This project is a t-shirt design for one of the qualifying contestants, Amber Dawkins. Even among the other American Ninja Warrior contestants, Amber is unique because she has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that primarily affects the lungs (but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and intestine) and creates breathing challenges among other difficulties. She has not let this incurable condition prevent her from qualifying for season 12 of American Ninja Warrior, and has therefore chosen to compete as “CF Warrior Ninja”.

When Amber contacted me to design her competitor shirt, she told me a story about how the purple rose had come to symbolize cystic fibrosis, and I knew I would be incorporating that into my design. I wanted to represent what was unique about Amber as a competitor, and help her represent “CF Warrior Ninja” so she could also use this opportunity to help spread awareness about this disease. So I decided this design should have 3 components: “CF Warrior Ninja”, lungs, and purple roses.

Sketches

Using my ipad and Procreate, I started to sketch ideas about how those three components might interact. When I was sketching some lungs, I noticed the bronchus and bronchioles resembled plant roots, so I decided the roses could be incorporated to the lungs in that way. I also wanted the images to interact with the name, so I replaced the “o” in “warrior” with one of the roses, which I thought that would visually be the clearest way. I then went back and made some of the root-like brochioles weave through some of the letters, to help incorporate them thoroughly without impeding the readability of the words.

Design

Due to the Covid19 pandemic, Amber had an extremely tight deadline of 10 days to get this design and the t-shirts produced before she would need to fly and compete at the competition recording. Looking at budget and timeline restrictions, we decided a 2-color design would be best, so as I drew the final design, I kept this in mind, using the color of the t-shirt along with the inks to color the design correctly. While the client was approving the design itself, I started contacting local screenprinting shops to see what colors of t-shirt we could source and get quotes.

Amber’s original color selection was a bright teal with a bright and deep blue violet. After contacting the producers of American Ninja Warrior to get approval on the design, however, we were informed that the teal shirt color would be disastrous for some of the green screen interviews they would be filming, so I provided a second color combination, and Amber decided she wanted both color combinations made for herself and for friends, family, and fans.

Season 12 of American Ninja Warrior premieres September 7, 2020, and the episode featuring Amber, the CF Warrior Ninja is expected on September 21 at 8/7c on NBC.