52 Shirts

52/52: Bold Fish, Big Ocean

6/16/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on June 17, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Finishing one project, starting the next.

Each week for a year, I’m designed a shirt and released it on my Threadless store. This is the final design of the year.

This is it. The final shirt of my 52 Shirts project. This project has been everything I hoped, letting me explore a bunch of new ideas, techniques and inspiration. I’m almost sad to see it end. My sketchbooks are full of unused ideas. I could probably keep rolling for another few months without any problem.

I’m ready to move on to my next project, though. I’m starting a new blog and podcast: Bold Fish, Big Ocean. I’m excited to look at the people, things and ideas that inspire and shape me.

Bold Fish, Big Ocean is not quite ready yet — I’m still finishing up some things on the shirt project and need to work out some of the specifics for how I want to set up my new blog. But the logo is ready. This bold little fish has been hanging around for a few months waiting for the shirt project to wrap up.

The rest of this week, I’ll be posting some more reflections on 52 Shirts project. And look for my bold little fish to launch in early August.

You can purchase “Bold Fish, Big Ocean” from my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He just finished a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

50/52: Analog

6/2/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on June 3, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

I loved my analog childhood

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 50.

My entire childhood was essentially analog. I grew up with records, cassette tapes, VCRs and rabbit ear antennas. I took pictures on film and developed them in a darkroom. When I did research for papers in high school, I used the card catalog in the library to find resources. I sent people letters. And they wrote back. I didn’t have a mobile phone. And smart phones didn’t exist outside of science fiction. We had computers, but they were very simple and barely networked. I didn’t have to worry about social media or texting.

When I got to college, the internet was just taking off. I got email my freshman year and by the time I entered the workforce, everything was different.

I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t go back if I could. I love technology and I love all the things that are possible because of the advancements we’ve made over the last three decades.

But I loved my analog childhood. I feel like I’ve had the best of both worlds. I was able to grow up in a world with a lot less pressure and stress than kids have today. And then, I was able to fully benefit from the internet in college, when research and connectivity were more important. I appreciate how “easy” we have it today because I remember what it was like before. I think it makes me more thankful for the technology and capabilities that we have today.

You can purchase “Analog” from my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently nearing the end of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

49/52: Orion’s Belt

5/26/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on May 27, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Ancient stories in the sky

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 49.

At certain times of the year, when I walk out my front door, the constellation Orion is directly in front of me. Orion’s Belt is easy to spot — three bright stars aligned in a row. I learned all these constellations in Cub Scouts in elementary school, and I had a star field guide at some point. I’ve forgotten most of them, but I remember Orion. I tend to look for it whenever I’m somewhere I can see the stars clearly. Now, my kids and my wife look for it, too. My son, Ryan, is still convinced it’s called “Ryan’s Belt.”

I’ve been thinking about constellations lately. How ancient people found shapes in the night sky to tell their stories… and how we don’t really do that anymore. Our ancestors shared their ideas widely as they traveled and traded. Other cultures took and shaped the stories to fit their traditions. And now, we know stories that pre-date written history. It’s impressive that their narrative is alive today.

What constellations could we find today in the night sky to pass onto our future generations? What grand stories do we even want to pass along?

This week’s shirt is Orion’s Belt and you can purchase it on my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently nearing the end of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

48/52: Sand Dollar

5/19/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on May 20, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

The perfect beach souvenir

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 48.

Living in Columbia, South Carolina, we can easily make a day trip to Isle of Palms to spend the day on the beach. It’s a relatively easy drive when I-526 isn’t under construction. Other times during the year, we’ll head to Hilton Head. And whenever we head to the beach, our kiddos are somewhat obsessed with finding sand dollars.

Finding a sand dollar isn’t always easy. If the beach is crowded, it’s going to be tough to find one. You want to find a sand dollar that’s in one piece — the beach is littered with fragments of sand dollars. And it can’t be alive. Sure you can take a living sand dollar off the beach and bleach it, but that’s cruel.

We’ve got more than a couple that we’ve collected over the years. And they always remind me of the family beach trips we’ve taken in the past. We’ll take another day trip soon, and hopefully we’ll come home with a perfect sand dollar souvenir.

You can purchase Sand Dollar from my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently nearing the end of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

47/52: Coffee Run

5/12/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on May 13, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Things always loop back around

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 47.

I was a young kid when my parents got us a Commodore VIC-20. Around the same time, I was exposed to TRS-80 computers at school. With either system, you could load and play very simple games, but you could also write some simple programs. One of the easiest things to do was to write a simple loop, and then the string in the first line would repeat infinitely.

I’d go into Sears, Montgomery Ward or Service Merchandise and they had computers out in the electronics department. No one really knew how to display computers, and it was pretty clear the sales people had no idea what to do with a computer. The machines would just sit there. So I’d always write a loop, with “hello” or my name repeating infinitely. Just because I could.

It was also in that Chicago suburb that I learned about coffee. My father was the pastor at a Lutheran church with a strong Swedish heritage. And those church members loved their coffee. Strong, black coffee. No cream. No sugar. I didn’t drink coffee then… I was too young. But many years later, when I acquired a taste for coffee, I always tried to drink it black because I believed that had to be the best way to enjoy coffee. It’s funny how experiences from childhood always manage to loop back around.

Two formative experiences that aren’t connected in any way, but I put them on a t-shirt together, anyway. This week’s shirt, “Coffee Run” is available for purchase on my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently nearing the end of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year. Follow Bob on Twitter, Instagram and Micro.Blog.

46/52: Knowledge

5/5/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on May 6, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Facts at my fingertips

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 46.

My daughter, Jill, was asking me what I read for fun when I was her age. The answer probably isn’t surprising for anyone that really knows me: I read the encyclopedia for fun.*

My family had a set of World Book encyclopedias. I’d grab a volume, crack it open and look for something that interested me. I liked to read about space travel, other countries and creatures of all sorts.

Jill, of course, has no idea what an encyclopedia is. She eventually concluded that it was “like the internet, but printed out and never updated.” And yes, that’s reasonably accurate and more than a little snarky. But when I was a kid, the world’s knowledge, as I understood it, was completely contained within the 20 or so volumes that sat on the shelf in the family room. I still love finding a topic on Wikipedia and learning everything I can about it.

This week’s shirt is “Knowledge,” inspired by the encyclopedias of my youth. You can purchase Knowledge" from my Threadless store.

* I read more than just the encyclopedia. I also loved the atlas and anything by David Macaulay.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

45/52: Trophy

4/28/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on April 29, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Tangible validation

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 45.

My daughter’s orchestra performed at a competition at Universal Studios this week and won the highest honor. She volunteered to help carry the trophy back to their bus. While walking through the middle of a crowded park, people along the way — even though they had no idea why she was carrying a trophy — congratulated her. Everyone wanted to know what the trophy was for.

As a society, we love trophies (and plaques and certificates). They are a tangible representation of success. For some things like sports or races, the trophies are awarded to the last team or competitor standing. Other things are less black and white — like musical competitions, the Academy Awards and yes, design awards.

We love the validation that a trophy provides. We love to celebrate the moment. But too often, we’re quick to move on, seeking the next trophy. Wondering what else we can win. Never settling. And while that drive is wonderful, it’s also exhausting. It’s always important to keep things in perspective.

You can purchase “Trophy” on my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

44/52: One angry cloud ruins a picnic.

4/21/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on April 22, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

But maybe a picnic isn’t your only option.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 44.

It only takes one person to destroy what should be a fun time. One angry cloud. One person without perspective. One person committed to making people miserable. One unexpected storm. One person convinced that they are more important than everyone around them. And when that storm hits, it’s pretty much impossible to enjoy the picnic.

When the rain is coming down, no one will blame you if you pack up and go home.  But it isn’t your only option. You can tough it out (and dance in the rain). You can change your plans and get away from the rain. The choice is up to you.

You can purchase “One angry cloud ruins a picnic.” from my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

43/52: Orlando's

4/14/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on April 15, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Pizza and Pixels

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 43.

When I was a kid in the 1980s, we frequently ate at a neighborhood pizza place called Orlando’s Pizza. I don’t really remember that much about the pizza, but we always wanted to go there so the food must have been good.

In the back of the restaurant was a small arcade. “Arcade” is a little generous. It was at most four or five machines. After I finished my pizza I’d head to the back of the restaurant. If I had a quarter, I’d play. Or just watch the machines cycle through their demo screens. I played Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Galaga for the first time at the pizza joint.

It’s hard to imagine now, when the phone that we carry in our pockets play an endless selection of infinitely more complex games, but those arcade games were my first real exposure to computers. Our family eventually bought several Commodore computers, but my love of video games and technology can probably be tracked back to Orlando’s.

The restaurant is long gone, but I wanted to commemorate it with a redesign, renaming Orlando’s Pizza to Orlando’s Pizza and Pixels. And it was an excuse to turn a slice of pizza into an apostrophe.

You can purchase “Orlando’s” from my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

42/52: Dingbot

4/7/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on April 8, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Ten years of Fontstruct

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 42.

Ten years ago, I came across a web app called Fontstruct that allowed me to build modular type. I signed up and produced my first typeface, Pixa, which must have been terrible because I deleted it. But I blogged about Fontstruct and Pixa on April 6, so considering the site launched on April 1, I must have been one of the first wave of users.

Since then, I’ve released dozens of typefaces through Fontstruct. Some of these designs have been selected as Top Picks and some are pretty bad. Fontstruct designs have served as prototypes for several of my commercial designs. I don’t create much on Fontstruct anymore, but every so often, I’ll show up and enter one of their contests or knock out a quick idea that’s rolling around in my head. I love creating type, and Fontstruct is absolutely fun to create in. I really do need to find time to build more on Fontstruct.

It’s really amazing how the tool and the community has evolved over the last ten years. Users are building increasingly complex typefaces and now with the Google Fonts integration, the better designs might get a wider audience.

To commemorate joining the Fontstruct community ten years ago, I wanted to make a shirt featuring one of my glyphs… but which one? One of my pixel art designs seemed like a good idea, so I settled on my favorite robot from the original “Dingbots and Monsters.”

You can buy “Dingbot” on my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

41/52: Empty Tomb

3/31/18 • 1 min read

This post was originally posted on April 1, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Exit only

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 41.

I love Easter Sunday. The sunrise service. The hymns. The special music. The flowers. But most of all, I love the joy and the excitement. After the reflection of the Lenten season and Holy Week, we celebrate — we rejoice — that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.

The release date for this week’s shirt falls on Easter. The stone is rolled back and our savior exits the tomb.

You can purchase Empty Tomb on my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

40/52: Kudzu Palace

3/23/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on March 24, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

No one ever wants to eat there…

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 40.

When I was little, we lived in Stanley, North Carolina. Every so often on the weekend, we’d make the trek over to Gastonia to have dinner, go shopping or catch a movie. We’d drive along a road where every tree seemed to be covered in kudzu. If you aren’t familiar with kudzu, it’s a vine that grows relatively uncontrolled across the southeastern United States. It’s legendarily impossible to kill.

At some point on the trip, my dad would ask us where we wanted to eat. He’d give us three options, but the third option was always “Kudzu Palace.” Kudzu Palace didn’t exist, of course, but every time, my siblings and I would yell “Not Kudzu Palace!”

Now that I have kids, I often offer up Kudzu Palace as a dining option. Surprisingly, they never pick it either.

When I started this project, I actually planned to do a bunch of fake restaurants and brands. Kudzu Palace was one of the original ideas from my first set of sketches. The project has taken a different direction and the designs have been more conceptual, but I’m glad I finally got around to creating a shirt for my favorite fictional restaurant. Now, I’m wondering what’s on the menu.

You can purchase “Kudzu Palace” from my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

39/52: God and Science

3/17/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on March 18, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

You can believe in both.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 39.

I recently read an article by Don Lincoln, a physicist at Fermilab* describing a potential new discovery that sheds light — pun intended — on the formation of the universe. But what struck me about the article is his discussion of what happened after the Big Bang, how the universe expanded and formed planets and stars.

For some reason, science advocates and religious advocates are diametrically opposed these days. If you believe in basic scientific principles, some people assume that you don’t believe in God. And if you are Christian, some people assume that you believe that science is a hoax and the earth is only 6,000 years old.

But I’ve never felt my faith in God and my belief in science have been at odds with one another. I believe in evolution, climate change and vaccination. I also believe in the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. I feel that modern science is just one of the tools that God has given us to experience and understand his creation. I can believe in God while accepting that the Earth formed in more than 6 days.

In short, I believe in both God and science. And this week’s shirt is a rather direct statement of that belief. Of course, the shirt is only available in shades of gray…

You can buy “God and Science” on my Threadless store.

* I grew up in Batavia, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago and the location of Fermilab. I took many a field trip to the particle accelerator in our neighborhood.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

38/52: The Evolution of Storage

3/10/18 • 3 min read

This post was originally posted on March 11, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Everything is in the cloud now.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 38.

My first computer, a Commodore Vic 20, actually used cassette tapes for data storage. We upgraded to a Commodore 64 and it used a 5.25 inch floppy. So did the TRS-80 at school and the IBM PC at my dad’s office. When I got to high school, the 5.25 in drives gave way to 3.5 inch floppies. And while I was in college, the 3.5 inch floppy was replaced by a Iomega Zip drive that held an “amazing” 100 MB. Zip drives were popular until writeable CD-ROM drives became commonplace. Writeable DVDs seemed to be the natural next step, but USB thumb drives were cheaper and more convenient. Now, everything pretty much lives in the cloud.

There were — of course — storage devices that never caught on… I remember 44 MB and 88 MB SyQuest Drives. Iomega had a 1 GB Jaz Drive and introduced a 250 MB Zip drive to capitalize on the success on the 100 MB Zip Drive. Portable hard drives are still popular with people who need a lot of storage, but USB thumb drives are getting cheaper and increasing in capacity. Writable Blu-ray discs are expensive and take forever to burn.

I’ve watched computer storage evolve over the last 30+ years and now, we’ve reached a point where everything is in the cloud and there is very little reason to have physical media at all. There’s a part of me that misses carrying around all my files and projects and a collection of Zip disks, but I won’t miss the fear of losing a disk or having one fail catastrophically. Now, all my files are available to me on pretty much any device at pretty much any time.

This week’s shirt, “The Evolution of Storage” is a look back to the changes of how we store our important files and projects. Starting with 1.2 MB and spanning to the now seemingly infinite cloud.

You can purchase “The Evolution of Storage” on my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

37/52: Pens and Pencils

3/3/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on March 4, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

It matters what you write with…

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 37.

Several years ago, I was looking for new podcasts to listen to. I was regularly listening to Upgrade with Jason Snell and Myke Hurley and Myke mentioned that he had another podcast, The Pen Addict. An entire podcast on pens? I was curious and so I downloaded an episode to check it out. It didn’t take long before I had a collection of different writing utensils, inks, bags and sketchbooks.

I’ve mentioned before how uncomfortable I am with my handwriting and writing in general, but with better tools, writing was far more enjoyable. I really like writing with a fountain pen. Choosing the ink and the right nib style. Cleaning and taking care of them. I love the feel of drawing with a good mechanical pencil. I adore sharpening a wooden pencil and getting a perfect point.

Most people don’t think about what they write with. They use the pen in the office supply cabinet or whatever happens to be laying around the house. The last wooden pencil they used was a cheap #2 in elementary school. There is nothing wrong with that approach, but I believe the experience of writing changes when you use a good pen or pencil.

One of my earliest sketches for this shirt-a-week project was a short, fat pencil and I refined it into this shirt, Pens and Pencils. I’m going to the Atlanta Pen Show in April and figured I’d release the shirt now so I can order one and wear it to the show.

You can buy Pens and Pencils at my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

36/52: Lucky

2/24/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on February 25, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

My lucky streaked started with a Commodore 64 game

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 36.

I was in 6th grade and had saved my paper route money to buy “California Games” for my Commodore 64. I opened the box in the car on the drive home to look at the instructions and found a scratch off game card. Scratch off three circles and if they match, you win that prize. I scratched off three circles and they matched. I shouted in a mix of confusion and joy… “I won a jet ski! What’s a jet ski?” My mom didn’t believe me — and since she was driving, she got my older brother to take a look. He confirmed that I had, indeed, won a jet ski.

And that started one heck of a lucky streak. Over a couple of decades, I won a bunch of stuff… radio contests, door prize drawings, golf clubs, an iPod, season tickets for minor league hockey, software, a watch, a framed print and more. For a number of years, every time there was a door prize, I knew I was going to win it.* It was fun, although occasionally embarrassing. The streak seems to have ended a number of years ago, but I always wonder if the streak will ever kick back in.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day and my own crazy luck, I wanted to create a “lucky” shirt. And since my beloved Commodore 64 had lovely eight bit graphics, I figured a pixelated pot of gold was the perfect tribute to my amazing lucky streak.

You can buy Lucky at my Threadless store.

*Everyone asks if I ever won the lottery. I have not. Some odds are too impossible.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

34/52: Rocket

2/10/18 • 3 min read

This post was originally posted on February 11, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Getting excited about space again.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 34.

I grew up fascinated with space. I had books on the space shuttle. I wanted to go to Space Camp.* I watched movies and documentaries about the Apollo program. I remember the loss of Challenger. And the loss of Columbia. As the shuttle program came to an end, I followed along with the International Space Station and all the probes and rovers that we’ve sent out to the solar system. I listen to a podcast about space regularly. But with our future of space exploration in doubt, I admit that my excitement has waned a bit over the years.

This week, Space X reignited that excitement.

Falcon Heavy — the largest rocket launched since the Saturn 5 took astronauts to the moon — completed a successful test launch.

The launch was spectacular, but for me the highlight was the landing of two boosters in unison. Online, I saw too many people focused on the Tesla Roadster now floating towards the Kiper belt, or the loss of the third booster. But the Falcon Heavy represents the next step to returning to the moon, and maybe someday heading to Mars. Falcon Heavy is a big deal, and the test was a massive success.

“The launch was spectacular, but for me the highlight was the landing of two boosters in unison.”

I started the day as the only one I knew excited about the launch. I gathered my coworkers around the screen as I watched the launch live — with commentary from Jason and Stephen from the Liftoff Podcast. Some of them weren’t sure what it was a big deal. Others had no idea there was a launch happening. But it was wonderful to share the experience with my friends.

Later, after dinner, I shared the video with my wife and kids when I got home and talked about the launch and space exploration in general. Space X and Falcon Heavy have given people a reason to be excited about space again. I hope they continue to push forward.

I wanted to celebrate this new excitement with this week’s shirt, Rocket. It’s a Falcon Heavy roaring out of the atmosphere. You can buy Rocket at my Threadless store.

Closeup.

* And yes, this probably had something to do with the movie, Space Camp.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

33/52: Obscure Blogger

2/3/18 • 3 min read

This post was originally posted on February 4, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Entertaining and informing dozens since 2008

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 33.

I’ve been writing here on Sketchbook B for ten years this week — about 520 posts. Basically averaging a post a week for ten years. Most blogs don’t make it ten posts, but I’ve kept this site going consistently for a full decade.

Recently I started to talk to friends who had blogs, and now don’t. And their reasons for abandoning their blogs were all pretty much the same… it didn’t feel like anyone was reading. No one cared. And so, they stopped writing.

Believe me, I understand that feeling. I’ll craft a blog post that I think is great, and ten people will read it. Being an obscure blogger can be discouraging.

Over the last year, I’ve recommitted to writing for myself and I’ve been happier with the posts I’m publishing. Every so often, I’ll look at my analytics and slip into the “no one cares about what I’m writing” trap, but for the most part, I don’t allow traffic — or more precisely, the lack of traffic — bother me. I write for me, and I hope people like it and go away inspired.

I wanted to design a shirt to commemorate not just the ten years of Sketchbook B, but also the struggle of the obscure blogger. The person who writes in relative anonymity, because they love writing.

This week’s shirt, Obscure Blogger, I wanted to use one of my typeface designs, so it features one of my Fontstruct designs — SbB Epyx — and the tagline “Entertaining and informing dozens since 2008.” 2008 was the year I started Sketchbook B, but I’m happy to make custom variants with different dates if you want them. Just reach out and let me know what year you started your obscure blog and I’ll add it to the Threadless store, too.

You can purchase Obscure Blogger at my Threadless store.

A closeup, since it’s a little hard to read on the mockup.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

32/52: Reboot

1/27/18 • 3 min read

This post was originally posted on January 28, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Hitting reset on my digital life.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 32.

I love technology. I’ve had a computer around since our family bought a Commodore VIC-20 in the mid 1980s. And yet, lately, I’ve been feeling as though my digital world — with social media, Slack, email, blogging, streaming video — is slowly burning me out. I used to enjoy Twitter and Facebook, but I enjoy them less now. Slack works great for small groups, but I have no idea how anyone can cope with the volume of messages. Email is still email — and work email is still work email — but I feel like I have a grip on how to handle email. I’ve built a system for how to handle my email, but I have no idea how to manage the volume and impact of everything else.

It’s time to reboot my relationship with technology.

When something goes wrong with technology, 99.9% of the time, the solution is to reboot. Start over. Turn it off and turn it back on. So I’m rebooting my digital world before I burn out. It’s a work in progress. I’ve eliminated many of my notifications — and I need to eliminate more. I’ve started to pay less attention to stats and numbers on my personal accounts and sites. I’m going to start implementing some device-free time.* I’m thinking about shifting task management back to paper.** I’m going to drop services that I don’t get value from and change the way I use the web. I’ve already started some of this — and I can already feel a difference.

This week’s shirt is “Reboot.” I built the word on a five pixel high grid, and then changed the opacity on some of the blocks to degrade it a little bit. You can purchase it in a range of blacks and greys on my Threadless store.

* I’m pretty hard core with my kids about device free time, but I need to look in the mirror and put my own phone away.

** I’m a devoted Todoist user, so this is a big change. I have my reasons why I think this will make a difference and will write about it soon.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

31/52: Digital Hieroglyphics

1/20/18 • 3 min read

This post was originally posted on January 21, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

What’s old is new again.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 31.

I remember learning about hieroglyphics in elementary school. Hieroglyphics, we were taught, were an early form of written communication in ancient Egypt, less advanced* than our modern writing system. We were given the assignment to make our own pictograms and write messages with them. (I’m pretty sure my daughter had the same assignment last year.) It was a fun experiment, but I remember thinking: Who would ever want to communicate with pictograms?

Well, turns out hieroglyphics are making a comeback. This time, they are called emoji.

I was a little late to the emoji train. I will freely admit that I thought they were a complete waste of time for a while, but I eventually came around. Emoji are fun and convey emotion and concepts well. I’m still pretty conservative with my emoji use — I rarely use more than one at at time — but I absolutely use them.

We as a society have embraced emoji. One of the biggest incentives for upgrading our smartphone operating system is to get new emoji. There are heated discussions about what emoji should be included in the next Unicode release. Micro.blog is experimenting with using emoji as tags — similar to how hashtags are used on Twitter — and it’s awesome. Communicating with pictograms isn’t primitive. It’s an effective way to get your message across.

“Communicating with pictograms isn’t primitive. It’s an effective way to get your message across.”

I wanted to make an emoji shirt and reference the similarity to hieroglyphics, so I built a pyramid** of emoji. It was tough to find an emoji font that I could use for a product like this one.*** Most charge extra for using their design in a commercial product. I finally found Google’s open source Noto family, which includes two emoji fonts. I didn’t like the faces in Noto, but the rest of the set was great and perfect for my pyramid. I decided to use the black and white version because I fell in love with the high contrast look.

You can purchase “Digital Hieroglyphics” from my Threadless store.

* Of course, I later learned that Egyptian hieroglyphics were much more advanced than we were taught in elementary school. I’m pretty sure this is another example of Western cultural bias here. Modern society assumed pictograms were primitive and letterforms were superior. Turns out pictograms can be a powerful way to communicate, too.

** I was fascinated by pyramids, mostly because of David Macaulay’s book, Pyramids. For a period of time, I loved to read about all things ancient Egyptian.

*** Have you tried to use emoji in print? Let’s just say it’s much harder than you’d think it would be.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

30/52: Love

1/13/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on January 14, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

It’s simple, really.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 30.

Love takes many forms. We love our partner or spouse. We love our children, our family and our friends. We love our pets. We love our neighbors, even if they are different than we are. We love others, even if they are in a different part of the world.*

We show love in many ways. We show it through our actions and our words. We show it through our compassion. We use our time and energy to serve others. Love is the foundation of a positive world.

Tomorrow is a holiday to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Love was his guiding compass. And it should be ours today.

Visually for my “love” shirt, I wanted to take a minimalist approach to the word love. I didn’t want to design anything flashy or do a bunch of hand lettering. Just simple and straightforward.

You can purchase “Love” from my Threadless store.

* And especially if their corner of the world isn’t as nice and safe as ours.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

29/52: First Camera

1/6/18 • 3 min read

This post was originally posted on January 7, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Photography was one of my earliest artistic influences.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 29.

I was a photographer long before I was a designer. My father loved cameras and had a selection of Minolta 35mm cameras, lens, flashes and other accessories. They were often used for family pictures after church and vacation photos. My parents kept tons of photo albums around and so I grew up with photography everywhere.

When I started high school, I took pictures for the yearbook and newspaper. I signed up for a class at Midlands Tech on photography and darkroom skills. I worked in USC Aiken’s darkroom some — my high school didn’t have it’s own darkroom — but I eventually got an enlarger at home and printed my own images in the bathroom.

I used my dad’s cameras for most of this, but at some point during my senior year, I picked up a used Minolta X-700 to be my camera. I shot a bunch of high school sports and needed a long, but affordable lens so I used an old 200mm f3.5 lens that we purchased from KEH in Atlanta. I borrowed one of my dad’s motor drives and that combo was my primary camera set up for a number of years. When I went to college at the University of South Carolina, I worked in student media and shot football and basketball games with it. I also worked a bunch of concerts with that camera — Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails, Gin Blossoms, Green Day and more.

I discovered design when I was in college, but photography was my first love and one of my oldest artistic influences. I’m glad I got the experience of shooting on film and working in a darkroom. I’m grateful that I had to learn to shoot with manual focus before autofocus happened. I’m thankful for autofocus and digital photography, but I feel like I understand photography better because I had to do things manually.

“I discovered design when I was in college, but photography was my first love and one of my oldest artistic influences.”

At some point, I switched to Canon autofocus when I purchased an A2E with “eye-control focus.” And then to digital SLRs when my oldest child was born. I gave my old Minolta gear to my dad who collected cameras and he had them displayed with other old cameras he had used or found at yard sales. A couple of years ago, he was cleaning out some things and asked if I wanted some of his old camera gear. I took several of the old Minolta bodies, including my X-700, and displayed them in my office — next to my darkroom clock.

I wanted to create a shirt based on my love of photography. And that X-700 kept popping in my head. So I recreated it, taking some editorial license. It’s one of the most detailed vector illustrations I’ve ever done and I had a blast with it.

You can purchase “First Camera” from my Threadless store in a range of colors.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

28/52: Perspective

12/30/17 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on December 31, 2017 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

More than just an art lesson.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 28.

I can’t remember what year of elementary school I was introduced to the concept of perspective. All I know is that once I was introduced to single point perspective, I drew cubes on everything. Later, when I was introduced to two-point perspective, I’d break out a ruler and draw massive cityscapes.

Perspective, for some reason, was an early art lesson that made an impression. I think it was because once you understood the concept of perspective, you looked at the world in a different way. What something looks like depends entirely on your point of view.

Perspective, it turns out, is more than just an art lesson. Learning to take into account other people’s point of view is critical to understanding and working with other people. Everything is a matter of perspective.

You can buy, Perspective, from my Threadless store. It’s available in a wide range of colors.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

27/52: Doodle

12/23/17 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on December 24, 2017 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Escaping the margins.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 27.

First of all, Merry Christmas. Today is Christmas Eve and I wish all of you a joyous Christmas and a Happy New Year. I released a couple of Christmas shirts earlier — First Tree and Secret Santa. I released them early so people could have them in time for Christmas if they wanted to order them, so it feels a little odd releasing a non-Christmas shirt on Christmas Eve.

I love to doodle. During a conference call or a long meeting, I’ll fill the margin of my notes with mindless little sketches that just kind of flow from the discussion. Sometimes I’ll sketch ideas out that are stuck in my head. But often, I create patterns. Really detailed patterns that form some kind of shape.

These sketches rarely leave my sketchbook or notes. I once did a massive pattern for an InShow poster, but I don’t use the pattern in my artwork much. When I started to think of ideas for this shirt, I was struggling to finalize an idea that I was happy with when my wife mentioned that she’d love to see me do something with my pattern doodles.

Close up of the pattern.

I broke out the Microns and some smooth, heavyweight paper. And I spent the evening doodling the word “doodle.” I photographed the pattern in sections, assembled it in Photoshop and cleaned it up slightly. I really love the look of the pattern and I need to find other ways to use this technique.

This week’s shirt, Doodle, is best in lighter colors. (Personally, I love the black ink on the white shirt…) You can purchase Doodle from my Treadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

26/52: Watch out world

12/16/17 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on December 17, 2017 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Simply determined.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 26 and marks the halfway point for my 52 Shirts project.

My oldest became a teenager this week, so it was her turn to work with me to design a shirt.* We had everything completely planned out, but when I finished it, neither of us liked it.** While we sat at the dining room table trying to improve the design, she doodled on a sheet of paper “Watch out world, here I come.”

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to her doodle.

“I don’t know. Sometimes, you need a plan B, right? It’s always good to have a plan B.”

It was, indeed, time for plan B. I took her phrase and shaped it into an exclamation point.

Norah’s determined. She’s one of those kids who just won’t quit. Smart, strong and kind. “Watch out world, here I come” seemed perfectly appropriate to celebrate her 13th birthday.

You can purchase “Watch out world” from my Threadless store in a wide range of colors. And happy birthday, Norah!

* Now that Norah’s shirt is done, we’ve completed birthday shirts for all of Team Wertz — Me, Jill, Ryan, Liz and now, this shirt for Norah. It’s been fun — and challenging — partnering with each of them on their shirt.

** The original shirt was going to say: “I’m afraid of clowns, snakes and being like everyone else.” Alas, choosing a typeface we both liked proved to be impossible.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

25/52: Day One

12/9/17 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on December 10, 2017 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

The first day of many.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 25.

2017 wasn’t a great year for me, but I’ve got a bunch planned for 2018 and I’m really looking forward to the year ahead.

January 1, 2018 is the first day of the new year, but it’s also only one day. One day of 365. We pay special attention to New Year’s Day. We make resolutions and we celebrate the start of a new year — a clean slate. But we need to spend the rest of the year making good on those resolutions and living out those best intentions.

I also need a reminder that one day is only one day. Some days will be really awesome and exceptionally productive. And others will seem like a complete waste of time. But it’s only one day. I can’t get too high or too low. I need to trust the plan and keep working toward my goals.

Day One is my shirt for New Year’s Day, but also for the rest of the year. You can buy Day One on my Threadless store. And here’s to a great 2018.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

24/52: Mountains and Oceans

12/2/17 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on December 3, 2017 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

You can love both.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 24.

When I started this project, one of the first shirts I sketched out was for my wife’s birthday. I liked the concept, but when I went to execute it… It was fine, but it didn’t look like Liz. So I worked on some other ideas and none of them seemed quite right. Liz has been one of the biggest cheerleaders for this shirt project and I really wanted her shirt to be perfect… it wasn’t.

I took Liz to Hilton Head* to celebrate her birthday and we went for a long walk on the beach. One of the many topics of discussion was our mutual love of both the ocean and the mountains. Liz grew up out west with amazing mountains, but never really went to the ocean. When she moved east, closer to the ocean, Liz discovered that she loved the ocean as much as she loved the mountains.**

I came back to our hotel room and sketched out what would become Liz’s birthday shirt, Mountains and Oceans. You can get Mountains and Oceans — and all the other shirt designs — at my Threadless store.

* Hilton Head in the winter is wonderful. I highly recommend it.

** Living in Columbia, SC, we are two hours from the coast and two hours from Asheville. For people like us who love both the mountains and the sea, being in Columbia is a perfect location.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.