RaftUp Buffalo National River Shirt Design

“Raft Up” – a call to your friends on the water that says ‘Let’s get our boats together, and have a good time.’ RaftUp in the capital sense is a boating community app based in Little Rock, Arkansas. Having just started a clothing line for outdoor water life, this was the first illustration commissioned to carry the line.

The Challenge

RaftUp asked me to design a graphic tee for their community of app users that embodies the spirit of lake and river life.

Services

Custom Illustration

RaftUp: A Company / Way of Life

I don’t spend a lot of time in a boat, but in my first conversation with RaftUp, a boating community app from Little Rock, AR, I was told that “Raft Up” is a common phrase amongst boating enthusiasts. It’s a time that puts numerous boats in close range on a lake, a port, or even a river, and when it happens, it means it’s time to celebrate. It means you’re closer to friends on the water, or someone off your starboard side is out of beer.

RaftUp Buffalo National River Shirt Design RaftUp Custom Illustrated Shirt Design

On the shirt

The design is placed on the back, with the company logo on the front.

This kind of clean messaging with secondary branding is unusual. Most brands have a hard time not washing their consumers/users/patrons with their own kool-aid. For RaftUp, it’s easy to think this brand could go a long way in driving its own core belief which everyone with a boat shares:

“just have fun on the water, together.”