I thought it might be interesting to show the process of how a custom design is born! This is a recent project I worked on and was super fun because my clients; Normans Farm Market; are energetic, young, entrepreneurs who run several farm stands supplying the DC area with fresh produce from many small farms within about a 100 mile radius of DC. They had a long time friend of theirs, Anne, create the conceptual sketch for their new season re-usable shopping bags and tee shirts. When I heard they were going to hire a graphic designer to convert Anne’s art I told them I could do it for them! Here is what we started with, Anne came over and we spent a couple hours together as she was curious to see how a pencil drawing becomes a screen print design. 
Next I worked on “cleaning up” this original piece of art. I work in Photoshop and an industry program called Texcelle for all my work. I really want to learn Illustrator, that’s next on my list. So after I got this basically into a two tone image with the right high resolution and file formats (this will differ based upon your output type and end product) I presented it to the client and it looked something like this. 
From here I went back and forth with the Normans several more times to revise text, placement and other elements within the design. The final design is below and it turned out great, they were happy and that’s the most important aspect of working with a client on a custom design. 
I have to say that working on custom design is one of my favorite ways to work. I love working with people to take a creative idea and make it a real product. The final product is always a little thrilling to see once completed! It’s is especially great when you get to work on a project that incorporates something your passionate about, in this case Local Food and it’s even better when your clients are such fun to work with. 
Thanks John, Eris and Jeff!