Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race veterans collect race T-shirts. University of West Georgia art professor Clint Samples has his own Peachtree collection that likewise continues to expand annually.
Twelve students in his digital media class have been finalists in the annual T-shirt contest in the past four years, out of 20 total finalists. This year, the five finalists included three West Georgia students, all from Samples’ class and all hoping to extend the school’s two-year streak of producing the contest winner.
“We’ve had such a good run,” Samples said. “It would be disappointing [if no students were among the finalists]."
Clarissa Robinson, Mallory Royal and Caitlyn Weathers are waiting for July 4, hoping their design will grace the 60,000 finisher T-shirts. After the five finalists were announced in March, voting was completed in late April. The winner will be revealed at the Peachtree finish area in Piedmont Park.
Weathers, a 22-year-old senior from Carrollton, said she was surprised to learn she was a finalist.
“A lot of [other students’ designs] were really good,” she said. “I thought mine was just one to turn in for the project.”
Her design is a U.S. flag made out of sneaker footprints. She originally framed the flag vertically in reference to the giant flag that hangs above Peachtree Road at the race’s starting line, before flipping it horizontally.
“I wanted to go away from the peach thing,” Weathers said.
The project, which initially began as an extra-credit assignment before evolving into a month-long process, has gained its own momentum. While a main objective of the class is to teach web design and computer software such as Adobe Photoshop, Samples' Art 4000 is also known among UWG art students as the class where students design Peachtree T-shirts and make a website.
“I’ve had students tell me that they wanted to take the class to do the [Peachtree T-shirt] project,” Samples said.
This past school year, Samples reached out to a colleague at Carrollton High School and helped the school’s art students through the process of design, critique and revision with their own entries.
Samples also taught his UWG class fall and spring semesters this past year when he normally teaches it once per academic year. With some students creating more than one design, the Atlanta Track Club received about 50 entries from West Georgia students this year, Samples said. The club reviewed about 300 altogether.
“I think we probably sent the best batch this year,” Samples said. “You do get a vibe about certain designs.”
Given that many, if not most, students are T-shirt design novices, West Georgia’s secret may be its multiple rounds of group critiques. Samples likened the class of 15-20 students to a focus group, one that also tends to wear a lot of T-shirts.
“The critiquing process gets down to the nitty-gritty, nit-picky stuff, but stuff that’s important,” Samples said.
Strength in numbers. Anyone who’s run the Peachtree can understand that.
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