Gotta love the do-good projects that bring graphic designers together and gives something to the masses in return. I was out in Colorado this weekend for Steamboat Design Camp (more on that later) and was feeling the love for these cool, er, hot, t-shirts.
In response to the tragic Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs, a group of designers, marketers and volunteers began Wildfiretees.com in June. Word spread like, sorry guys, wildfire on Twitter and Facebook and t-shirt sales took off.
According to the July 27th press release on their website, Wildfiretees’ sales had reached $527,000 with 100% of profits helping those affected by the summer Colorado forest fires. And they’re still going strong. Half of proceeds are going to the Care and Share Food Bank, and half to the Colorado Red Cross. At $20 a pop, you can also donate one to a firefighter. Sad I missed the now sold out “More Disco, Less Inferno” design.
“It’s hard for our team to imagine that we began this project with a goal of selling, maybe, 200 T-shirts” said Sara DeRose co-creative director of Fixer Creative and co-organizer of the initiative. “To our pleasant surprise, a global community has reached-out to support this cause and as of this morning we have sold roughly 27,000 T-shirts.”
“The effort emerged out of a simple and overpowering desire to support wildfire victims in a way that would exceed any individual checks our group could write.” —Wildfiretees.com
I love the impromptu community that develops over something like this. Similar, larger movements evolved out of reactions to the Katrina and Haiti disasters. Sometimes all we can do as designers is gather together and contribute to the cause after the fact. How can we spark that same urge and excitement more proactively in our own circles?
