47/52: Coffee Run

Things always loop back around

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Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 47.

 

I was a young kid when my parents got us a Commodore VIC-20. Around the same time, I was exposed to TRS-80 computers at school. With either system, you could load and play very simple games, but you could also write some simple programs. One of the easiest things to do was to write a simple loop, and then the string in the first line would repeat infinitely.

I’d go into Sears, Montgomery Ward or Service Merchandise and they had computers out in the electronics department. No one really knew how to display computers, and it was pretty clear the sales people had no idea what to do with a computer. The machines would just sit there. So I’d always write a loop, with “hello” or my name repeating infinitely. Just because I could.

It was also in that Chicago suburb that I learned about coffee. My father was the pastor at a Lutheran church with a strong Swedish heritage. And those church members loved their coffee. Strong, black coffee. No cream. No sugar. I didn’t drink coffee then… I was too young. But many years later, when I acquired a taste for coffee, I always tried to drink it black because I believed that had to be the best way to enjoy coffee. It’s funny how experiences from childhood always manage to loop back around.

Two formative experiences that aren’t connected in any way, but I put them on a t-shirt together, anyway. This week’s shirt, “Coffee Run” is available for purchase on my Threadless store.

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Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He's currently nearing the end of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year. Follow Bob on TwitterInstagram and Micro.Blog.