Upper Hand Signs
Mascot Process

Upper hand Signs is a traditional sign painting shop with an amazing pool of talent. after our talk we decided it was best to be seen as traditional and blue collar. blue caller meaning hard working, salt of the earth craftsmen who get the work done well. the thing I see that sets these two apart from the market is their youth. Most sign painters are from a different era. a time before computers and vinyl cutters. but these two decided to go against the grain and bring back a lost art.

Style
Because of the information from our early conversation we looked into a style leaning heavily on a retro style with a modern twist. I estimate the retro style anywhere from 1930 to 1950, we looked at rubber hose animation and 1950s advertisements which were all very in line with our goal. the problem was bringing in the modern twist. So I sketched out about 15 Ideas (Most of them not good enough to show).

The modern twist will mainly come from the perfect lines created by illustrator but it will also include exagerating old designs. If you notice the rubber hose style limbs really have no limits on length. arms are just drawn in after the hands and body have been drawn. this means I can push that length and create some fun curves. Below I have some ideas that I think would be great for your brand.  ​

1. Disney/Merrie Melodies 

This was pretty much what I envisioned while we were talking. it has great lines and i think it hits our goal pretty well. When I sketched this out he had a longer snout and boots pointing to the blue collar aspect of the brand and he was standing and painting. but the more I looked at it the more I realized this guy needed to be moving. I switched him to walking and got rid of the boots to make him look a bit more aggressive.

2. The sports mascot

easily the most tough option. This guy looks mean. I have two options one is VERY collage mascot and the second is mixed with option one a bit. neither has been refined, but I think you get the idea.

Monogram
Upper Hand signs was going to design the type that goes around the mascot (for obvious reasons) but I wanted to throw some ideas in the ring. If we chose to go with this "collage mascot" style I would recommend having your initials on the sweatshirt in a monogram. to the right is what I have on both concepts above.

3. The Hand

Upper hand had mentioned wanting to see what a hand would look like and I think this is by far the strongest design. I took this one to the concept phase because it was quite a simple illustration. This concept will still need some tweaking but I would expect all previous ideas to be relatively this clean when done.

below is an option of layout and how it could look cool with the type added.

all three options

Above are all three together so you can see the difference. Please let me know when you  would like to go over this on skype and we will take it from there! 

talk soon fellas!
​