Welcome to The Shirt Project Blog! We on the Executive Committee are thrilled to unveil The Shirt’s new blog and for our inaugural post, an announcement about the 25th Anniversary and the story behind the 25th Anniversary logo for this year’s Shirt.

The Shirt 2014 will mark The Shirt Project’s 25th year and 26th shirt. Two shirts in 1990—one green, one navy—made waves with the student body. When sales of The Shirt 1990 far exceeded expectations, former vice president of student affairs Sister Jean Lenz and former director of student activities Joe Cassidy created the “T-shirt for the Cause.”

Proceeds from the navy shirt benefitted the medical bills of Zhengde Wang, a doctoral student who sustained serious injuries in an Oct. 1989 car accident. Now, 50 percent of the initial profit go directly to The Shirt Charity Fund, which benefits students whose extraordinary medical conditions require payment beyond their means.

The other 50 percent, by the way, serves Notre Dame students as well! That includes activity fees for clubs and organizations and The Rector Fund.

“I would like us to celebrate all of the wonderful things that students over the past 25 years have been able to do with the funds that The Shirt provided to them,” president of The Shirt Project John Wetzel said. “We would like to show the Notre Dame community when they have bought The Shirt over the past 25 years that they have not only been supporting Notre Dame Football but also allowing the incredibly talented students of this university to make the most of their time here.”

We’ll be using this blog to give you an inside look at the history of the Project and the development of this year’s Shirt. And look out for exciting events revolving around the 25th anniversary!

Here’s the logo, brand new and ready to be put on shirts, websites, advertisements, hats or wherever else we choose to use it (Hats? Yes, there was once a Hat produced by The Shirt—stay tuned for a post on that!).

This year two graphic designers, sophomores Camden Hill and Victor Roh, will lead the creative development of The Shirt, but the process involves collaboration among the entire executive committee.

Camden Hill, a computer science major living in Keough Hall, stressed the importance of conversation and feedback when he spoke with me about the design process for the 25th Anniversary logo.

“This was by far the most collaborative a project that I have ever worked on,” he said.

Hill said the creative team quickly narrowed their design focus on what ideas carried the most value for The Shirt Project’s 25th year: the longevity of the Project and its connection to Notre Dame Football.

“We were initially in agreement that the main focus of this logo would be to let the 25 shine,” Hill said. “We toyed around with the words “years” and “anniversary” and debated what else to add.”

Hill said he feels no added pressure in designing the 25th anniversary Shirt, noting that the job always comes with public scrutiny. He said the unexpected challenges have come instead from the committee’s geographic diversity—Hill hails from California and Roh from South Korea.

“We had to reschedule an online meeting one time because we didn’t realize it was set for 3:00 AM in South Korea so we accommodated Victor by instead making him get up at 6,” Hill laughed.

Check back for more behind-the-scenes posts and peeks into The Shirt’s history every Friday! And mark your calendars for the Unveiling Ceremony on April 11.

Originally published by The Shirt Committee 2014 at theshirt.nd.edu on January 14, 2014.