UCEAP Shirt Design Contest

My friend called me the other day to ask for help with a shirt design. The design was for UCEAP, the UC system's travel abroad program. I ended up getting really into it, and I guess you could say I "spent four days working on a shirt design for a school I am not even attending yet instead of doing calculus homework," but I see it more as "having a good time with my friend."

Anyways, let me tell you a bit about this design. I wanted to incorporate aspects of traveling, learning, and living (ooh, it's the UCEAP slogan!) into it. Obviously, the plane and landmarks represent traveling. They all rest on the foundation of traveling to learn, hence the book holding everything up. I included the "live" aspect by making the whole shape of the design into a heart. "Wherever you go, go with all of your heart," as Confucius said. I wanted the elements to look like they were exploding out of the book, so I used some clouds to do that. To represent that this was from California, there is a teeny tiny California under the banner, which is where the plane's dotted trail originates from!

I poured my heart and soul into this and I absolutely love it. Please take a few moments to bask in my artistry. Thank you.

UPDATE: We got second place B)