Back towards the end of last year, Naughty Dog announced a The Last Of Us design contest. Not only would the winners have their designs made into t-shirts, they’d also be chosen by special guest judges and could win up to $2000.
360 designs were submitted and voted for. I remember looking through them all and thinking: ‘How did they make that look so cool?!’ I had a tough time voting, as I’m sure the judges did. There were some haunting, serious designs and there were some kooky, funny designs. Everyone who submitted a design had crazy talent, the kind of talent I can only dream of.
Out of the 360 designs, 5 were chosen. Those 5 designs have now been made into shirts and can be found on the We Love Fine site, which Naughty Dog partnered with for this contest. Here are the winners:
Brandon Meier, with his design ‘Endure‘, won The Grand Prize. Voted for by the fans, this design is captivating. Having a tumblr blog and following fellow member of staff here, Kae (who owns F#$! Yeah The Last Of Us), I’ve actually seen this design before as a post and loved it. Seeing it being a submission and finding out who created it, I voted for this one, so I’m real happy to see that others loved it too. Well done, Brandon, you really deserved this!
Ryan Brosnan, with his design ‘All Alone’, was Troy Baker’s pick. Troy Baker being the voice actor and living legend, who voiced and did the motion capture for Joel in The Last Of Us. This design is quite eerie, spooky even. It did catch my eye when I was looking through the submissions, so I’m totally not surprised that it caught Troy‘s too. Crazy talent on this one!
Mixing it up, Feli Tomkinson submitted ‘Killin’ Time’, which became Ashley Johnson’s pick. Ashley Johnson, being the amazing actress who voiced and did the motion capture for the outstanding character Ellie in The Last Of Us. This is a playful design, quite charming; understandably Ashley’s choice. She loved it so much, she tweeted a picture of herself wearing it. Feli, I’m jealous, if Ashley Johnson tweeted a picture of something I’d designed, I think I’d squeal and faint.
Jillian Hansen submitted the hypnotizing design ‘Clicker Nouveau’, which established itself as Neil Druckmann’s favourite. Neil Druckmann, a member of Naughty Dog, wrote The Last Of Us and was the creative director on the project. So, it’s quite prestigious to have your design picked by him, as I’m sure Jillian found out.
The final design was submitted by Catherine Unger, called ‘Joel and Ellie’. One of my personal favourites (I struggled to pick between this one and ‘Endure‘), I am thrilled to see that this was Bruce Straley’s pick. Bruce Straley, who was the game director on The Last Of Us, also tweeted a picture of himself in this shirt. With good reason, this shirt is awesome!
Hey, if you submitted a design, or if you voted for one, which wasn’t a winner, don’t fret! Here’s something that Naughty Dog stated in their blog post announcing the winners:
‘We loved so many of your designs that we talked it over with the awesome people of We Love Fine and they agreed to potentially make more t-shirts and items based on your art. News about this will be coming once we have worked out all the details. Look for more awesome Naughty Dog merchandise from We Love Fine in the coming months.’
So, keep a look out on We Love Fine, if you want to see your favourite design made into official The Last Of Us merchandise. If you’d like to visit Naughty Dog’s website where they announced the winners, click here. If you want to visit We Love Fine to see their The Last Of Us official merchandise, click here.
If you like any of the shirts here, comment below and let me know. I want to know what you guys think!
