Merch Behind the Scenes - Arcade 2

Hello, Lovelies!

Eric here again! For those who don’t know who I am, I’m the head of merch at Game Grumps, and I’m here with another behind-the-scenes look at another one of our favorite designs - Arcade Round 2!

Step One: Concept

The first Arcade design by Crysalis was such a hit that we wanted to come up with something that had the same vibe with a new artist! I keep a list of artists that we would like to work with, and wait for the right opportunity to come along before I approach to ask if they would like to work with us as well. Sometimes, I have something very specific in mind, but most of the time, I like to feel it out along with the artist so that it feels less like a contract job, and more like a collaboration that we can all feel excited about!

Step Two: Reference/Reach out to Artist

After deciding that we wanted to take another crack at the “cute girls go to the arcade” vibe, I suggested Nemu, who I had been following on twitter for a few months at that point (@NemupanArt on Twitter and @Nemupan on Instagram and Patreon! Go follow her!!). Luckily, Nemu was just as excited about the idea as we were!

After a short conversation about how exactly to “follow up” Crysalis’ design, we landed on the idea of the girls hanging out outside the arcade with a pink/orange sunset color scheme. Here’s some reference I sent over, mostly for vibes:

Step 3~?: Art, notes, art, notes

With everybody in agreement for the concept and vibes, it’s time to kick off the project with some sketches!! Nemu sent a bunch of rough sketches for the concept/layout, but this was the winner:

Humble beginnings, but definitely enough to get us on board! A little while later, Nemu sent this over, asking what the signs should be filled with beyond the Burgie’s Burgers and Starbomb signs.

So, I dug in with some fun references! At this time, I had just finished designing the Manga 3 shirt, and Fickle Wish had just gone out of business in Little Tokyo so I made sure to include those two as references along with some quick sketches to suggest how to fill out the background:

Nemu’s version is, of course, way better than mine.

Apply the colors with the vibes from the reference photos earlier on, and surprise!! It looks gorgeous!!

But it doesn’t stop there, we needed art for the sleeves as well! It’s a Long Sleeve shirt after all.

We had a few different options, and we landed on a combination of a few of the ideas, for obvious reasons:

The art was finished in November of 2020, and it took us until April 2021 to finalize and approve a test print. We even released the White version because the black tee was still going through a few additional test prints before we could approve it for a full order. This one was tricky because of all the color involved, but we are super happy with the finished product! And on top of that, we got to do such a fun photoshoot at Barcade in Highland Park with Ethan Nestor, Suzy Berhow, and our own Nutboy, Allie Jean! So cool!!

Once again, it’s been such a pleasure to show y’all some of the design process.

What do you think? Does seeing the process help you appreciate it a little more? If you already had the shirt, do you love it even more now?? Drop a comment below! ‘Til next time! 

-Eric