Lauren Easter

For my Activation project, I decided to delve into the widespread issue of toxic work cultures, and the normalisation of shady practices in the workplace. In our hyper capitalist society, obsessed with productivity and being constantly on the ‘grind’, I wanted to essentially poke fun at this concept with a series of t-shirt designs. Wanting to flex my drawing muscles and my love for character design, I decided to go for an illustration and type combo which I’d like to think turned out quite well! (PS credit to my lovely friends James and Sophia for helping model my work 😊)

Probably my favourite design of the three, ‘Run away from work’ is definitely straight to the point – encouraging people to ditch work! I created all three illustrations originally from an ink drawing in Clip Studio Paint, then bought them over to Illustrator to vectorize it (which totally didn’t take a billion hours). After I finally had the character to work from, I spent a while iterating through different typographic concepts until I settled on a bold condensed lettering and a scrappy graffiti font contrast, echoing my design research kit style. My favourite part of this design is the dynamic pose, and the sense of movement in the figure.

Another nice shot of the ‘Worst Employee’ shirt in the wild. Something about seeing it on someone really elevates the design!

The ‘Toxic Boss Beware’ graphic highlights a core player in the world of toxic work cultures – the toxic bosses at the helm! 99% of the time the reason behind a toxic workplace is the person at the helm, so I figured it would be good idea to highlight this in a hyperbolic way. Covering the figure in caution tape, and having the boss looking ‘down’ on the viewer in the illustration creates a domineering and dangerous vibe. This one was super fun to draw and brainstorm, as I was able to create a villain-like figure that the audience could be afraid of.

Another shot of the ‘Run Away from Work' shirt printout.

Finally, the ‘Worst Employee’ graphic highlights the ever-present need to be at the top of your game constantly at work, and how overwhelming that can be. Showing a businessman crouched covered in sticky notes, I think I represented this feeling quite well.