scw creative

Kirk Smith t-shirt

Last month, Kirk Smith came to me with an idea for a t-shirt for self-promotion. He held out a small metal plate that he’d taken out of an electric fan. With a twinkle in his eye, he asked, “What do you think?” I loved it.

With a handful of fonts, I recreated the design, substituting a few of the phrases for term specific to Kirk. Here’s what we came up with.

The catalog number is the actual catalog number for Kirk’s album, Suddenly Bright Out. See, Kirk wanted a t-shirt that was less about promotion than it was something someone would want to wear. But still, with an eye on promotion. His logic: he’d seen a cup at Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse that read, I love — can’t remember the name, but let’s say Andre D’Arcy so — Andre D’Arcy. Kirk found out later that this was a local musician. But more than about Andre D’Arcy, it was a cool coffee cup, one that Kirk wanted to use for his coffee.

With such a shirt, I can see how the shirt owner would proselytize Kirk more than the shirt by itself. Kirk’s logic is that word-of-mouth is more powerful than just seeing another name on a t-shirt.

In the end, he liked the second version the best. I do too. Look for the shirt soon at his website.

posted Aug 2004 in tshirt design typography - permalink