GCAB t-shirt design contest encourages creativity, expression through competition

Geneseo Campus Activities Board is hosting a t-shirt design contest that is sure to motivate plenty of student involvement. The aims of this event are earning wider recognition for GCAB and Student Association, reminding students that these groups are more than just governing bodies and fostering healthy competition that anyone feels welcome to join.

SA Director of Student Planning Responsibilities junior Renee Allen plans to wait a few days after people have sent her emails of designs before engaging with them. 

“After the fact, I’m going to be reaching out to all of them to let them know when voting starts so they can brand their t-shirt design off to their friends,” Allen said. “Then they’ll be able to hear from me, they’ll be able to vote, and then towards the beginning of November, we will have a winner.” 

This project will result in the completion and distribution of a final product. The current goal is to give up to 500 students the chance to receive a t-shirt featuring the winning design. A contest like this has not been done before at Geneseo.

“I got the idea while [deciding what to put in our] “See You Soon” boxes because I want to put a t-shirt in [each box],” Allen said. “I thought it would be really cool to have students kind of compete to have their own design in there, which would make [each box] a little bit more personal.”

GCAB graphic design Coordinator sophomore Alexis Williams will also be involved in the process.

“I’ll help mostly with taking the winning design and figuring out how to make it look good on a shirt,” Williams said. “So whether that’s making something smaller, making it bigger, [I’ll just] kind of [be] working with the winner of the contest to make sure we’re still holding the integrity of the design while making it look good on a shirt.”

One of the most exciting aspects of this contest is the opportunity to show off one’s creative chops in a variety of ways. The event runners are doing everything in their power to limit barriers for entry.

“The cool thing about this event is that people can submit applications or submissions if they’re handwritten, drawn, or digitally done, so it can be done with any materials they have,” Williams said.

The contest is one of the most anticipated events happening this Fall semester, according to Williams.

“I work a lot with making graphics for merchandise for GCAB, and I think it will be really cool to collaborate with another student to see what their ideas are and what their style is,” Williams said. “I always like seeing different people's work and getting inspiration from it.”

The designs will be made into real t-shirts to be part of the pre-Thanksgiving break “See You Soon" care packages.

“My hopes for the future are to do something similar to this again,” Allen said. “Maybe not necessarily with a t-shirt, but if the t-shirt one goes really well, I would like to get more in depth with different designs of things. Like someone designing a coffee mug for example.”

Designs can be submitted to sadsp@geneseo.edu no later than Oct. 19. The winner will get a shoutout on both the GCAB Instagram and the SA Instagram.