This Summer I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to design the official shirt for the Broad Ripple Duck Race and 5k. The duck race is one of my favorite local events and I was beyond excited to come up with a shirt design to share with my community.
The inspiration for the shirt stemmed from reflecting on the canal that the ducks float down in the race. While the water in the canal is usually calm and slow moving, on duck race day the dropping of rubber ducks creates splashes and ripples that attract a gigantic crowd to the usually quiet area. I wanted to incorporate that idea of disruption into my shirt design by using uniformed horizontal lines distorted by the movement of an iconic rubber duck.
Additionally, I took a lot of inspiration from early 20th century italian racing posters (both road race and regatta events to reference some aquatic vibes as well). I love the movement and energy communicated by these posters and tried to incorporate similar elements in my design as well.
In the end I landed on a design that both I loved and the Broad Ripple association loved. It was incredibly rewarding seeing crowds of people wearing the shirt on the day of the event. The Broad Ripple association mentioned this was the most popular shirt design they’ve featured for the event which assured me that my passion for this community event translated through the visuals.