IRL illustration #1 - Weezer Poster Sweater

Recently, the official Weezer Fan Club started up again.  It has been great reconnecting with my Weezer brothers and sisters, who are just as enthusiastic as I am about my all-time favorite band.

A few weeks ago, fan club member Michael McCarthy posted this photo from a few years ago of himself dancing on the Weezer Cruise:

I did a double take when I saw this and thought, "IS THAT A REAL-LIFE VERSION OF THE SWEATER I DESIGNED FOR THE MEMORIES TOUR POSTER???"  I asked Michael for confirmation, and he said that yes, he had in fact commissioned the sweater from a friend in Portland who knit it for him.

I had the idea for this sweater design back in 2006 when I drew this portrait of Rivers Cuomo for an editorial illustration assignment at Pratt Institute.  But that sweater was overly complex (too much cross hatching) and the two wings of the "W" didn't extend over the arms.  For the Memories Tour poster I simplified and improved the design.  Here's what version 2.0 looked like:

Please look back up at that photo and check out how accurate the real sweater is!  It's even got the one loose strand on the right sleeve!!!  Weezer fans are the best.  Anyway, it felt totally amazing to see something I had dreamed up turned into reality.

Next week I'll show you a second, even more amazing example of this happening to me!