Unconventional design
Who knew a T-shirt could say so much about Rice?

BY ARIE WILSON PASSWATERS
Rice News staff

With less than five minutes left before he was scheduled to present his idea for a T-shirt contest to the Student Association (SA), Brown College sophomore Philip Tarpley was still racking his brain for a clever theme that would embrace Rice culture.

Tarpley, secretary of the SA, wanted students to have the opportunity to purchase an affordable shirt that reflected the Rice culture.

“The idea was to have something that represented us all as Rice students,” Tarpley said. “There aren’t many shirts out there that aren’t sports- or college-related.”

But finding the perfect theme to encompass that was proving more difficult than Tarpley had originally imagined. Just as he was preparing to enter the SA meeting, an idea struck him. He recalled the large banners across campus with the phrase “Who Knew?”

That’s when he took a cue from Public Affairs’ university-wide campaign and adapted it a bit. Thus the “Who Drew?” T-shirt competition was born.

“After I thought about using ‘Who Drew?’ for the contest, it just made perfect sense,” Tarpley said. “Students are all familiar with the ‘Who Knew?’ signs around campus, so it was something that was representative of culture on campus right now.”

As soon as the contest was announced to students, T-shirt designs began pouring in. By the time the competition was over, more than 20 different sketches had been sent to the SA’s executive cabinet, who narrowed the field to three finalists.

Designs by Pawel Mikolajczyk, a Sid Richardson College sophomore; Libo Li, a Brown College sophomore; and Bella Adamiak, a Brown College freshman, were selected.

Li’s design featured a traditional “Who Knew” logo with a blank space provided underneath for Rice students to finish their own saying.

“My design was simple and gave room for a lot of variety,” Li said. “Having it on a T-shirt lets everyone express their own unique way of promoting the school.”

Adamiak’s T-shirt embraced Rice’s “Unconventional Wisdom” slogan and paired it with the eye of an owl; a Socrates quote, “Wisdom begins in wonder,” was printed on the back of the shirt.

“Who knew?”
Learn more about Rice University’s “Who Knew?” campaign
Student Association
Find out how the Student Association supports student activities
While Tarpley praised all three designs, SA members chose the entry from Mikolajczyk over the others. Mikolajczyk’s design featured Sammy the Owl as DaVinci’s famous “Vitruvian Man.” In Sammy’s hands rest items that represent various aspects of Rice culture – a scroll, a globe, a baseball and a mug of beer.

After getting price quotes from area companies, the SA was pleasantly surprised to discover that a screen-printing company owned by Lovett College freshman Aakash Keswani beat out competitors’ bids.

The winning two-color design will be printed on grey shirts that the SA will sell to students at cost for around $5 each. The shirts are expected to be available in January.

“What I really love about this project is that it’s about Rice students, for Rice students and by Rice students,” Tarpley said.

”Students have had a lot of fun with our ‘Who Knew?’ campaign over the past couple of years, and ‘Who Drew?’ is another clever way to express that idea,” said Vice President for Public Affairs Linda Thrane. ”And who knew that the ‘Who Knews?’ on the main page of rice.edu would continue to be one of the most popular features on the site? I welcome this and other ways to use ‘Who Knew?’ to help folks understand what we mean by Rice’s unconventional wisdom.”