A collaboration with our friends at Truth Soul Armor and clearly inspired by a popular TV show and movie franchise, lol!
Another collab with Scott Brinson and Truth Soul Armor. Silver lettering was in shiny glittery ink. We were going for an ambulance vibe, haha!
This was the front of the tee… the next image was actually the back. (Sorry, no cool mockup of the back of a tee shirt). Can totally see these wings on the hood of a big old 50’s Chrysler, am I right?
That big road sign was printed with the same 3M ink used on real road signs… Can you say, “Reflective”?! And that car is a drawing of an old Motorama prototype that never saw production. Peep the plate ;-)
We took the old bullfrogs and butterflies metaphor up a notch! We were inspired by Transformers toys (no movies at this point), Giant Robots and everything Japanese. Oh, and LOUD colors. The “Metamorphosis” lettering on these tees glowed in the dark — surprise!!
We took the old bullfrogs and butterflies metaphor up a notch! We were inspired by Transformers toys (no movies at this point), Giant Robots and everything Japanese. Oh, and LOUD colors. The “Metamorphosis” lettering on these tees glowed in the dark — surprise!!
This was an alternate tee. I think we printed a few of these for staff. No glow-y ink tho. Maybe if we do another print run?! Who’s in??
This was our digital audio phase. After the chaos of the Metamorphosis theme, we were into cool blues, clean lines, simple shapes. The theme was all about Jesus, simplicity, and unity. See Eph. 4:4-6, John 17:21-22, and John 14:6. Oh, and not seen here, we had a small (1.5 in.) sweet woven label sewn onto the back chop between the shoulder blades of this tee. TLSE: That Little Somethin’ Extra
We got all tribal talking about how God reveals himself through what he’s made and that all us peeps are without excuse for not knowing and worshipping him. The little somethin’ extra was a 3d ink for the lettering. And that lettering is from House Industries… we went through a whole HouseInd phase bc that crew is unbelievably awesome.
Taken from Jesus startling statement in Luke 12:49 we totally got into the flames in 2003. We decided on a cleaner look, using House Industries mod typefaces. We printed the YWAM and MA logo on the sleeve this time.
This version was our staff tee and we printed it on some sweet mens and women’s garments. I called this one the “Map Matrix” version and it was def my fave design of the year.
Clean, modern, and utilizing House Industries Neutraface fonts. I loved the cool grays and the hot oranges and how they worked together. The MA/YWAM Identity was actually printed on the back between the shoulder blades on these tees, not at the hem… again, no back of tee shirt mockup - sorry. We also made version of these tees for YWAM’s olympic outreach in Athens that year.
This was an alternate version that I thought turned out pretty hot. We used it as a staff shirt at some locations.
After all the cleanliness of the Burn and Worship themes, we had to get a bit grungy, a bit less sterile, and more hand-drawn. All the lettering was done by the amazing Wayne Shauan (who had also been helping with pretty much all the themes between 1997-2009). Note the MA/YWAM logo wasn’t printed on the chest, but on the back chop. (Remember, no good back of tee mockups — sorry!)
This was our first “girls” tee. We offered it in a then trendy cap sleeved fitted version. Yes we used pink, but that’s because it looked sick on the brown tee, not because it’s only for girls.
This was one of the two staff tees made that year. Sadly the art for the other tee has been lost to the ravages of time and a bad hard drive. My apologies.
This is the controversial skull tee! Some felt like the art could be interpreted as glorifying death. We thought it was cool and skater-y and that it gave the gravity the theme needed to depict the seriously destructive nature of sin.
This was another girls design on a cute cap sleeved tee. We loved playing with the ancient textures with the distressed lettering. I wasn’t quite done with brown yet, so that’s why this one was mostly chocolate on sky blue.
This was a women’s staff tee, again with the cute and fitted cut. And the green inks on a heathered green tee was nice and trendy that year. Come to think of it, this may have been a ringer tee with a dark green collar and sleeves. Anybody got any photos of the real thing from back in the day?
For ‘07 we wanted to tell the story of Jesus and his friend Lazarus and how in a similar way, Jesus calls us out of our tombs out into the light. We imagined that these theme tee shirts were the merch for a fictional 70’s style rock and roll band. This Lazarus Rocks tee was meant to be like an old concert tee shirt that you found in the back of your older sibling’s closet. Soft, faded, a little beat up, but ultimately cool.
This “Raise The Dead” tee was on a sweet fitted ladies cut garment and the lettering was done by Wayne Shauan. We of course imagined that this was the name of the latest Lazarus album and that it was a total arena rocker that everyone sang along to while raising their fists and banging their heads… hahaha! Be sure to peep the MA/YWAM Identity along the hem… It’s sweeeeet!
I’m pretty sure we never did print this one, but it looked so much like a band logo that I had to include it here. I’m catching vibes from bands like Weezer and The Strokes… not sure why. Anyone have an idea where we might have seen something like this??
The Trek theme was about walking with God wherever he would take us. We were inspired by Micah 6:8. And this Do Justice tee was a big hit for us. It’s still one of my favorites. I love the crazy amount of illustrations, the distressed lettering and the simple command. There’s even a drawing in there by my then 7 year old daughter :-)
The Love Mercy tee was the same color as those Product (Red) tees that were introduced in that same era. We printed the identity line inside the hem of the garment, so it was only visible to the wearer. I loved the contrast between the bold distressed lettering and the delicate flow of the spencerian script. It was meant to be pointing at the dual realities of the now and the hereafter, of our journey from temporary to eternal, our path from sinner to saint.
This walk humbly tee was fun to make. We stepped on ink with our Chuck Taylor’s and made dozens of impressions and then picked the best one to digitize. This one was used for staff, and it’s a rare example when we used four colors on a tee. The folks at Church Art Works did a masterful job on the gradient — thanks guys!
This “Humble Jumble” tee was on a fashion fit garment for our staff and it was well loved even tho only a few were ever made.
I’ve always loved drawing trees. All the branches in random directions all bringing the flow of life out to the leaves and fruit… But the crazy thing about this tree is that it wasn’t a tree… It was modeled after the network of vessels in a placenta — Crazy!
This was my favorite color way of the Re:Act trio of tees. I’m a sucker for chocolate brown with a pop of bright orange.
The tree is made up of all sorts of words that start with “re” and it’s kind of surprising how many “re”-words have such meaning in the Christian life… redeem, renew, restore, redo, re-up etc. etc. etc.
We shortened “Forward” to “FWD” and tried to make our tees look like the icons on our phones. The idea was to go forward in every direction — whichever way God lined us up, we’d head that way and carry the Gospel with us.
There’s a possibility that we did some of these tees on classy v-necks, but I can’t remember if we did it. We certainly planned to do it, but for some reason I don’t remember wearing a v-neck… anyone?
Instead of waiting for heaven to come to us, let’s get on about the business of co-creating with God the best reflection of heaven we can right now. Definitely inspired by tattoos. Definitely about being heavenly of heart and action now and not waiting for the hereafter.
More tattoo-y goodness. Loved the fancy lettering with all the swashes and the subtle gradients, Heaven on Earth indeed.
We were trying to rebrand the Great Commandment. We thought of calling it “The Core” of our faith — to love God with all we are and love others as ourselves. But then, while munching on our favorite Basic Pizza in the East Village it came to us, “The Basics”! Duh…
Love love love the simple design and the MA Hexa-Logo. And the colors too. Mmmmm…
Jesus told the Rich Young Ruler to sell all he had, give it to the poor and follow him. We don’t know what happened next, but we hope that guy did it — that he went all in. That he pushed his chips to the center of the table and bet on the Lord.
Two things, I can’t really remember what kind of gray tees these were on… darker I think. Second, I’m pretty sure these designs were printed with a gradient. I remember wanting more contrast and pop so for the summer print run we went with brighter inks. We were trying to evoke the design of money without making it about money. Also poker chips and playing cards. ;-)
This one was done by the Amazing Zhenya Shulgin of St. Pete’s. We wanted to emphasize that wanting to see the world change starts inside of each of us. Not exactly, “Be the Change”, but more, “Be Changed So You Can Do Some Change”. We didn’t wanna stop with ourselves, but to pass it on to others, and together make a world that reflects love and kingdom.
Wasn’t there a Pixar movie with this title? Wonder which one came first. We brainstormed this one in October 2013 in Burtigny, Switzerland. Also, there are a surprising number of purple shirts in this gallery. Never woulda thunk it.
We went maximum hipster with this theme. That seal with that script font and the birds tho, am I right? This one was all about the story of Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah and how they wouldn't bow down to the big bad king’s idol and then got thrown into that fiery furnace. They were unharmed and emerged, you guessed it, unbound!
You know what else besides birds can kinda go wherever? Ships! Ships don’t have roads, they can ply the seas in any which direction. Same with us… neat, eh?! Also that ship is bomb, as is the rope circle and that ribbon. All so very wow.
This was a staff tee that became so popular that teams were asking to buy them. So we made more. The phrase came out of someone’s mouth at our Theme Extravaganza when we were waiting on the Lord and brainstorming. Glad we wrote it down, because it captures the spirit of those three boys and their courage and how the King decreed that their god was THE GOD. Pretty cool.
This was all about exhaling all that sin and slavery and inhaling all that mercy that leads to freedom and full life. The MA Interlock logo became a favorite. I later saw it on mugs and hats on other continents. So that was cool.
I loved the lettering so much I couldn’t stop at one tee. Plus some people don’t like light blue as much as they like navy. So there you go… Navy. Also also, I’d seen for years these crazy Insurance Maps letterings from the late 1800s and early 1900s that used this crazy extravagant lettering with all this cray-mazing decoration. I had to try, and I think it turned out alright.
Okay, so no one knew what a rockhound was at our theme team, but one guy kept lobbying for it. When we got the concept there was a collective, “OooOooouuu”, and we jumped on it. See Rockhounds are those amateur geologist types that go around looking for gems. Sounds like a good metaphor for evangelism and missions, right?!
I really loved the heather brown shirt, but this green was a close second. Crossed pickaxes, diamonds and a wolf howling at the moon — bangin’!
Somehow the heather chocolate and heather green needed a buddy. So heather sand joined them, and then they were a trio of awesome tees.
I’d seen these mono-weight line designs everywhere, and I thought Rockhound needed an example of that… on a bright green shirt. So the crossed pickaxes joined that lettering and soon we had a real diamond on our hands… ;-)
While working on this design I felt it had kind of a retro vibe and I felt like the colors and shapes and lettering were all coming together. And when I was done I thought to myself, “Does this look like some Nature Valley Granola Bar logo?” And maybe it does.
The Retro/Granola logo also looked sweet on the sand colored tee. So I did it. Boom.
My daughter told me small logos on the pocket were bomb and that I should do that. I did. No we didn’t take Inspo from Kaiser Permanente’s ad campaign. But we liked the word. And we liked the 80’s. So we went 80’s colors and neon-y style-y and came up with this radical message about abundant life.
Yeah so this was the MA logo staff tee for thrive. It was on a heathered purple rush tee.
The wonderful Brecken Heft created the designs for our I Am theme. We felt like this was all about the incomprehensible God wanting to connect with us. It was about the mystery of Him being revealed, and that we can be a part of what He’s up to on this planet.
The inks on these tees were silvery. The dye process on the garments is called ombre and there’s a subtle shift from lighter to darker tones. And it is awesome.
This “Shatter” version of the art is killer… and before I forget, I think Sergio Montes may have done the lettering and let Brecken take it from there.
The shatter idea is really about what happens to us when we come into contact with Him. We can’t stay the same. He remakes us as we can be. In a strange paradox, he himself took on our shattering so that we could be whole. Whooooaa.
We shortened, “The Movement” to “The MVMT” because we are cool, and vowels are superfluous. Sergio did the lettering and the drawings and the flames and was an all around boss for this theme. I love this bullhorn on fire image.
This Fist on Fire tee was so in your face! And it echoed our times with marches, protests, and pandemics. Oh and this is the only time in 25 years when we skipped a theme. I couldn’t imagine trying to hold a Theme Extravaganza via Zoom. And since almost no-one got to use this stuff in 2020, we held it over for a return in 2021
This theme is from Isaiah 58 when the prophet was showing God’s people why their fasting wasn’t working… While they did the religious stuff, the poor were oppressed. True religion is caring for widows and orphans, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and breaking the chains of slaves. God is asking us, are we true?
We felt like this year needed some color… some brights… some pastels to throw off the gloom and mark the rising of the light as God’s people align with his true worship.
Of course we needed to do a navy colored tee… these are always everyone’s faves. And for me there’s a kind of photo-negative effect going on with the big 58… with the shadow being lighter than the numbers and all… Just me?
We call this design the “58 Shadow” tee because of the big 58 and the shadow behind it. Also, this marks the return of House Industries to the tees… That gorgeous 58 and lovely ‘?’ is their doing.
We call this design the “58 True” tee. Yes, I’m a total sucker for a sweet script with lotsa swash-ey goodness. Plus building up all the layers of shadow and outline on those pretty letters was delicious.
I like the way the elements fall — it took many many many permutations to find a kind of balance and harmony for the positioning of everything.
I learned a couple of techniques to distress the artwork using a texture from Ray Dombrowski… thanks Ray!
All the color! Orange, pink, green, and blue all come together to make this tee rock! It IS true, haha!