a gun battle from Team Six.

I often go back and forth with my ongoing designs. While I was working on “DEAD” this evening, I suddenly came up with an idea of Bin Laden scattered and faded out into the sea, so I add cracked patterns on his face to express he was scattered and disappearing into the dark.

“DEAD”and “Mission Accomplished” Designs

I uploaded two “OBAMA got OSAMA” designs for T-Shirts so far, and another two designs for the same slogan are in progress. They should be finished by the end of this week.

I adjusted the size for stickers, magnets, and buttons for the same design I uploaded yesterday, and slightly changed the background by removing random scratchy texture, and added the pattern of crayon on charcoal paper with Photoshop. The round background is sheer black now which should look good on magnets and buttons.

I placed the Obama logo on the “O” in “OBAMA” and colored the letters in red and blue, and the target on the “O” in “OSAMA”and colored it in green, and scattered some blood stains on the letters. Also, I put gun fire on the “o” in “got” so it looks like the gun shot on Osama Bin Laden. This is the final product.

I started working on “DEAD” and “Mission Accomplished” now, and have been thinking how to add the American flag and Navy SEALs emblem in my design. When I accidentally looked at the sticker with “Las Vegas U.S.A” in silver letters on the American flag on the shelf in my room, I decided to make “Mission Accomplished, may 1, 2011” in gold letters on American flag.

I came up with the idea of the peace symbol instead of a target on Bin Laden since I wanted to make something different. So I roughly sketched my idea on paper. As I drew the peace symbol, I also drew a big Obama symbol because I suddenly came up with another interesting idea of the raid scene with gun target and Navy SEALs emblem on the big Obama logo. This is my preliminary idea. I'll polish it up later.

Keep Adding “Bin Laden Dead” Designs

On May 4th just three days after Osama Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces, the designs of “Obama got Osama” has increased to 2000 and “Bin Laden Dead” to 3500 which was 1200 and 2300 in 24 hours after the mission accomplished on May 2nd in the evening.

“Bin Laden Killed” section is featured at Zazzle homepage now. “Bin Laden Killed” and “Obama” are the top two searching keywords in the Trending Now section. I decided to commit to Bid Laden related designs this week because I saw the announcement on Zazzle's homepage saying that they will donate 10% of orders to the Yellow Ribbon Fund to help injured service members and their families. I immediately decided to participate in this charity.

I adjusted the size of my “OBAMA got OSAMA. Justice has been done. May 1, 2011” design that I uploaded yesterday for bumper stickers, buttons, and magnets.

I wanted to express Bin Laden was buried at sea, so I made the background of the sea and put Osama's dead face in the middle. And, I wrote the description, “A gray picture of Osama Bin Laden as the dead man and the sea background as he was buried at sea, and the slogans of “Obama got Osama. Justice has been done. May 1, 2011” on the cross hair and fire in the raid.” However, Osama's dead face didn't show up well when I published it for the product, so I changed from the gray face to black and white picture. This is the final product.

Next, I came up with an idea of “DEAD” in grunge style with a targeted Bin Laden face and the sea in the background. I'll make it tomorrow.

"OBAMA got OSAMA" T-Shirts

It's May now, and I have been working on the next event which is Memorial Day and the 4^th of July, and have a plan to make “USA” and “God Bless America,” designs.

On May 1, 2011, the breaking news saying that Osama bin Laden is dead surprised the world. The most wanted terrorist in the world, Osama bin Laden died in a gun battle on Sunday by Navy SEALs and CIA paramilitary forces at his compound 35 miles north of the capital, Abbottabad, Pakistan. I heard President Obama's announcement on the car radio that evening.

I checked some T-Shirt sites and found that “Obama got Osama” and “Bin Laden Dead” stuff was already uploaded right after the news, and I'm sure that the related designs will be increasing in the next couple of days. The next day, I saw the number of designs displayed by a keyword, “Obama got Osama” increasing from 800 in the morning to 900 in the afternoon at the Zazzle site. Also, 1700 “Bin Laden Dead” designs are already displayed, and I'm sure that more related designs have been added with other keywords. Indeed, it was 900 designs around 2 o'clock, and increased to 1000 at 3:20 P.M, and from 1700 of “Bin Laden Dead” designs to 1900. By 10 o'clock in the evening, 1200 designs of “Obama got Osama” and 2300 designs of “Bin Laden Dead”were uploaded.

I read the news and watched the videos about this news, and picked up some words that can be used for T-Shirts such as “Justice has been done” “A good day for America” “Al-Qaida is something in the past” “Bin Laden, Al-Qaida - old news”

I started creating “Obama got Osama, May 1, 2011,” and put the peace symbol on “O” in “Obama,” and drew a cross hair on “O” in “Osama.” Also, I wrote the description for the product as below.

The slogans of mission accomplished, “Obama got Osama. Justice has been done. May 1, 2011” around the cross hair in grunge style, and a picture of Bin Laden shot in the head with fire in the front.

This is the final product.

Election 2012 T-Shirts

Whether you are for or against Obama in his 2012 re-election campaign, T-Shirts for the presidential election are a popular theme. I started drawing the elements related to the election campaign in Adobe Illustrator such as stars and strips, donkey, elephant, and so on. In addition, I drew USA elements for the upcoming 4^th of July such as fireworks, balloons, American hats, and also retouched the Statue of Liberty with Photoshop.

When I placed a donkey and elephant on the screen, I came up with an idea of the boxing ring with the donkey and elephant wearing gloves and fighting in the ring. I tried to modify the shape of the donkey and elephant to look like they are standing and fighting, but I had a little difficulty making the four legged animals stand up and fight. So I sketched on a paper for a while, and finally got a decent shape.

Draft of fighting elephant

I drew a baby stroller a little while ago, and saved it as a symbol in Illustrator so that I can use and modify it for any other baby designs. I painted the baby cart red and blue and turned it into “My First Election 2012” for baby apparels. I know this is an unusual design, but I wanted to create something unique, and someone might like it to remember the year 2012 as the baby's first election.

I often see “Obama 2012” and “Nobama 2012” created by individual designers, and the Obama campaign logo is placed on the design. Also, I often see an oblique line in red on the logo to show disapproval of President Obama. I have been thinking how to make humorous Obama T-Shirts without offending people.

Whether you approve or disapprove of him, he is the current President of the United States, and a candidate for the 2012 Presidential Election. Some people might oppose some of his political strategies, but don't dislike him nor love him either, and are sort of in between pro and anti Obama. The red oblique line on the log is too strong, so I put a question mark on the Obama logo.

Japan Relief T-Shirts

I uploaded two Japan Relief T-Shirts, “Hope for Japan” at CafePress in March in response to relief efforts for the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, and some of them were sold and a portion of the sales were donated to the American Red Cross through CafePress.

On April 03, 2011, I heard the news that two workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plants who went missing since the earthquake and tsunami were found dead. The two workers, aged 21 and 24, were trying to protect the nuclear plant while being hit by the earthquake and tsunami. When I heard this news, I decided to create the design of “Fukushima 50” to honor workers who died young to protect their country. There are more than 50 workers, actually at least 300, but the workers who stayed at the nuclear plants are known as the “Fukushima 50”, and their work conditions are extremely dangerous, and some sources say that they are expected to die with radiation within weeks and months.

I wrote a slogan to honor them.

“Honor the 50 nameless heroes who stayed behind at the Fukushima nuclear plants to save countless others following the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.”

This slogan is too long for T-Shirts, so I wrote “Fukushima 50, Unknown Heroes” and “Fukushima 50 “ in Japanese, and the final product is here. These people who have sacrificed themselves to save their country must be remembered as true heroes.

On April 7^th, the biggest aftershock with a magnitude 7.4 hit the northern areas in Japan, and millions of people faced blackouts. Their minds must be full of fears and worries. The right after the tragedy deprived everything from people on March 11, they were helping each other and organized at the evacuee centers, patiently lining for food, with no looting or stealing. The media all over the world reported their civilized manners at the devastation with a great wonder and respect. I hope they will get back their normal life as soon as possible.

On April 10^th, I uploaded “My Heart is with Japan”

I originally planned to make a heart in red, but made it in pink so that the cherry blossoms around the heart match well with the heart.

It's been a month since the earthquake hit Japan, and I read the news that people offered a silent prayer to the victims at 2: 46 PM when the earthquake hit the northern areas in Japan. According to the news, the aftershocks will keep happening for the next ten years. I hope they will survive and handle the situation well.

"Tsunami surviving dog"

A dog was rescued after 3 weeks floating in the sea on the top of a roof. The two year old female mix later met her owner at the shelter. This news touched my heart as well as many all over the world. I decided to create art work of this amazing story. We sometimes see hope and courage in small animals. It might be a little too late to create the design about the tsunami surviving dog, but I wanted to express the hope in “A Little Survivor.”