Sketchbook: Eisenhower Junior High Generals '11

Brian's sister Jenny is a history teacher at Eisenhower Junior High in Taylorsville, Utah.  She's also in charge of the Student Body Officers and she wanted me to design a t-shirt logo for them.  The school mascot is a General, and they wanted him flexing and looking really tough.  A five-star World War II helmet was a must.  I came up with a logo that I was really proud of, but the kids were a little less than impressed.  They had a list of changes they wished to be made.  For starters, his big strong chest (which in my opinion is totally proportional to the size of his massive arm) looked like "man boobs" in their eyes.  They also thought he didn't look mean enough, and they didn't think his shirt looked army enough.  They wanted maybe a tie or some patches or something to help him look like a general.

I made the changes, and although I still think the old one is really good, the new one is pretty awesome!  I trimmed down his chest quite a bit and added a tie.  The tie made it impossible to do the chest pockets anymore without looking really busy, so I added the epaulet to the shoulder instead.  I toyed around with various patches that all looked stupid.  In fear of picking something that would turn out to be historically inaccurate, I decided to follow a student's suggestion of incorporating the EJH of their school name.  So that became the patch on his sleeve.  In order to make him look meaner than the first one, I accentuated the angry brows and added some facial lines.  The result is an older and gruffer general, as opposed to a young and innocent one.  Much more fitting of Eisenhower if I do say so myself!

The students all love it now.  One of them said, "He no longer has boobs!  His surgeon did a good reduction!"