Living in a small New Zealand country town, my friend and client, a Freezing Worker with a passion for restoring classic American muscle cars, especially those from American Motors, approached me with a unique commission. His project was to immortalise his cherished 1970 Rambler Rebel SST on apparel, inspired by an advertisement from the April 1970 issue of New Zealand’s Reader’s Digest.
Concept Development
The brief was clear—to recreate the black and white ad of the Rambler Rebel SST in colour, but with a modern twist suitable for today’s fashion. The first step was understanding the nostalgia and the essence of the car’s era. The brief to maintain the advertisement’s simplicity yet enhance it with a contemporary touch to resonate with both car enthusiasts and fashion aficionados.
Capturing the Image
The process began with capturing high-quality images of the car. My client had lovingly cleaned and detailed his Rambler to perfection. We chose a serene garden setting for the shoot, which not only provided a beautiful backdrop but also symbolised the car’s journey from the hustle of the road to the tranquility of preservation. Using my trusty Canon 50D DSLR with a 70–200 mm lens known for its “big glass” portraiture capabilities, I was able to focus on the car’s details, from the right angles, to capture the chrome, the curves, and the aggressive 70s character of the vehicle in a way that echoed the original advertisement’s hip dynamic look.
Design Process
With the images in hand, I shifted to the digital realm. The task was to replicate the feel of the 1970s ad while ensuring the design would pop on fabric.
- Digitisation: I used Lightroom, then Photoshop to convert the Raw photographs into a high-contrast, colour format, then clear-cutting the car away from the background to mimick the original ad’s aesthetic.
- Typography: I matched the bold and condensed Helvetica typefaces and the outline effect applied to them in the 70s ad.
- Vectorization: For crispness in printing, I vectorized key elements using the paths feature in Photoshop, ensuring the design would scale perfectly without losing quality.
- Layout: The layout was designed to be large art that fits to the back or front of a garment, considering wearability and visual impact. We decided on a central placement of the car’s silhouette dominating the space, much like the ad but with the modern enhancement of enhancing the length of the red and blue wedges of colour to wraparound the right side of the garment, extending up toward the sleeve and the side seam. Visually the design is centred on the car, ‘mechanically’ the design is asymmetrical.
From Screen to Fabric
After an iterative process of refinement between the client and I, once the design was finalised, the transition to fabric began:
- Printing Prep: I prepared the design for DTF heat pressing, which would give us the durability needed for a garment meant for everyday wear and the flexibility to cost-effectively print a minimum of one.
- Heat Pressing: I love the tactile experience of heat pressing. It’s where art meets craft. Each DTF print for each hoodie was carefully laid out, and hand cut to fit, ensuring perfect alignment before applying heat, securing the design with both durability and a professional finish.
The final product was showcased on a grey marle hoodie, a snow marle t-shirt and a navy blue t-shirt, photographed beside New Brighton pier, adding a local touch to this mid-century American muscle car tribute. One of the models wore a dark hat, complementing the design’s retro yet fresh vibe. The image was shared online, and the response has been overwhelming, leading to a decision to make this design publicly available.
This project was not just about creating a t-shirt; it was about celebrating a piece of automotive history through the lens of personal passion and community. It’s a blend of nostalgia, craftsmanship, and local pride, now wearable art that tells a story every time it’s seen or worn.
If you’re interested in owning a piece of this unique narrative or commissioning your own custom design, feel free to get in touch using the order form below. Let’s turn your story into something you can wear with pride.
Surface Active Custom T-Shirt Order Form
Choose how you shop for your Men’s, Women’s or Kids’ New Zealand Nature t-shirts:
- at our New Zealand e-store based in Tauranga,
- our International e-store based in the United States,
- direct from New Brighton: Alternatively order directly from me for a custom made heat-pressed shirt. Ideal for pick-up at my New Brighton Seaside Market stall Saturdays, for me to cycle deliver locally or to send further afield via courier post.
- Note garment colour and size information is below the order form
Details: Our high resolution artwork and water-based ink system ensure that our wildlife art prints are crisp and vibrant, the sharpness and details of small dots and fine lines is clear and well defined, the prints are securely bonded to the fabric, they feel soft, smooth and blended in with the garment. While our T-shirts are well made from 100% combed ring-spun cotton*, they’re constructed from 185gsm (mid-weight) fabric, pre-shrunk, anti-pill.
- Tight knit for superior printability and handfeel
- Side seams for better fit and to prevent twisting
- Shoulder to shoulder reinforcing tape
- Twin-needle stitching on body and sleeve hems
* Marle colours have a 15 percent viscose content to produce that classic marle look.
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Thank you so much for purchasing one of our Surface Active New Zealand Nature tees.
While our delivery target is 1 week, we ask that you allow us up to 2 weeks to print and deliver your custom made T-shirt to you.
Shaun Waugh from Surface Active (note: if you are a New Brighton local, he’s the T-Shirt man at the Saturday Brighton Market) is the guy creating you custom tee for you with the assistance of his Christchurch custom print provider Merch Kings, and the crew of volunteers at his primary local retail outlet The Creatives Edit at 105 New Brighton Mall (where locals can pick-up their orders from Monday–Saturday).
Shaun designs and heatpresses all his art on garments. The print quality delivered by his printing process is exceptional and the finished product is carefully designed to be durable, reflecting the pride that Shaun has in hand-crafting his work.
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