Recently I was given a project of designing a new T-shirt for a really neat ranch in Idaho. The customer was looking for a fresh new look from what they had been using for some time now. I was asked when designing the new layout to make sure it included various aspects of the ranch and what they offered. Those aspects were a mule train, deer and/or elk, white water rafting and an airplane. The only way to get to this ranch is by either plane or rafting so these were major aspects that had to be included. After getting all the information and seeing past designs, I immediately knew how I wanted to approach this project.
The design layout started out as rough sketches in pencil and paper. Once the initial layout was approved I was able to start digging into the real design work.
I started on the main focal point of the design, the name of the ranch, which will also be used as the front left chest print. Using Bitstream Font Navigator, I searched through my collections until I found a couple of unique font styles that fit the overall design and the look I was after. I actually ended up using two separate script fonts to create an elegant yet sporty look. I added a couple contour steps to the outside and one to the inside to get that sporty look.
Now that the main focal point was finished, using Corel CONNECT®, I searched my Stock photo collections for all the various elements the client wanted included in the design.  Once I found all the images, I proceeded to convert them to Black & White (1 bit) images and then traced to vector using Corel's Trace Bitmap features.  Finally cleaning up the silhouette shapes (elements) and removing any non essential nodes using the shape tool (F10).   (By cleaning up the objects nodes I know that this can later be used in other media with minimal to no issues such as vinyl. This design can easily be cut in vinyl due to the clean node count.)
Next, I started adding layers via the Object Manager and placing each element on its own layer. Having each element on its own layer makes for easy selecting and manipulating without affecting other objects in the design. I then started moving the various elements around the main focal point until I was happy with their positioning, angles and size.
From the initial start of this project I knew we were going for somewhat of a simplified woodcut or old sign look and feel to the design. In order to achieve the look, I used the contour tool to add multiple stepped, outside contours. Adding the contours to all the elements also helped make them more legible and the overall design more pleasing to the eye. The coloring of the contours also help to move the viewers eyes throughout the design as well as giving it a sense of depth.
Once approved the (6) six spot color design was reworked into a 2 color distressed option. After re-coloring the design, I imported a custom monochrome distressed filter I created from a photo of tree bark and placed over the entire design to give it a worn and vintage feel.  This logo can also be made into a simple single color graphic for vinyl applications such as window or bumper stickers with minimal effort due to the steps taken during creation.