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A bit more ramble, while I'm on the keyboard and my teacup is full.
Starting with a focus on this being the 25th anniversary year ....
Early design attempts involved both the red M900 original and the yellow anniversary model 821 as main images.
But the balance was wrong and image matching was tricky.
We lost a lot of time trying to make that work, hence most of the delay.
With the new image, the aim was to create something simple and effective, but also to include some detail interest and an element of "something for everyone" in the design.
Also, we were trying to create something which was small enough to make sense when viewed through an unzipped leather jacket, yet was still big enough to work on its own.
Hence the M900 pops through the unzipped jacket but the halo of bikes enlarges the effect when the shirt is worn solo.
The halo contains a spread of monsters which contains something which is hopefully at least fairly close to just about everyone's bike, and also suitably reflects the model progression over the years, and the range of colours.
The anniversary 821 still has a prime slot at 12 o-clock, with the tricolore S4RS next in prominence at 6 o-clock ... just "because".
All of the images appear lifelike at medium distance, but close inspection reveals a bit of graphic enhancement, which adds a nice little edge.
And the ukmoc logo is clearly visible, with or without jacket, but is still nicely restrained.
Gazza produced the lovely little roundel style 25th anniversary sleeve print design, with its union jack and tricolore emblems and silver (anniversary) detailing .. well we got as near to silver as we could print anyway.
By this time it was dawning on us that the main imagery of the evolving design would actually also be rather well suited to a more general release, 25th anniversary shirt.
That may not be possible, but we kept the option open when choosing a print process.
So...
We experimented with two print methods which would give us flexibility of supply over a long period, rather than a "one-hit" screen print run.
In the end, we developed one of these into a third, "middle-road" method which produced the desired result.
This method (and one of its forebears) only works on pale colours though. Originally, we thought that only white was possible.
Which was fine, as we had decided to avoid the usual black this year anyway and were thinking of using white.
But I leaned on Rick a bit and got him to sample a few other colours.
The pale grey came out of that and tbh, is my personal favourite.
But I can divulge that I now also own samples in sky blue and shocking yellow .. but they're in the earlier process and require polyester shirts.
Anyway, mix that lot together with the necessary copyright protocols and a myriad of nips and tucks and we ended up with what you see.
And hopefully will enjoy wearing.
I must say that everyone involved has worked very well together, despite the inherent pitfalls and long distance communications.
Rick the printer deserves particular thanks for the time, advice and helpful work he has put in.
We have been on our third pot of tea well after midnight on three or four occasions.
I have already thanked him on behalf of myself and the club though, via a bit of engineering on his vintage mountain bike.
So there you go.
The story behind the shirt.
Bit of casual reading.
Thanks to the club for being worth the effort.
Must end there.
My butt ring is now firmly stuck.
And I'm ready to proceed with the whipping.
.......... old, cane fishing rod !
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