Communitees

Working with the local Boston community is something I love doing. It’s great to screen t-shirts for local non-profits, businesses, fellow entrepreneurs, and sports teams. But there is a slight sense of detachment. In a dream world I’d work even closer with the people who make our communities so vibrant. That dream was realized thanks to a great opportunity at the Wang and Egleston YMCAs. It’s something I hope to do more of in the future. Let me know if you know of any other organizations interested in learning about the screen printing process, designing, and printing their own tees!

Artists working on their designs.

At both YMCAs I gave a basic explanation of how the screen printing process works and then encouraged the community youth to draw (with a good old fashioned magic marker and paper!) images related to the theme of community. There was a beautifully varied range of interpretations and artistic styles.

Neat bubble letters show what's important at the YMCA.

At the Egleston YMCA there was a follow-up workshop in which the kids and their parents were able to screen print their own t-shirts which their community had created. It was great for everyone to see the entire process and this workshop created a much stronger connection to the tees than simply sending the order out to a screen printer. Like I mentioned, it would be great to do more workshops like this – they’re fun, educational and super local.

Screen print design set-up outside the Egleston YMCA.

Screen printed pictures and words show another take on the YMCA community.

One group wanted to use sign language to express "YMCA".