Before You Make the T-Shirt, Build the Brand
Before You Ask What to Put on the T-Shirt, Ask a Bigger Question: What does your artist's world look and feel like?
Dorothy Nottingham is a multidisciplinary graphic designer, illustrator, and creative director behind Baby Snakes Creative, based in Central Texas. Known for combining handmade illustration with digital design, Dorothy creates distinctive visual identities that help artists, festivals, entertainment organizations, and brands turn an idea or story into a recognizable visual world.
Her work spans artist branding, illustration, album and promotional artwork, concert and festival creative, merchandise, environmental graphics and visual identity. Dorothy has created work for and supported projects involving C3 Presents, Two Step Inn, Robert Earl Keen/REK & Friends, Tanner Usrey, Claire Rosinkranz, Eli Winders, SXSW, Formula 1, Austin’s New Year, A Night for Texas and Echoland, as well as consumer and hospitality brands including Aguasol Tequila, Koko’s Bavarian, Miserable Brewing and Allen’s Bucking Bulls.
Her portfolio demonstrates how a strong visual language can move seamlessly from an illustration or piece of artwork into posters, album art, apparel, merchandise, signage, and a complete fan experience.
Her perspective brings an important piece of the merchandising conversation to the panel: great merch doesn’t begin with the product. It begins with a strong, authentic, and recognizable brand.
As an example, for The Two Step Inn music festival, Dorothy helped develop a visual identity from the ground up—creating colors, illustrations, and patterns that became an entire visual world.
That world then became:
Posters.
Signage.
Festival environments.
Experiences.
And merchandise.
Her work with Aguasol Tequila similarly shows how illustration and visual language can become distinctive, collectible products.
The progression: ILLUSTRATION → BRAND → MERCHANDISE
The lesson for independent musicians? Don't start with the T-shirt, start with the brand.
At the ATXM Master Class, Dorothy will help independent musicians think about merchandising from a designer’s perspective: before deciding what to put on a T-shirt, first define what your artist’s world looks and feels like. She’ll explore how illustration, color, typography, and visual storytelling can create an identity audiences recognize—and how that identity can then extend naturally into merchandise, live experiences, and other revenue opportunities. Dorothy will explore why musicians should stop asking: “What should I put on a T-shirt?” and start asking: “What does my artist brand look and feel like?”
Meet Dorothy and learn how to build a visual identity fans can recognize—and want to be part of—Sept. 14 at St. Edward’s University.
📅 Sept. 14 | St. Edward’s University
🎓 Master Class: 3–5 PM
🎶 Reception + Live Music: 5:15–7 PM
🎟️ FREE | RSVP Required | Limited to 300
#BabySnakesCreative #ArtistBranding #GraphicDesign #MusicMerch #MusicBusiness #ATXM
