FLEX ON THE BEACH TEAM TEES

Flex On The Beach, an event run by Flex Events, was a reaaaaaal coooool (except really hot) experience for us this year. We hop around from fitness events as an apparel vendor but Flex is an event that hits close to home for us... like, literally.

This event was so special to us because 1. we got to connect with the fitness community of NY #home and 2. we had so many teams from Concrete Jungle Strength and Conditioning sporting the custom tees we did for them!

If you've followed our journey at all, you've probably caught onto our connection with Concrete Jungle... we do work with them ALL the time. The Jungle is where I found my love for fitness and it was basically the birthplace of Thirteen Fit.

Prior to the launch of our website and first two designs, we did a custom project for the Jungle teams/competitors for a competition called Hail To The Queen. (I know, it sounds off topic but I promise it'll come full circle.) This was our first shot at a custom job, eek! After feeling pretty lost on a concept, I finally got a kick of inspiration. We ended up with this design:

I put a crown (Hail To The QUEEN) on a gorilla (because, Concrete Jungle); it's pretty straightforward but subtly included style from punk graphic design.

PHOTO CRED: Super Cleary

Fast forward to Flex On The Beach.

CONCEPT/MOOD

I worked with two ladies of the Jungle on this, Kelly and Vicky. We decided to bring back the gorilla from Hail To The Queen but change the scenery. The whole concept is pretty nostalgic; namely, because we brought back our gorilla from the first design we ever did together.

The concept was to mix the feeling of retro-beach-vibes with punk-rock-graphic-design. Because the event was taking place on the beach (duh), we wanted to bring our gorilla to the beach so we spruced him up with some sunglasses, palm trees (which is certainly a stretch because Long Island, NY surely does not have tropical plants), and a pop of color in the back with the sun rays.

FINAL DESIGN

Details worth noting (I think):

To the left of the gorilla, you'll see the latitude and longitude of Long Beach. I just wanted to bring something into the design that was specific to the location without being so literal. This works because it falls in line with the beach theme.
"CONCRETE JUNGLE" looks torn and placed back together. This, along with the collage-esch, ransom-note-y look on the whole design, is reminiscent of the punk rock vibes we were going for.
The "Flex On The Beach" graffiti ties in with the punk rock elements BUT ALSO connects with the Concrete Jungle brand of being in the city/street art/underground.