1991 – My first two computer-designed T-Shirts – Rodney Wills

1991 – My first two computer-designed T-shirts by Rodney Wills

These t-shirts are not my first O’Neill designs, but these two designs are my first and second designs completed ON THE COMPUTER (The shirt has “1992” as that was the year the design was released). Thanks to *Kai Bushkirk (@kaibuskirk), who pushed me to GO BACK to college after four years of graduating from California College of Arts (@cacollegeofarts).

I walked into Fullerton College’s (@fullcoll) computer graphics class and told them I was not here for a degree; I was here to see if I could make this @Apple computer do what I wanted!

I told the class I already had a full-time job as the art director for the T-shirt division of O’neill (Inventor of the wetsuit) @oneillusa. I was here to see if this “computer design” would do what I wanted it to do in our “hand-drawn” industry. The kids in that class looked at me like I was crazy, but this was serious, as we designed hundreds of T-shirts each season (four times per year)—all by hand!

For me, it is all about the look. I don’t care what tool is used; the final look is the only thing that matters! The end user, the consumer, does not care if it was created on a computer or hand-drawn—IT JUST HAS TO BE COOL!

Back then, we did all the designs by hand and used all the traditional screenprinting methods, including massive stat cameras, film separations, and lots of rubylith! The class proved fruitful, and in that first year, we used the computer for approximately 40% of the designs (assisted in design and/or designed with the computer). I did this design and one other in that first class! These two designs were created with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

*Kai Bushkirk
As the art director of the O’neill T-shirt division, my college roommate William Almazan and I created most of the t-shirt art. It was common practice to freelance 10-20%  of the t-shirt line from various artists to assist in our workload and to give the line variation as we were creating approximately 100 t-shirt designs per year.

Kai Bushkirk was one of these freelance artists. One day, Kai showed me the art he had created using the computer. I did not like the look of the art for what I was looking for, but he was all about using the computer.

Kai was so taken by what he had seen in using the computer for design that he told me he would go back to school with me (he had previously attended these classes) to take computer art classes. Thus, he witnessed me make these designs in our classes. I am very thankful for his persistence in pushing me into computer design! 

The above O’neill t-shirt design is called “Bubble Rock” and was the first t-shirt design using Adobe Photoshop on an Apple Computer. Maybe you can see my graffiti influence in this design.

The above O’neill t-shirt design is called “Surf Time Zone” and was the second t-shirt design using Adobe Illustrator on an Apple Computer. This design is a bit inspired by my collection of Swatch watches that I wore.

Both of the above designs and those below are still in my collection.