Alright, so I gotta tell you about this crazy thing I tried out – making a “Born to Play Fortnite” shirt. Sounds kinda cringe, I know, but my little cousin’s birthday was coming up, and he’s absolutely obsessed with the game. Thought it’d be a fun, personal gift, ya know?
First thing I did was hit up Google and see what kind of designs were already out there. Didn’t wanna straight-up copy anything, just wanted to get some inspo. Saw a bunch of stuff with the Fortnite logo, llamas, characters doing dances, the usual. Nothing really stood out.
Then I fired up Photoshop (yeah, I’m a bit of a digital packrat, still got it installed). I’m no graphic designer, mind you, but I can fumble my way around enough to be dangerous. My initial idea was to keep it simple. I wanted bold text that read “Born to Play” on top and “Fortnite” underneath. But I needed something more.
That’s when I remembered this cartoon version of my cousin I drew a while back. He’s got this goofy grin and always wears his favorite headset. So I dug that out, cleaned it up a bit, and decided to stick it right in the middle, kind of like he’s bursting out of the shirt.
Next step: figuring out the color scheme. Fortnite’s got a pretty vibrant look, so I went with a royal blue background for the shirt itself, with white and yellow accents for the text. His cartoon self, I kept the colors close to what he actually wears, so it felt personal.
I spent a good chunk of the afternoon tweaking the design. Messing with the font sizes, the placement of the image, adding a subtle drop shadow to the text to make it pop. Just fiddling around until it looked… well, not terrible.
Now, the actual printing part. I didn’t want to mess around with iron-on transfers or anything like that. Looked online for custom shirt printing services. Found a local shop that had decent reviews and seemed reasonably priced.
- Uploaded the design
- Selected the shirt size and color
- Paid the bill and waited.
A few days later, I got the call that the shirt was ready. Headed over to the shop, and honestly, I was pretty nervous. You never really know how these things are gonna turn out until you see them in person.
Turns out, it looked pretty damn good! The colors were vibrant, the print quality was sharp, and my cousin’s cartoon self looked hilarious. Way better than I expected. I even felt a little proud of myself, which is saying something.
Gave it to my cousin at his birthday party. He absolutely loved it! Wore it the whole day, even slept in it that night, his mom told me later. So, yeah, mission accomplished. It was a bit of a pain in the butt, but seeing his face light up made it totally worth it.
Would I do it again? Probably. It’s a fun way to make a unique gift. Plus, it’s kinda cool to see something you created actually become a real thing. Maybe next time I’ll try something a little less… Fortnite-y.
