234 - Zodiac Costumes

Just added Zodiac Costumes to the list of projects.

I initially designed this character set in 2004, on a white background.

Then, around 2022 I wanted to add them to different coloured T-Shirts in my print-on-demand store. So I started working on the spotlight device. This allowed the characters to have white around them, and still present well on a dark coloured background. I added the lettering and redrew a few of the characters to make them more consistent. For example most of them had heads, but not all so I fixed that. And I made Gemini more gender neutral so that any wearer could identify with the character. Although Virgo looks very feminine and Sagittarius has a beard so I slipped up there! 

Here are the characters I changed. In some ways I like the original Aquarius and Sagittarius better, but the Libra is a big improvement.

Here are some of the drawings for the new iteration of Aquarius.

and Libra.

I found the more recent stage of the project really difficult and it took me a couple of years to finish it. 

Graphic design tends to go very slowly for me. Mentally, I have more of a free form, fine art approach. Choosing and positioning lettering and fonts is agony sometimes.

Here's a small snapshot of how that went - there were so many tries!

I did a lot of research, looking at circus and theatre themed design and posters and saving them on Pinterest.