I was asked by a Principal and Superintendent of a school district to create a fund-raising project for their Art Department because their budget for the arts was reduced significantly.

I started with the instructor to the Computer Graphics program to make certain she was willing to fit this project into her curriculum. The project was to take approximately 10 days of class time, but not consecutively.

We went before the school board to make certain everyone was aware of what was about to take place.

We needed some basic tools for Dye Sublimation printing. We wrote a grant for $5000 to set up out first systems for students.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5IehlK9NT4

The students were asked to create a logo, specifically, a logotype, based on their initials.

The students were direct to use one, two or all of their initials and to cut back on the letter as much as possible. In other words, use as little of each letter as possible while keeping them recognizable.

The purpose for this was to create a personal logo for themselves as the identity for their own companies.

Using their logos, they were required to create a business card, letterhead and envelope.

The Art Students were asked to contact a teacher in the lower grades at the elementary school.

They were to negotiate an agreement wherein the teacher would have each of her students create a self portrait with a black sharpie pen on white paper and the art student would create a T-shirt for the teacher, illustrated with their own students’ self portraits for Parent Teacher Conferences.

The Art Students had to write a proposal and negotiate with their selected teacher and come to an agreement and contract.

All of these documents were on the Art Students own letterhead and was very specific about what each party was to do, with specific deadlines.

This added the concept of deadlines. If the teacher missed their deadlines, the Art Students would also miss their deadline.

The Art Students collected the self portrait from the teacher. Each self portrait also had the students name hand written underneath each illustration.

If the teacher wanted to do an additional self portrait of themselves, that too was allowed. However, the teacher was restricted from doing any of the design work.

The Art Students scanned in the self portraits and created a layout for the T-shirt. They could create any layout they desired.

The project was to include a design for the class (i.e. Mrs. Jones, Smith Elementary, 2nd Grade, 2013).

The design was also required to have the Art Student’s logo and copyright statement.

Designs could cover the front, back and/or sleeves.

The Art Students created a prototype on paper and which was returned to the teacher for proofing. The teachers were to look for errors but were not allowed to change the design or layout. They were looking for missing or incorrect students or a miss name of someone.

Once signed off by the teacher, the Art Student would print out the design with dye sublimation ink on transfer paper and create one T-shirt.

The Art Student would then deliver the T-Shirt for the Teacher to wear on Parent’s Night along with an set of order forms for parents would like to order their own T-shirts.

The profits resulting from the sale of additional T-shirts was to be split 50%-50% between the Graphic Arts Class and the Teacher.

RESULTS:The project was a big hit. The Art Students came in on Saturdays and evenings to print the T-Shirt orders. The Art Students would sign and date each T-shirt.

The split of profits was original set at 50/50 because the Art Students had more time and expenses to cover then the teachers.

The split was changed to 80/20, with the teachers getting 80% because the graphics class was getting revenues from more than 2,100 T-shirts while most teachers were getting revenues from 20-40 T-shirts.

At $10 per shirt with $7 profit per shirt:• $5.30 per shirt to each teacher.• $1.70 per shirt to the graphic class.• The average teacher made $270.

The first year, Graphic Arts class brought in more than $10,000 with more than $2,500 in profits after paying for the equipment and supplies. The second years saw more than $5,000 in funding for the graphics class.

FINAL Analysis:The project was even more successful the second year, in part because parents and grandparents had been wearing the T-Shirts around for a year.

The second years saw a different group of Art Student working with a different set of teachers. Teachers who had participated previously wanted to do it all over again.

A great deal of resentment was created when one classroom received T-shirts and more than $200 in additional funds. Teachers not involved in the project thought they should share in the funds, while teachers who were selected thought they shouldn’t be required to share.

The Graphic Arts class could not handle all of the requests.

In this specific case, the district could not come to some kind of compromise and ended up canceling the program.