LOUISIANA MADE
Crossing His Tees Baton Rouge designer Clint English creates iconic T-shirt designs for rock and roll royalty By Jeffrey portrait By
Roedel Romero & Romero
Band T-Shirts have for decades
done the yeoman’s work of drawing social lines in the sand, kick-starting conversations and forging the likes of late-night flirtations and even lifelong friendships. Besides, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the marks of amazing music just feels different on the body. Baton Rouge designer Clint English knows this better than most, and when he opens a sliding door closet filled with dozens of music T-shirts and says, “Here are my shirts,” he means they are his shirts in a way that very few others do. Since 2007, the 29-year-old Lake Charles native has been a graphic designer almost exclusively for the music industry — first for independent and local bands, then slowly he cultivated a roster of clients that reads like a slate of Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame inductees and GRAMMY winners past and present: Tom Petty, Foo Fighters, Britney Spears, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Doors and Marvin Gaye, to name a few. “I think the first design of mine I noticed in a store was a Paramore shirt I did, and it was for sale in Hot Topic,” English says. “That was obviously a cool feeling, but, honestly, I’m used to it now.” At any given time at least one of English’s designs is available in a mall or on a tour somewhere in the world. Commissioned directly by the major record labels, his graphics and illustrations become merchandise — T-shirts, jackets and tote bags, mostly — that then become the beloved apparel of a new generation of music fans. English was one of those very fans when he began making the shirts for bands he performed with during high school. “Just iron-on designs, punk-inspired DIY 14 Louisiana Life january/february 2018