A Sweatshirt Knitted by Committee
Since beginning my study of Ancient Greek and Latin in high school, dead languages have been abnormally important to me. Maybe, it’s passion, maybe, it’s pretentiousness. More likely than not, it’s probably a combination of both. Either way, I have spent countless hours declining irregular verbs and scouring for dictionary entries of words that do not seem to exist (why does the verb φέρω (phe-ro) become oἴσω (oi-so) in the future tense?) over the past handful of years. It wasn’t until I joined the Classics Student Committee, however, that I realized just how much ancient studies means to me.
The Classics Student Committee is responsible for various events throughout the year, but beyond being colleagues and collaborators, however, we have become a community of friends. It’s not every day that you can find others who understand your interest in long-gone languages and societies, especially without having to hear the dreaded “so, what are you going to do with a degree in classics?” question. Therefore, when we decided that we were going to design our own sweatshirt as an end-of-semester gift to everyone on the committee, I was more than happy to spearhead the initiative.
While I don’t have any formal background in clothing design, I’m well-versed in Photoshop and love playing around with it. Once we decided on a theme of goats for the sweatshirts, an inside joke in the department, I began searching for images of goats that were free for use. I created a few rough mockups in Photoshop and had the committee vote on which they preferred. After making some touch-ups on CustomInk, with the approval of the committee, I started to look at color options. We first narrowed it down to thirteen options and eventually reached four.
I created a poll and let everyone select the color they were most likely to wear. We settled on a certain shade of gray, and it was finally time to collect everyone’s sizes via an anonymous Google Form and place the order. Payment and reimbursement proved to be difficult, but communication with our Administrative Assistant helped sort out all issues. The sweatshirts arrived just in time for our holiday party, and it was an incredible feeling to hold something I had created with and for people who meant so much to me.
I still wear the sweatshirt today, proudly showing off the design I had made. It’s a symbol of creative growth, of community, and of everything near and dear to my heart. I fibbed earlier when I said that dead languages are important to me; these languages are not dead. They continue to live on, inspiring artists, guiding scientists, and bringing people together.
Various drafts of the sweatshirt, including different designs, texts, and colors:
