Tyler Durden Fight Club Motocross Shirt in Production

[AJRand]

I am a huge fan of Fight Club (Points to the OP 523 in his picture) and I have searched forever for the Motocross shirt. I know many others have as well. With my search always turning to no avail, I finally decided to make my own.

I purchased a bunch of stock photographs and went to my friend that I've known since 1996 that is a professional graphics designer. He did all the artwork for me for free which probably saved around 500-1000 dollars (Depending where you go)

During my search I found why this shirt is so difficult, I learned a LOT about t-shirts. The first thing I learned is that a shirt like this can only be created via a 4 color process (Which is costly) or a sublimated process (Which is also costly and can ONLY be done on Polyester).

Finally, I also learned that the shirt has to be cut and sewn together. I realized the printing was all over the shirt and there were no gaps, if you did a print on each side it would leave about 1/2 inch to an inch gap of no ink.

I should have the shirt done by next week ideally. I've created two productions that I am going to try:

1) I have the artwork just as it is and may try on a blue fabric

2) I colored the artwork blue and see how it will turn out.

I decided to go the 4 color process route which is done on cotton so we'll see how that goes. Excessive washing may wear out the print but its worth trying.

Here are the screenshots of the art files I wanted to share:

Anyone have any comments or questions?

 

[AdamL]

No questions, but just one thing.... I'M IN!

 

[mrsmartypants]

It's off to a good start! I think you're going to want to print on a blue shirt vs tinting the artwork blue. If you look at the collar of Pitt's shirt, you can see that the shirt itself is blue (and no artwork on the collar). Plus, there is a lot of blue sky in the artwork. Printing it all on a blue shirt, reduces the amount of blue needed to be printed. I would guess the silk-screening (or whatever process was used) was done doing only one pass so that the blue could bleed through the artwork on its own.

Notice on Pitt's shirt, some of the photos repeat and are quite large...there really aren't that many shots used. My only suggestion to your artwork so far would be to try to mimic at least the size of each image to the screen-used shirt as closely as possible. Some of yours look too small and there might be too many different photos used.

Also, I know finding the exact photos used will be next to impossible, but how close do you think you came? What era are the photos you're using taken from? Are these the only photos you purchased?

Sorry for all the questions. This shirt has been desired around these parts for a long time. Hoping to see it finally happen! :thumbsup

 

[nicklambo]

I am a huge fan of Fight Club (Points to the OP 523 in his picture) and I have searched forever for the Motocross shirt. I know many others have as well. With my search always turning to no avail, I finally decided to make my own.

I purchased a bunch of stock photographs and went to my friend that I've known since 1996 that is a professional graphics designer. He did all the artwork for me for free which probably saved around 500-1000 dollars (Depending where you go)

During my search I found why this shirt is so difficult, I learned a LOT about t-shirts. The first thing I learned is that a shirt like this can only be created via a 4 color process (Which is costly) or a sublimated process (Which is also costly and can ONLY be done on Polyester).

Finally, I also learned that the shirt has to be cut and sewn together. I realized the printing was all over the shirt and there were no gaps, if you did a print on each side it would leave about 1/2 inch to an inch gap of no ink.

I should have the shirt done by next week ideally. I've created two productions that I am going to try:

1) I have the artwork just as it is and may try on a blue fabric

2) I colored the artwork blue and see how it will turn out.

I decided to go the 4 color process route which is done on cotton so we'll see how that goes. Excessive washing may wear out the print but its worth trying.

Here are the screenshots of the art files I wanted to share:

Anyone have any comments or questions?

I'm in......Pleeeeeeaaaaassssse...!!!

 

[AJRand]

It's off to a good start! I think you're going to want to print on a blue shirt vs tinting the artwork blue. If you look at the collar of Pitt's shirt, you can see that the shirt itself is blue (and no artwork on the collar). Plus, there is a lot of blue sky in the artwork. Printing it all on a blue shirt, reduces the amount of blue needed to be printed. I would guess the silk-screening (or whatever process was used) was done doing only one pass so that the blue could bleed through the artwork on its own.

Notice on Pitt's shirt, some of the photos repeat and are quite large...there really aren't that many shots used. My only suggestion to your artwork so far would be to try to mimic at least the size of each image to the screen-used shirt as closely as possible. Some of yours look too small and there might be too many different photos used.

Also, I know finding the exact photos used will be next to impossible, but how close do you think you came? What era are the photos you're using taken from? Are these the only photos you purchased?

Sorry for all the questions. This shirt has been desired around these parts for a long time. Hoping to see it finally happen! :thumbsup

I would have to see it completed to judge how close I came. The artwork will look a lot different once printed onto the T-Shirt. As for your reference about the collar, a cut and sew process (Which was what the movie shirt was) will have each part individually made or one big piece of fabric. It could of been they had white and printed onto it and the artwork for the collar (as seen in mine) was blue.

You have to remember a blank t-shirt doesn't start blue, normally a blue shirt is colored blue first.

As for getting the original pictures, thats impossible unless you have the exact art files they used. The pictures aren't easy to come by and you need at least a 300 DPI picture in order to print onto a shirt otherwise it won't look good at all. Stock photos can range from 5-25 dollars (Or more) each.

Finally, regarding the size remember this is a screenshot of the artwork. Its a lot bigger on the actual CPU and will look different when printed. Its hard to compare because in the screenshot I cropped it all to fit on my screen but some of the images on the front and back are about as wide as the collar if not bigger.

AJ

 

[Art Andrews]

Wow, that is impressive! I'd be in for sure!

 

[AJRand]

I spoke to the guy that was printing and sewing the shirt and he said it was finished and came out amazing. I cannot wait to see it -- Hoping it arrives by this weekend or early next week.

Will post pictures when it does.

 

[forceflow]

I wish I had this when I did the Durden for Halloween. I'm in, if you search there was an ongoing thread about this for a while. I even tried coming up with a the right era pictures but nothing ever came of it. I hope this works, I'm in regardless. Well done my friend.

 

[AJRand]

I wish I had this when I did the Durden for Halloween. I'm in, if you search there was an ongoing thread about this for a while. I even tried coming up with a the right era pictures but nothing ever came of it. I hope this works, I'm in regardless. Well done my friend.

Yeah I saw that thread, thing is you need photos with at LEAST 300 DPI. You won't find those photos on a google search and they are almost 99% of the time require money. Maybe a file sharing program would have them but then technically if someone saw the shirt they could sue you because you have their photos.

 

[forceflow]

Haha if it was a good enough replica it'd be worth the lawsuit. To have the Holy Grail of movie shirts. Anyway well done, I hope it turns out well. Keep us updated.

 

[AJRand]

Haha if it was a good enough replica it'd be worth the lawsuit. To have the Holy Grail of movie shirts. Anyway well done, I hope it turns out well. Keep us updated.

Well if they have the art files still it could be done.

 

[AJRand]

Another update:

Apparently the shirt got lost, so they are going to make a new one this week. (Maybe someone saw how awesome it was and it got stolen? Haha)

So I may not have pictures until the end of the week.

*****

On a side note, I've had such bad luck this past week with shipments. I ordered a Fight Club Jacket from Jonathan A Logan (If anyone is familiar with him, he's the original maker) and he sent my jacket to the wrong person so now he is making me a completely new one that should ship Tuesday.

 

[forceflow]

That sucks man, I hate when shipments get messed up.

 

[peterparker87]

I am a huge fan of Fight Club (Points to the OP 523 in his picture) and I have searched forever for the Motocross shirt. I know many others have as well. With my search always turning to no avail, I finally decided to make my own.

I purchased a bunch of stock photographs and went to my friend that I've known since 1996 that is a professional graphics designer. He did all the artwork for me for free which probably saved around 500-1000 dollars (Depending where you go)

During my search I found why this shirt is so difficult, I learned a LOT about t-shirts. The first thing I learned is that a shirt like this can only be created via a 4 color process (Which is costly) or a sublimated process (Which is also costly and can ONLY be done on Polyester).

Finally, I also learned that the shirt has to be cut and sewn together. I realized the printing was all over the shirt and there were no gaps, if you did a print on each side it would leave about 1/2 inch to an inch gap of no ink.

I should have the shirt done by next week ideally. I've created two productions that I am going to try:

1) I have the artwork just as it is and may try on a blue fabric

2) I colored the artwork blue and see how it will turn out.

I decided to go the 4 color process route which is done on cotton so we'll see how that goes. Excessive washing may wear out the print but its worth trying.

Here are the screenshots of the art files I wanted to share:

Anyone have any comments or questions?

Would love one of them shirts been lookin around the internet for one for ages, definitely buy one off you man, pretty cool your puttin it together. Im suprised these shirts are so hard to find, since so many people are lookin.

 

[AJRand]

Would love one of them shirts been lookin around the internet for one for ages, definitely buy one off you man, pretty cool your puttin it together. Im suprised these shirts are so hard to find, since so many people are lookin.

They are pretty hard to find because of the complex process by which they are made. I am lucky because I have friends in the right areas (Artist, and a guy that has the machine capable of doing the print and he has someone to cut and sew) --

Before I reached out I was calling different shirt manufacturers and about 75% would not do this shirt. Another 10% would do it but they didn't have cut and sew ability meaning they would print both sides but the print would have a 2 inch gap down the sides of the shirt. The last 15% would do it but they wanted 4,000 orders at around 25 dollars per shirt... or around 10,000 dollars.

 

[KorrickUSCM]

If a run happens I am definitely in!

 

[AJRand]

Hoping to have the first one in my hands in the next few days... they had finished the original first one but then it got "lost" -- I think it was stolen because it was so awesome.

 

[compucrap]

Deleted

 

[coolsnell]

Glad to hear this shirt is working out ! Really want to acquire one of these !

 

[AJRand]

Spoke to the guy doing the sewing and it is finished and being shipped out Monday I was told.