Peachtree Road Race
Every year on July 4th weekend, the Atlanta Journal Constitution hosts a race called, The Peachtree Road Race. In Atlanta, the race t-shirt is an icon of itself. There are photos online of every single t-shirt design since the start of the race in 1970.
This year, the AJC offered a prize of $5,000+ for the winning design.
So, naturally, I had to apply.
(I did not get it. Thus, this post.)
Inspiration
I was inspired by the Peachtree Road Race designs of 2001, which featured a shoe posed to run between peach trees before a cityscape and sunrise.
I loved that the shoe had no owner, but was positioned like it was ready for the race to begin. I also loved the importance of the peach in this design. So many of the later designs focus on the cityscape — or if they feature a peach, it’s containing a design of itself, holding a shoe, or the colors of the American Flag. I appreciated that the peach in the 2001 design was just a peach!
Sketches
With all of this in mind, I began sketching an anthropomorphic peach tree, wearing race shoes. It was a simple idea, and that was exactly what I wanted. I wanted to get back to simple, clean illustrations for the t-shirt design.
Draft 1
I sent the first draft to my husband, and after some chatting, we decided we had to push the anthropomorphism. The tree almost has hands anyway, why not give the tree hands, have it hold something, or move in a way that a tree would move for a race?
Draft Two
When I sent this design to my husband, he responded with: “Give it eyes please. I’m begging you.”
So I did.
This time, he responded with: “I was hoping they would look more cartoony.”
Okay, heard.
Final
And here we have it, folks! An anthropomorphic tree, admiring his own peaches, getting ready to run a race. I like it! I even designed a little mock-up.
All in All…
I’m really happy with how the design turned out. It is completely me and silly and fun, and I love it.
Self-directed projects like this are so much fun and teach me so many things about the way I work, what I want to create, and the designs / concepts that interest me most.
This project has inspired me to take up screen-printing over the summer, and design shirts again for the first time since college. (They will not look like this. But nonetheless, I am really excited.)