Shirt logos

My first job out of high school was working in a screen printing shop.

I was in charge of taking customer ideas and logos and designing them out on Adobe Illustrator. I learned to vectorize objects, prep them for print, and became blazenly fast with the pen tool.

A customer could bring an old shirt into the office with a logo from a decade before, and within a short period of time I’d have that logo vectorized, color separated, and ready for printing.

I even tried my hand at the screen printing process itself. But my boss kindly steered me back to the computer, where my real talent lay. She was on a deadline and didn’t want to throw away crooked or smeered out prints.

Because of my time there I spent a lot of time thinking about logos and placement on swag.

These days I wear blank charcoal t-shirts 95% of the time. It’s not that I’m opposed to logos, but I’m incredibly picky about both the designs and the shirts they often arrive on. So I generally opt out.

When I joined my current company they gave me a bunch of swag, including a shirt with the company logo. The shirt though was too small (I wear a medium tall), and didn’t like the black color (we have cats).

So I printed the company logo on a DTF transfer and ironed it on myself. Note to future self, don’t use an iron with a waffle pattern.

The result is something I’m quite proud of. I get to wear my favorite shirt, with a logo that I’ve chosen for size and placement.