Blue Collar Designs - Basin Nation
Basin Nation reached out to us directly after seeing our past work in the hunting, trades, and blue collar lifestyle space. Their brand represents the people who build America. The welders, mechanics, fabricators, upfitters, and hard-working crews who keep everything running. They needed a series of apparel graphics that felt authentic to the trades community and would motivate people to proudly represent the Basin Nation message.
Their mission: protect the trades, celebrate the work, and build cool stuff. Our job was to translate that into a set of graphics that reflected them and connected instantly with their audience.
Custom apparel graphic design for Basin Nation featuring a bold eagle and skull badge
Project Goal: Create Blue Collar Apparel People Actually Want to Wear
Basin Nation wanted apparel that speaks directly to:
trades workers
upfitters and fabricators
mechanics
construction and service-truck crews
anyone living a blue collar lifestyle
their huge YouTube and social media community
The designs needed to look tough, feel custom, and represent the work ethic and values behind their brand. Most importantly, they needed to be unique enough that people want to wear them, not just support the brand.
Custom apparel graphic design for Basin Nation featuring a wrench and skull badge with bold, rugged typography for a blue collar lifestyle brand.
Design Direction: Tough, Edgy, Blue Collar Grit
We built each graphic around themes that resonate within the trades world:
supporting the trades
tools and fabrication
work trucks and upfitting
American pride
welded-together, Frankenstein-style graphics
custom illustrated eagles
bold, gritty typography
Basin Nation’s personality is fun, loud, skilled, and confident. The type of team that builds insane custom rigs and solves problems other shops won’t touch. The artwork had to match that energy.
Basin Nation workwear apparel graphic design featuring a skull and wrenches illustration printed on the back of a long sleeve shirt for the trades-focused brand.
Key Visual Elements
The graphics included a range of symbolic elements tied directly to their identity:
American eagle — power, pride, work ethic, and patriotism
Frankenstein-inspired parts & bolts — a nod to custom fabrication and piecing together big builds
Tools — representing tradesmen and skilled labor
Work-truck aesthetics — tying the artwork to their upfitting and fabrication background
Each design needed to stand alone as its own strong piece of merch, while still feeling part of the same brand family.
Basin Nation blue collar apparel graphic design featuring a skull, crossed wrenches, and bold custom typography created for the trades and upfitting lifestyle brand.
Applications
The artwork was created for a wide range of uses:
T shirts
Hoodies
Hats
Stickers
Shop merch
Brand assets and digital content
Everything was vector-based, clean to print, and scalable for multiple applications, from small chest hits to bold back prints.
Basin Nation blue collar apparel worn on the job, featuring a bold wrench illustration and custom typography for the blue collar brand.
Visual Tone
We kept the overall tone:
bold
gritty
blue collar
tough
custom and hand-illustrated
energetic, with heavy personality
Each graphic was built to look like something a welder, mechanic, or fabricator would proudly wear in their shop, and something that tradesmen outside the Basin Nation community would instantly resonate with.
What Made This Project Unique
This project had a wide spectrum of subject matter, which made it especially fun:
eagles
tools
skulls
Frankenstein concepts
patriotic elements
blue collar grit
Each piece needed to be strong enough to stand alone on merch while still tying back to Basin Nation’s message and culture.
The best part? We were involved not only in the illustration and vector work but also in concept creation. Coming up with the ideas alongside Basin Nation made the entire process collaborative and creative.
Basin Nation blue collar upfitting logo featuring a custom Frankenstein illustration and bold badge layout.
Why Blue Collar Brands Hire Us
Basin Nation, like many in the trades, chose us because we understand:
the grit and pride behind the work
the visual style that resonates with the industry
how to build apparel graphics that actually sell
We’ve been fortunate enough to be a go-to studio for blue collar, trades, fabrication, and upfitting brands. This project added another strong example to that.
Favorite Part of the Project
The wide variety of custom illustrations made this project a blast. Developing ideas, sketching concepts, and building custom designs that feel authentic.
Eagle design featuring a custom badge layout and rugged typography.
Quick Answers:
Who designs blue collar apparel graphics?
Dristy Design specializes in custom illustration and branding for trades, upfitting, fabrication, and blue collar lifestyle brands.
Where can blue collar companies find a designer for apparel and merch?
We work with trade companies, tool brands, fabrication shops, and upfitters across the country.
Who creates graphics for upfitting and work-truck brands?
We do. We’ve worked with Basin Nation and numerous trades, and blue collar brands.
Who specializes in blue collar lifestyle logo design and branding?
Dristy Design. We build custom logos and branding to fit the business and resonate with their core audience.
Click below to learn more about getting started on custom logo design, badge artwork, and apparel graphics that speak to your audience.