Making Iconic T-Shirts

May 7, 2006 2:22 AM

How do I make iconic t-shirt designs?

I'm looking for a way to transform images into the kind of iconic pictures you see on t-shirts. (Like Reagan or Che).

I saw a tutorial for this somewhere using photoshop, but I don't remember where.

posted by awenner to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (10 answers total)

I think it might be done using the 'stamp' filter in Photoshop and adjusting the Light/Dark balance and the smoothness ratio.

If I'm right, you'd probably need to start by creating anew image with a white background and just the face of the person you're trying to immortalise on clothing. And then go from there.
posted by Effigy2000 at 2:42 AM on May 7, 2006

Just having a quick play around with Photoshop; the Tom Edges filter (both are under the Filters --> Sketch menu) might be handy too. But I am only relatively new at using Photoshop. There may be a better way that an expert could suggest.
posted by Effigy2000 at 2:45 AM on May 7, 2006

i would take
1. a clear photo
2. convert to B & W (in photoshop/photopaint/whatever)
3. erase remaining background
4. Exportto Gif/jpg/whatever
5. print on t-shirt.
posted by b33j at 2:45 AM on May 7, 2006

I think it ought to be a lot simpler than that.

Go to Image/Adjustments/Threshhold and play with the slider. That ought to give you the kind of thing you're looking for, from a black and white image.

In fact, try just going to Image/Adjustments/Posterize and set the levels to 2.

If you don't get what you want right away, play with the levels, and blur the image a bit before you do the above.

The menus I'm quoting are for Photoshop 7.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 3:18 AM on May 7, 2006

Starting with this image:

http://www.exit50.com/images/April2005/hendrix.jpg

I made this in about three seconds via threshold:

http://home.exetel.com.au/ambrose/hendrix-thresholdised.gif

It's not finished of course, it would need cleaning up, but that's the kind of effect you're looking for, right?
posted by AmbroseChapel at 3:23 AM on May 7, 2006

I second the Posterize command. Although, milage may very.

If that doesn't work, you can always try Desaturate and then adjust Curves.

Make sure to cut out the background around the thing your manipulating. Unless you want that.

Those to options assume you're manipulating an image in Photoshop.

In Illustrator, you could always import the image and trace it, filling the outline with solid black.
posted by Colloquial Collision at 4:37 AM on May 7, 2006

You used to be able to use Adobe Streamline; its features have been rolled into the latest versions of Illustrator.

Take your original image, do some contrast adjustments and clanup any artifacts you don't want in the image, then use livetrace in illustrator.
posted by beerbajay at 4:49 AM on May 7, 2006

Here's a simple tutorial.

A word of advice: use levels instead of brightness/contrast.
posted by O9scar at 5:11 AM on May 7, 2006

Use Threshold or posterize to get the black-and-white as described above; if the result is grainy, use the Dust and Scratches filter to get solid blocks of colour.
posted by nowonmai at 7:34 AM on May 7, 2006

Threshold. Posterize is good too, but Threshold is the key.
posted by jeb at 10:12 AM on May 7, 2006