The Undestructable

The process an artist takes to develop an idea into reality can take many forms. When working on apparel design, even more care must be taken as there are many considerations that must be made. While we intend to go into more detail on the screen printing and manufacturing process at a later time, we recently spent some time speaking with one of the Mr. Rockets premier artists Chris Soprano on the design 'Undestructable.'

Creating our hero's first adventure was like reliving my childhood. I got a chance to reminisce about when my imagination made anything possible. A bucket and a towel became impenetrable armor enabling me to defeat the most insurmountable odds. Such is the situation we find our hero in. This glimpse into a new and fantastical world is limited only by how soon Mom will need the bucket back to mop the kitchen.

When we first approached Chris with the idea for 'Undestructable,' it came in the form of abstract images, feelings, and concepts that we wanted to portray on a t-shirt. At the time, Mr. Rockets was nothing more than a big idea. Our discussions with Chris laid the groundwork which we then built off of to springboard the whole Mr. Rockets concept into fruition. After some back and forth, we settled on the overall direction of the design and Chris got to work.

The expression on his face went through many variations. He's impressed with what he's done, but not surprised. Early hijinks also involved failed bike stunts. This humble beginning lead to the great battle you see before you.

We spent an incredible amount of time working on the boy's face! It was crucial for us to achieve the exact look that we wanted. A slight variation on an eyebrow, pupil, or crease in the mouth could portray a whole different set of emotions.

Being the first design for the new company, a lot of work went into getting everything just right. While the first iteration of the design involved a boy and his bike, we ended up going for something a little more fantastical. We worked through a few different concepts for the background and eventually agreed on the Cycletrons - Steampunk dandy robots with a bad attitude. That being said, many of the concepts were so strong, don't be surprised if you see them popping up in future designs!

There are over fifty robots which appear in the final image. Keeping track of to whom an arm or a leg belonged to proved to be quite a challenge. In order to keep from going cross-eyed I decided to color code the characters. This allowed me to match the style of each individual robot's parts to the rest of their body as they wove in and out of the pile. For additional consistency the wheels of the bicycles were drawn in a vector format. This kept the spokes of the rims aligned properly while twisting them to depict the damage inflicted.

Chris' methods allowed for an incredible amount of flexibility in design. While he developed most of the image using traditional mediums, he merged the individual pieces on a digital canvas and took care to keep everything organized and separated. This became particularly handy when we needed to change the dimensions of the image. Within a day, Chris was able to get back to us with the taller, thinner image completed and ready to print!

I had as much fun creating this scene as our hero did wrecking it. Designing the Cycletrons was an exercise in the unlikely. I am a big fan of the Steam-Punk aesthetic and wanted to cross that methodology over to a more pop culture sensibility. It became an unlikely symbiosis which reveals my quirky sense of humor. Tommy and Dan were kind enough to oblige my eccentricities and our epic's first act comes to a dramatic conclusion; be it determination or pre-adolescent naiveté, Mr. Rockets is "Undestructable".

You'll be able to purchase 'Undestructable' along with some of Chris Soprano's other designs for Mr. Rockets at our online store in just a few months. Keep watching to get more details as they come!