CAL first-year T-shirt design is collaborative team effort
Graphic design student Joshua Scott worked with Emma Powell and Joe Brumfield from CAL鈥檚 Student Success Center to bring the first-year student T-shirt idea to life.
In April, deans in the invited students to enter a contest to design a custom welcome T-shirt for the 1,285 incoming first-year CAL students. The goal: to create an inspirational design that introduces new students to CAL鈥檚 values and identity in a visually appealing, timeless, and screenprint-ready format 鈥� and win $500.
Contest entrants were encouraged to design an image that represents the endless possibilities that CAL coursework offers in the humanities and social sciences.
Winner Joshua Scott, a fourth-year graphic design student in the , was asked to explore ways to further develop the original idea. He worked with Emma Powell, CAL peer advisor, and Joe Brumfield, CAL administrative support assistant, to determine how the ideas could be translated into a T-shirt that students would want to wear.
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鈥淥riginally the idea was to list the potential careers for CAL students,鈥� Scott said, 鈥淏ut we ended up with a list of 85 professions and that didn鈥檛 look good on a shirt. We tried a mockup and instantly knew the idea needed to change.鈥�
Instead of listing all 39 majors or 85 professions, the final design emphasized values and themes through layered, modular typography 鈥� a symbolic representation of the academic journey rather than in a literal directory list.
鈥淭he phrase 鈥楻EIMAGINE THE PATH鈥� anchors the design visually and conceptually,鈥� Scott said. 鈥淭he typographic style is modern, energetic and screenprint-friendly, with clear legibility and visual movement.鈥�
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鈥淭hese shirts are the first in what we hope will become a new tradition in CAL,鈥� College of Arts and Letters Dean Todd Butler said. Driving the tradition is CAL鈥檚 commitment to building a shared sense of academic belonging among CAL students. With more than 85 majors and minors and 55 programs, it鈥檚 easy for students to feel lost or disconnected from all that CAL offers.
鈥淎sking our current students to reflect on what CAL represents, and then inviting a new group of students into that understanding (and even to wear it) is one way we build community,鈥� Butler added. 鈥淔or our new students, this shirt is now their 鈥榗lass shirt,鈥� and next spring we鈥檒l invite those students to design the shirts for our next incoming class.鈥�
This year, Scott anticipates seeing his design worn by that CAL community of students as he walks across campus. He might even sign a shirt, if he sees a student wearing one 鈥� only if he has a Sharpie in his backpack.
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Keep an eye on CAL social media to find out when the 2026 T-shirt design contest is open for submissions.
