He is the talent behind DetroitGT, a popular, fun line of t-shirt designs that reflect the pride of living in Detroit and the suburbs. Chris is an illustrator and graphic designer born and raised in the Detroit area. He began filling the blank pages of his coloring books with drawings of cars, trees, and dogs at the age of 3.
Chris graduated from the Center for Creative Studies and started his own design studio in Hamtramck. Later he honed his business and art skills being a Senior Art Director on the Chevrolet account at Campbell-Ewald. There he began turning his doodles, drawings, and clever headlines into t-shirts. His layoff at CE turned this hobby into a local t-shirt brand. His passion for classic Chevrolet automobiles and graphic tees found him purchasing a classic 1979 P-10 Chevy step-van, naming it LEO (after his grandfather, Leo Gorski) and he started selling his original designs out of the truck at local music events, art fairs, and car shows.
How long have you been creating your artwork?
I've been illustrating and designing since I was a child. It was a high school vocational commercial art program that taught me to silkscreen my artwork onto t-shirts and garments. After doing low runs for friends and family for a number of years, I formed my t-shirt brand DetroitGT in 2003 to sell to the public via the web, art fairs, and local stores.
What makes your artwork unique or distinctive?
My designs are hand drawn by me. I never use clip art or computer generated type to create my designs. Even the typography used was created by me. Good penmanship was something a number of instructors instilled upon me and I have continued to hone and master.
What inspired you to start creating your artwork and how did you turn it into a business?
I would draw things and people would say, "you should put that on a shirt, I would buy that," so I started to listen to my friends and started doing it!
What do you remember wanting to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a car designer.
What do you most love about the creative process?
I love the feeling of being inspired and not being able to stop creating or drawing at a certain point. It's like driving a car fast and not wanting to stop.
What do you enjoy doing besides making art?
Collecting cars ('66 Corvair convertible, '69 Chevy C10 pickup, '79 Corvette, '79 Chevy P10 step van, '99 BMW Z3), swimming, kayaking, and biking.
Quotes you love or live by:
"...making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art" - Andy Warhol
"What are you waitin' for, nobody's gonna show you how. Why wait for someone else to do what you can do right now?" - Madonna
You can find lots of Chris's clever tees at Yellow Door and online.
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