After Lando’s win this morning, I thought I needed a “papaya” shirt. Alas, I don’t wear orange, so this papaya shirt also comes in grey. Available on Cotton Bureau.
Merch
Sometimes I create shirts and stickers. I design them mostly for me, but anyone can buy them.
Before Thunderbolt, there was SCSI. Another t-shirt design for my retro tech merch collection.
Cotton Bureau Thread Colors Palette for Canva Affinity
6/4/26 • 1 min read
As part of my quest to get comfortable in Canva Affinity, I’ve been experimenting with some on-demand embroidery designs on Cotton Bureau. For embroidery, you are limited to a palette of 15 specific thread colors. When you create the product, Cotton Bureau tries to match the colors in your design to the available thread colors… which provides some unexpected results. Thankfully, Canva provides hex codes to approximate the thread colors.
To speed up my production, I made an Affinity Color Palette and figured I’d share. If you want to import the current Cotton Bureau thread palette into Affinity, here it is: 2026 Cotton Bureau Thread Colors.clr (ZIP archive).
Hopefully, it will save you a couple of minutes.
I’ve got one simple embroidered beanie on Cotton Bureau right now, my Dum Spiro Spero design, but I’ve got more embroidery designs in the works.
Bob Wertz is the Director of Research Training at the University of South Carolina, a Ph.D. student and typeface designer living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
Dum Spiro Spero
5/28/26 • 1 min read
I’m proud of my state this week. The South Carolina Senate defeated a reckless redistricting effort, and South Carolina voters have come out in droves for early voting. I wanted to make a shirt on Cotton Bureau to commemorate the hope I’ve felt in the state this week.
Dum Spiro Spero is the South Carolina state motto — “While I breathe, I hope.”1 It’s a beautiful statement of persistence and determination. Yes, the shirt is in Latin, and yes, that means you’ll have to explain it to people.2 I recommend ordering a nice indigo blue.
If t-shirts aren’t your speed, there will also be an embroidered beanie soon, but the artwork isn’t ready quite yet.
Bob Wertz is a Ph.D. student, typeface designer, and native South Carolinian. He’s been blogging since 2008.
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And much better than our unofficial motto. ↩︎
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Dum Spiro Spero is typeset in SbB Certiphica Bold, my faux blackletter type design. ↩︎
On August 12, 2026, a solar eclipse will appear over Greenland, Iceland, and Spain. Many shady vendors will sell incredibly tacky shirts to commemorate the occasion. Instead, order something a little more classy. Available on Cotton Bureau.
Thanks to Cotton Bureau for featuring my new “Happy Frank” shirt design in their T-Shirt Tuesday email. (And yes, I know his full name is Frankenstein’s Monster, but he just goes by Frank these days.)
Blade Wing
4/19/26 • 3 min read
For one year, I wrote a blog post about a random topic and designed a shirt inspired by the blog post.1 Lately, I’m giving myself some projects so I can learn to be more proficient in Canva Affinity and decided to design a t-shirt about my favorite Star Wars spaceship.
I was the perfect age when Return of the Jedi came out. And while I know that the Empire Strikes Back is the better movie, I have fond memories of seeing Return of the Jedi in theaters. And that’s probably why the B-Wing fighter is my favorite Star Wars ship.
If you haven’t seen a B-Wing, it’s a strange vehicle. It has a pilot capsule, and then the rest of the ship consists of one long wing, with a cross-shaped pair of wings that fold out. The whole ship spins around the pilot capsule like a gyroscope. When it lands, the wings fold up and it lays on its side. The B-Wing looked completely different than the other fighters… the X-Wing, the Y-Wing and the A-Wing. Plus it looked nothing like the letter B.
The B-Wing gets very little screen time in Return of the Jedi. Apparently, the wings of the ship were too thin with the special effects of the early 1980s and they would just disappear against the blue screen. But the B-Wing toy was amazing and I’ve long held a place in my heart for this odd little ship.
Since the original series, the B-Wing shows up in a few places. Star Wars Rebels gives the B-Wing an origin story in S2 E7 Wings of the Master. Designed in secret by a Mon Calamari ship designer, Quarrie, Hera convinces him to let the Rebel Alliance develop his “Blade Wing” fighter. The Alphabet Squadron book series includes a B-Wing. The B-Wing shows up a little in the Rise of Skywalker, but every ship shows up in the Rise of Skywalker.
At the end of Skeleton Crew, a couple of B-Wings show up in the final battle over At Attin and deliver the final blow to destroy the pirate mothership. Notably, this was the first time a B-Wing has been shown firing its main weapon in live action.
I decided that I needed some B-Wing merch so I created a new shirt on Cotton Bureau — Blade Wing. It features an abstract illustration of the B-wing in its landed configuration. You can get it in a couple of different colors. If you are also a fan of the most distinct fighter in the Star Wars universe, head on over to Cotton Bureau and grab a shirt.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
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My 52 Shirts project is over at Sketchbook B. I haven’t had a chance to move them all here yet. ↩︎
I just added another retro tech shirt on Cotton Bureau: 1.2 MB: The 5.25 in floppy disk.
On April 8, a solar eclipse will occur over the middle of the United States. If you are going to be near it this time and want to celebrate the occasion, I updated my shirt from the 2017 eclipse and you can buy it on Cotton Bureau. But order soon to make sure it gets to you before the big day.
51/52: Don't Give Up
6/9/18 • 4 min read
This post was originally posted on June 10, 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 been a rough year.
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 51.
It’s been a rough year. I don’t talk about it much, but 2017 was challenging. A few months ago, I had a rough day. I was frustrated. Aimless. Struggling. And then, out of the blue, I got an invitation from a friend to grab coffee. It was precisely what I needed at that moment.
While I was leaving, I heard Peter Gabriel’s Don’t Give Up at the coffee shop. I hadn’t heard the song in years, and thanks to the magic of Apple Music, when I got back into the car, I was listening to the original Gabriel/Kate Bush duet.
In this proud land we grew up strong
We were wanted all along
I was taught to fight, taught to win
I never thought I could fail
The whole song is beautiful. If you haven’t heard it, listen to it. Basically, it’s a duet between someone who’s lost their way and someone who cares about them.
I wrote a version of this blog post that day and designed the shirt to accompany it. But as I edited the post, I worried what people would think. I wanted to be honest about how I was feeling, but was I being too honest? I shelved the post — and the shirt design — and released something else.
After this week’s suicides by Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, I’ve been thinking about mental health and how scared we are to talk about how it impacts all our lives. Especially within the creative community. I thought back to this shirt and blog post.
Rest your head
You worry too much
It’s going to be alright
When times get rough
You can fall back on us
Don’t give up
Please don’t give up
I’m really lucky to have a bunch of wonderful people around me. Encouraging me. Supporting me. Loving me. Reminding me that there’s a place where I belong. I can’t imagine life without my support system. And if it weren’t for my wife, kids, family and friends, I don’t know how I’d be able to handle everything. Especially my wife, Liz, who manages to always be there for me when I need to talk or vent.
I don’t post much here that’s deeply personal. I don’t talk about my challenges. I don’t discuss my failings and flaws. Part of this shirt project is trying to open up. To write things I wouldn’t normally write. This post is not something I would normally write. But I look around me and I see friends struggling. People dealing with much more than I am. Even in the face of my own struggles, I hope that I can be someone that encourages others, as so many have been there for me.
This week’s shirt is “Don’t Give Up.” I’m biased, but I love it. I’m thinking about ordering a bunch and wearing them underneath my typical business casual attire. Just as a reminder that I’m never alone.
Don’t give up
‘Cause you have friends
Don’t give up
You’re not the only one
Don’t give up
No reason to be ashamed
Don’t give up
You still have us
Don’t give up now
We’re proud of who you are
Don’t give up
You know it’s never been easy
Don’t give up
‘Cause I believe there’s the a place
There’s a place where we belong
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.
My Team Rainbow Unicorn design featured by Threadless
4/25/18 • 2 min read
This post was originally posted on April 26, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Join the cutest club around.
I’m excited that Threadless has chosen to include in their collection the shirt I designed with my daughter Jill as part of my 52 Shirts project. Team Rainbow Unicorn is one of the cutest things I’ve ever designed, and if I’m honest, it’s all because of my 10-year-old Jilly. She loves unicorns and when we gathered around the dining room table to create this shirt, she had some very strong opinions about what the unicorn should look like — especially the eyes. We sketched eyes in “kawaii” style, working on the perfect placement of the highlights and the eyelashes. The eyes make the design, and that was all from Jill.
You can purchase Team Rainbow Unicorn from Threadless. And they are offering more than just the shirt. You can get the design on mugs, bags, throw pillows, wall art and more. Check it out at Threadless and join Team Rainbow Unicorn.
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.
Unleash the unicorn. My daughter Jill and I designed this adorable unicorn for my shirt-a-week project. You can buy a Team Rainbow Unicorn shirt at sketchbookb.threadless.com.
