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 are the three drafts:

The catalog number is the actual catalog number for Kirk’s album, Suddenly Bright Out.

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 prosteletize 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.