American Presidential Lines is an international maritime shipping company. The officers and crew have a longstanding tradition of creating ship's merchandise that commemorate the each vessel and its respective journey and stops around the globe. I was contracted by officers of the ships APL Truman and APL Saipan to create print-ready vector designs for use on coffee mugs, keychains, and various runs of graphic apparel.
These are the final images delivered to the client, Second Mate aboard the APL Truman. This project skipped the usual correspondence and iterative process as their communication at sea was spotty, and the crew opted to just give a simple yes or no to the finished images. I made a few variations with different amounts of colors to allow for more fidelity depending on what printing process they would choose. The shirts and sweatshirts ended up being screen printed, so the 2 color design was ultimately used, the third color made up from the background showing through the negative space.
The crew of the vessel APL Saipan contacted me to do a graphic for apparel and thermoses, asking for a play on the iconic Kanagawa Wave print due to the ship's pacific route which frequents Japan. I used a 1980's surf branding with the red ring and "Ceviche" font to help play off the kitch of the well-tread Kanagawa reference. The illustration of the boat was left rough with a woodblock-style rough fill in to help pair it with the wave print in the background.
