Imaginary Shirt Design Company

Way, way too often, high school t-shirts are boring. They’re nice enough, but too often they are just products of the school name and colors being slapped on the same old boilerplate templates. Sometimes they are school specific, but they have been updated to death, filtered through brand guidelines and modernized to iron out any weirdness or link to the school’s unique history.

But in the not-too-distant past, there’s a whole world of line drawings, banners, bass drum heads, and uniform script. Things that are a little strange. A little imperfect. Things that set schools off from each other and allow them to be true to their own stories.

This is a project that imagines a world where the time and care can be taken to make things look more interesting. I scour old yearbooks, newspapers, and whatever else I can get my hands on to find historical design elements that I can reincorporate into something new. As much as I wish these were out in the world, nothing here is for sale. This is just a place for me to share these concepts–a glimpse into that more interesting world.