03 November 2020

BLOG: Creating a winning t-shirt with Musto

A young person submits a winning t-shirt design to be worn on Trust trips - what next? It's over to Musto to turn that design into a reality. Here's what happens when they receive the email they've been looking forward to all year...

You’ve heard from Alysia about her fantastic design for the Trust’s 2021 t-shirts, but what happens after that? Musto have partnered with the Trust since the very beginning, providing clothing and kit on trips. Sarah Reed, designer and developer for Special Projects at Musto, has spent a couple of days on Trust trips and played a key part in bringing Alysia’s artwork to life. She tells us what goes in to making the amazing Trust t-shirts happen.

“This year’s design was really advanced, having been submitted as a graphics file already. So the first thing we do is pull together the crack team. We’ve got myself, I do the design and development for the project. We’ve got our graphics guy, Dan Taylor, he's in charge of graphics at Musto. He’s super passionate about the Trust as well, everyone who works on the team is, and he's been on a few trips, he's done some fundraising. And we have Emma as well, who manages Musto’s relationship with the Trust, she has worked for the Trust in the past so she knows what you're all about.

“The three of us get together, have a look at the design, understand the story behind it, and look at how we can effectively digitalize and make the design practical for the printing process. It is key we do the design justice and show off the amazing Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust on every Musto tee.

“It’s not as simple as scanning in the design or putting it straight on the tee, because we need to make sure it's going to look really clean and fresh. If there are lots of colours, for instance, we need to just be sensible and consolidate them, and we match up with your colour scheme as well. Translating the original design so that it is ready for the factory.

“So Dan will do all that kind of graphics work, that’s his real specialism. He'll throw together a few different options. We then have some back and forth with the Trust so we can make sure we're encompassing the original design and meaning of it. We make 1,000 t-shirts especially for the Trust, so we have to make sure that they're consistent and ready to wear. Then I continue to manage the process with the factory to get the t-shirt perfect.

“It’s always that email I'm waiting to come into my inbox. We chat about it before, I know it's part of the regular cycle. What was really nice this year is about a week before, Emma sent a photo of the previous year's design being worn. Which is really sweet, it's good to see that closed loop right before you start the next one. It's always exciting waiting to see what's going to come through and this year I opened it and was like, ‘oh, that's already a digitalized finished design!’, I was impressed!

“I grew up in Lymington, so I've done a little bit of sailing before and, I really loved how stuck-in and advanced the sailing on Trust trips is. A lot of the young people haven't had any experience sailing at all, they've all been through a few years that no one can really relate to except the people around them. Just having them together is amazing, but then being able to see what they're able to go and do is brilliant.

“It's a really difficult balancing act between pushing the young people to take an extra step out of their comfort zone, but keep them feeling safe and happy. The way that's managed, I just thought it was a really brilliant experience. You see from morning to afternoon a big, big change in those young people."

Read all about Sarah's times with the Trust in her blog about joining a couple of trips on the Solent, all as part of the indispensable partnership between the Trust and Musto.