I’ve spent the past three working days designing T-shirts for our camps this summer. It’s a fun project, because camp shirts are notoriously silly. So I try to keep them fun but at the same time make them slick and exciting.

So I finished my ninth T-shirt design this evening before I left work. Five of the designs are for the camp councilors:

Summer Staff T-shirts

Each of the three camps gets two of their own designs, for a total of six. The final design was based on the theme for the whole summer:; “Giddy-up”. I’ve already designed a retro cowboy shirt a couple of years ago, and it sold very well. And the logo that I designed for a our camp here in Arizona. So there was little material to incorporate into this design. It’s difficult to design a contemporary cowboy T-shirt and have teenagers take it seriously. So I went for a blinged out buckaroo.; I think I pulled it off.

Tomorrow I will make name tags and a banners based on that same design. Every summer is a new theme for camp, and I’m going to responsible for the graphics that bring that theme to life.

The banner is the coolest part of the project because it covers more square feet than my apartment in New York City. It’s the first thing to greet the campers as they drive up for the first day, and it is the backdrop to countless photos. When the summer is over, the banner is retired and hung from the rafters. As the years go by, it’ll be an impressive display that will help tell the story of the camp.

It’s been difficult to take time to design these shirts because it takes away from lifeteen.com. It’s not going to get any better because over the next week, I have to design seven new shirts. The website is a one-man-show, so the whole world knows if I’m off doing some other project. I really hope I get another intern or two by the end of the month. I need relief!