Brent & I both graduated from West Monroe High School- he in '95 and me in '97. Both of his parents went there and my dad was in the very first freshman class ever back in 1953!! I have the best memories getting together with my girlfriends before the football games and driving in the flag parades.
I remember every year there was a t-shirt printed up (some even air brushed!! Haha) for all the folks sitting in the "BS section". It seems like I remember Tim Dow designing a shirt our senior year that had the "No Fear" theme that was so popular way back then. Time really flies!!!
We really wanted to come up with a neat Rebel shirt and man, did I struggle on this one for awhile!! If you think about it, the schools mascot is not an animal so it really limits you as far as designs go. And people have such strong feelings one way or another about the Rebel flag, that I didnt want to go that route either. I started out by trying to research what was currently out there....mainly a lot of interlocking WM's, footballs, etc. I didn't want to limit this shirt to just an ole football t-shirt. I wanted something that would be good for any sport or no sport at all!! I liked the idea of trying to come up with a vintage/retro shirt featuring the Johnny Rebel or the Colonel Rebel. I had friends send me images out of old yearbooks,
(this was from the Class of '57!!)
I reached old civil war pics,
I went thru tons of images from Ole Miss,
etc etc etc.
My first thought was to do some type of old portrait looking shirt of the Colonel Rebel.
It was okay, but the hubs and I were still not sold on it.
Brent would just look at it and shake his head and say "I'm just not into it". He never wants to hurt my feelings.
Then, one day, I was wearing one of Brents old Wheeties shirts and I kept thinking how soft it felt and how I loved how faded it was. This really got me thinking and sketching.....voila- this drawing appeared!!
The whole thing is drawn by hand- first by pencil and then by pen. The stars, the fonts, even the red circle...well, I did trace around a plate. :) You can't have a real ole school 1950's shirt if the whole thing was drawn by a computer-right!?!! I then took it and scanned it in on my old trusty MAC to play around with how I wanted the colors to look.
Then, I met with a graphic designer named Jeff (who I actually graduated in art from Tech with). I gave him my drawing, I showed him the Wheeties shirt and let him work his magic. Love Love Love how it turned out.
Super soft, faded, vintage style shirt! You'd think you had this shirt from your ole high school days, except there are zero stains, holes, etc. Perfect with a pair of jeans ;). We printed tanks and tees and the design is featured on the popular triblend (50%Poly , 25% rayon and 25%Cotton )athletic gray American Apparel shirt.
Right now, the shirts are printed as small as a youth 8 on up to an adult XXL. And the tanks are a loose fit and are sized Adult Small, Medium and Large.
We hope you love it as much as we do!! We plan to print in some smaller kid tees (sizes 2t,4t and 6t) soon. Available at
www.mrpstees.bigcartel.com
Thanks for reading!! Appreciate any comments or feedback :)
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