Tees and Schwag
Every team deserves schwag they want to wear and use.
- Company
- Multiple
- Dates
- 12/31/2006 - 9/14/2024
- Keywords
- designer
- vendor manager
Designing schwag is a rite of passage for product designers. The t-shirt is often discussed after the code name for a stealth startup or product release is coined. I've sourced or designed schwag at several companies, in addition to designing swim team gear for the pool where my daughters swam from grade school until high school.
Examples
Google App Engine macOS SDK T-shirt
Matchbook was the code name for the App Engine SDK macOS SDK. App Engine's codename was Prometheus, a nod to Google's decision to give developers access to its infrastructure. So, instead of receiving fire, developers received a box of matches.
YouTubistan t-shirt
Inspired by Maria Kalman's New Yorkistan New Yorker cover, this shirt renders a Tolkein-style map of YouTube inside jokes: internal teams, code names, and features.
Google Consumer Surveys Speech Bubble t-shirt
The product icon for Google Consumer Surveys was a green speech bubble with a bar chart. This was a team t-shirt abstracting speech bubble shape.
Google Consumer Surveys Brick Wall t-shirt
The code name for Google Consumer Surveys was "402," the HTTP status code for "payment required." Answering a survey on a publisher's site to access an article was considered a paywall. This design shows a wall with white bricks representing the number 402.
Orinda Park Pool t-shirt 2018 Hokusai Wave
Orinda Park Pool swim team t-shirt for 2018. Inspired by Hokusai's The Wave.
Orinda Park Pool t-shirt 2019 #PP4L
Orinda Park Pool swim team t-shirt for 2019. Inspired by an Instagram hashtag created by a swim team parent.
Orinda Park Pool t-shirt 2020 Ombre
Orinda Park Pool swim team t-shirt for 2020. This year's gear used a variation on the team's logo: a stingray with the word PARK set in the typeface Elephant with an ombre gradient using two of the team's three colors: gold and Carolina blue.