A Instagram artist I follow did a Tshirt design competition
fitting to the theme 'Menhera'. This is a style and theme I was already
familiar with and a fan of so I thought it would be fun to enter into the
competition. There were guidelines to the design itself only being able to use
a total of 5 colours excluding any use of gradients due to the printing
technique used. There was also a grid size limit which could not be crossed for
the design placement. Beyond these basic rules, I was free to do whatever I
felt fit the theme best. For those who are not familiar with the term Menhera I
put a fitting definition found online below:
Menhera (メンヘラ)* is a japanese slang term derived
from “Mental Healther*”. It became the spark of a sickly cute (病みかわいい) aesthetic which takes the abiguous usage of the word “sick”, like as an insult for something nonconformist, literally as reflection of the social stigma which still hides behind
the surface of “kawaii culture”. The imagery of this style is shown with contrasting themes
like cute objects and teddy bears with more questionable things such as gore,
death and medical themes.
(source: http://fymenhera.tumblr.com/info )
These
are a few different colour pallets i made based on medical themes. I made
emphasis on pinks, greenish blues and reds. Colours I associate with medical
wards and wounds. I made sure to include softer colours to keep with the cute
style associated with the theme.
I came up with two different designs that fit the theme of the contest both fitting in different ways. The first design I did was a sickly sweet 'get well soon' bear. It features 80's anime inspired eyes, bandages and cute medical themes. The second one took a very different approach to the same theme using a more mature almost grotesque schoolgirl with a visual representation of mental health through head trauma.
This competition was really fun, I always enjoy working with limited colour schemes and working with styles I don't get to use so often.
