Designing the Christian Union Society Hoodies

Alice Wass
Jan 20, 2017
2 min read

The Christian Union recently asked if I would be able and willing to design them a new society hoodie as they had not had one for three years. At first I was in shock, partly because of the short time frame (one week in which to complete the task), but also because I had never done this sort of design before and had no idea where to start or what to do. However, as I love trying out new things and taking on challenges I agreed to do my best to design a new hoodie.

The entire experience was completely surreal to me. Previously I had made a promotional video for the Christian Union Weekend Away, which had consisted of getting permission and creating whatever I wanted. This time I had to use my creative skills to try and make a hoodie to fit the visions of multiple executive members and be voted on by the society. Not being free to put my creative vison first, was something I have not particularly had to do before, but it is definitely a skill that I need when working in the media industry, so I felt that this assignment would help me start developing these skills.

I decided that the best way to approach this task was to design several mock up images on Photoshop, to allow people to see what the possibilities were. This was also useful for me as it gave me motivation to start using Photoshop again, before my Add+vantage Photoshop module started. During the decisions concerning design, I ended up having to make a lot more mock ups than I had originally expected as it became apparent that the society did not really have a clear vision about what they wanted. As a result, every new idea was quite different to the one before.

In the end I designed seven different hoodies, a written logo saying ‘Christian Union’, and also vastly improved my communication skills through discussing and negotiating the task with multiple people, who seemed not always to talk to each other. I also believe my time management skills have improved, due to working to a strict deadline and having to balance the task with my university work and other commitments. Even though my own personal favourite design is not going to be the final hoodie, I am pleased that the society are happy with what I have made for them. I am also glad that I had the chance to try out some new skills and discover some of my personal weaknesses, which I can work on to develop and improve in the future.