Summer of Excitement - Keep Calm And Get On The Case - [a case of the summer]

If you were following my Twitter feed a week or so ago, you're probably aware that I was attempting to get in on these "Keep Calm And Carry On" parodies.  The phrase (appearing on the familiar red background with a crown on top) was a propaganda poster that appeared in the United Kingdom in 1939.  Over the past decade or so, it's been used for other promotional purposes, usually in a humorous manner (like Keep Calm And Call Batman, appearing on a black background with a Batman symbol on top).

While brainstorming with longtime visitor Javier Rivera, I finally settled on the verbiage "Keep Calm And Get On The Case."  I knew I wanted the word "Case" to be involved somehow, and getting "on the case" seemed to imply visiting as well as taking action.  So I downloaded the unique "Keep Calm" logo, put it on the same red background, and put the "beard and sunglasses" logo I usually use on top (in all white).  I was really proud of how it came out.

Well, after creating the poster I thought I'd take things a step further and actually have a t-shirt made.  I've actually wanted to get a blog-related t-shirt made for a while now (hence why it qualifies as a Summer Of Excitement event) but I've struggled to come up with the right design.  I didn't want it to be so blatant (I didn't even want to include the name of the blog or web address, maybe just a QR code), but I wanted it to be a fun nod to people who knew what it referred to.  With all of these "Keep Calm" shirts popping up out of the woodwork, this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  And I'm really pleased with the end result -- I love it (although the guy at the shirt store said he thought the logo looked like Santa, since it was white and red).  And hey, it's kinda cool to have a one-of-a-kind t-shirt!