Actaeon's Graphic Design

After designing my web site, some business cards for my character to hand out to other zoos, and an address book to keep track of those special people in my life, it occurred to me I should probably have a web page dedicated to my zoo-related graphic design projects. To wit, here's what I'm working on:

Yes, I actually made myself some business cards. How horribly vain. :) Seriously, though, fellow zoos often ask for my e-mail or web addresses, so I figured it would be more efficient to put it on a card. If I've met you in person, or am likely to soon, or if I know you really well, I can make cards for you too. (Don't sue me if you hand one to the Wrong Kind Of Person. :) And you'd better hurry; I'm in a generous mood at the moment and am not charging for these things. Order now before I come to my senses.

You are welcome to make t-shirts or other garments based on these designs, but I retain copyrights to all images and concepts except where specifically noted below. All I ask is that you leave my designs intact (i.e., don't modify them without my permission), including my chop mark (shown above), and give credit where it's due. The original image files are available on disk or via e-mail for maximum quality; let me know what graphics format your shirt printer requires.

This item features the words "I (heart symbol) my dog" or "my dog (heart symbol) me" (your choice of imprint) on one side, and a pair of canine paw prints on the other side. The catch is that the paw prints are in unusual positions for a t-shirt. For people whose canine lovers are female, the prints are on the back, below the shoulders, and the text is on the front. For lovers of male dogs, the prints are on the front, encircling the waist, and the text is on the back. The beauty of this design is its subtlety: you could wear this shirt in public and most people would remain blissfully unaware of its hidden meaning, especially if you were just passing by and they didn't have much time to take a look. After all, the paws are on one side, and the text is on the other, so who's going to connect the two? :) Here are some conceptual drawings:

Text: "I (heart symbol) my dog" or "my dog (heart symbol) me"

Paw prints: Female (on the back) or Male (on the front)

Special bonus: in the middle of the letter "o" in "dog," there is a tiny Greek zeta (minus the accompanying circle). It's too small to show up in these .gifs, but it's there. If you think this is too risky or blatant, let me know.

This item features the words "Love sees no species" on the back in black ink, and a bunch of animals on the front, in the form of line art, also in black ink. I'm aiming at something that can be worn by anyone, and will give the impression of an "environmentally-aware" T-shirt, so it won't arouse suspicion. Shirts like this could easily be sold at a furry convention such as CF9 in January 1998 (that's a hint for all you furry artists out there :).

The animals' bodies form the shape of a heart, i.e., running around the border, with the eagle at the top and the dolphin at the bottom. Around the left side (looking counter-clockwise from the top) are the carnivores: wolf, dog, fox, lion, tiger, puma, grizzly/black bear. Around the right side (looking clockwise from the top) are the herbivores: deer, horse, antelope, zebra, cow/bull, sheep, goat. If you can think of other animals to add, let me know, though the animals' bodies may already need to overlap a little, due to the small working area and the large number of subjects.

I would probably want to commission a furry artist (or several) to do the artwork for this; I can't seem to find images of all of those species that go together stylistically. I'm leaning towards realistic or semi-realistic non-anthro art, all G-rated, though I'm not opposed to the artist adding a sheath where appropriate. Just go easy on the testes, please. :)

Behind the heart, or perhaps forming the heart itself (and this is optional, since it would be more expensive) would be the Rainbow Pride coloration, perhaps in the form of airbrush-style squiggles behind the animals. Better yet, though possibly even more expensive, would be a tie-dyed shirt with the rainbow coloration in light pastel shades (so the black line art stands out). When I've commissioned artwork for this, I'll put up the graphics. {center} {p}Text: {a href="design/tee-love-sees-no-species.gif"}"Love sees no species"{/a} {p}Animals: {a href="design/tee-animal-heart-black.gif"}(black ink only){/a} or {a href="design/tee-animal-heart-rainbow.gif"}(rainbow ink){/a} {/center} {p}Special bonus: as with the previous tee, in the middle of the letter "o" in "love," there is a tiny Greek zeta.>

There's a famous euphemism, said to someone who disses you: "Screw you, and the horse you rode in on." I propose the following slogan(s) on a t-shirt:

"Dibs on the horse you rode in on."

"The horse I rode in on is spoken for."

I think this shirt would work best with white and pink artwork on a black background. On the front of the shirt, two salmon are trying to spawn. The male strains unsuccessfully to ejaculate and fertilize the cluster of bright pink eggs the female has just laid in the gravelly streambed. The frustration shows on his face, and his pectoral fins are clenched like a weightlifter trying to buff himself up, but he's obviously empty. In fact, to make it clearer from a pictorial sense, we might have a thought balloon over the male's head, with a picture of a fuel gauge pointing to "E." The female salmon, meanwhile, looks annoyed, even embarrassed; perhaps she's shrugging her pectoral fins while flirting with other passing males. On the back of the shirt in lowercase white letters (Helvetica UltraCondensed, IIRC) are the words, "got milt?"

The idea is based on the clever advertising campaign for the Dairy Council, in which people are shown in situations where having milk would be a big help. Their slogan is, "got milk?" In case you don't get the joke, milt is fish semen.