Final Form

January 27th 2021, my 27th birthday, I started the day with my first shot of testosterone for hormone replacement therapy. It was a fresh start, and I wanted to celebrate by doing some game and record shopping. Because this day was a Wednesday, I booked myself a special off hours visit to the shop in the St. Johns neighborhood called Final Form. It was my first time there, but the owner, Patrick, treated me with such warmth and the shop selection was so good, I knew I would be back. I started regularly going to Final Form after that, and because of the video game vinyl scene in Portland being so welcoming I soon had a new friend group—one of those being Patrick.

Fast Forward to summer 2023; he asked me if I wanted to do a shirt design and poster to commemorate the 5th anniversary of Final Form. Obviously I could not be happier to say yes! We spent a couple hours brainstorming and narrowed the concept down to a stout dragon-dinoish creature and did a new wordmark to accompany it.

I started cleaning it up in Procreate, and before we knew it we had the finished product ready for stickers and shirts! The reception for this design has completely surpassed my expectations. A Final Form regular even crocheted the creature I drew in two colorways and my heart about exploded. Truly more of an impact than I could ever ask for with something I’ve made.

Once the shirt design was finished, we focused on the anniversary party poster. Color palette was easy because of how strong Final Form’s identity already was, so I made the usual purple the star and did some firey shapes to mimic the new mascot fire breathing the wordmark. Organized all the information in order of importance for guests, and it was ready for printing!

I love this community that I have been able to be a part of, and it was so nice to see everyone have a good time at this event, celebrate Final Form, and create something that people can wear. The next year for Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2024, we had my shirt design put on a hat which was a longtime art goal for me.