Print Design.
I learned to print as a lab monitor at Barry University, handling tech and print requests for students and faculty. Every skill starts somewhere, and mine started there. What follows is how it grew: from one sweatshirt to fan commissions, my own clothing line, and printing for clients at scale.
YEARS
2019–present 7 years printing
TOOLS
Illustrator & Photoshop
Screen Print & DTG
GREW INTO
Merch → brand → clients
Now printing at scale
STARTED
Barry University
Lab Monitor
AIGA Competition
In 2019, a group of design students and I participated in the Miami AIGA Recycled Runway, where we created a Bauhaus-inspired suit and dress using unconventional recycled materials, including newspaper and moss. This project was my first opportunity to explore how visual art could be translated into fashion through form, texture, and material. Our work was featured on the front cover of the Riverside Times and later exhibited at the Andy Gato Gallery at Barry University.
Pop Smoke
In 2020, after the artist Pop Smoke tragically passed away, I decided I was going to make a sweatshirt in his honor. When people pass in NYC, we design merch to represent. I made a three-part video series of my process and the videos blew up — I was one of the first designers to honor the rapper, and people wanted the shirt. That’s when I began to grow curious about the clothing design process for mass production, and realized I wasn’t equipped to design at that scale just yet.
Fan Merch
Then I got into fan merch, once my followers on social media learned I could design custom apparel. All of these shirts were commissioned by the artist’s fans. I really enjoyed the collage concepts that put artists together.
Dawson Fits
I love fan merch, but the work is never fully yours — it's built on someone else's name, and anything you make that well can be taken. The only way to own what you make is to build something original. That's Dawson Fits. The name is literal: at 6'3", finding clothes that fit was always a gamble. The work itself is about not fearing your process. When I started I was a college student in a print lab letting my creativity run rampant, so DF stays rooted in wisdom, truth, and starting at the bottom to make your way to the top.
Printing for Orgs
As my skills in print production advanced, so did the jobs. I got more creative with my process and started showing people how the work actually gets made — and people wanted to be part of it. That turned into real production runs: merch for schools and their students, apparel for sports teams, and individual pieces made as birthday gifts or just because someone earned one. Every order pushed me to scale up how I produce.
NC Folk Fest
This summer, I joined the NC Folk Fest apparel crew. I helped finalize digital design assets, built product mockups, and got designs ready for print. One of my shirt designs was printed and featured at this year’s festival, September 18–20, 2026.
I’ve always dreamed of working collaboratively at this scale, alongside designers, project managers and people with serious style. This crew gave my creativity room to run.
Reflection
Print design taught me what it really means to meet both business-to-consumer and business-to-business demand as an entrepreneur. The most valuable lesson: don’t fear the process. You will fail, and those failures turn into experience.
That experience took me from printing shirts in my room to running full print production for a sports team. It’s why I love this art form: it lets me turn digital concepts into things people can wear.