Our Campaign T-shirts have been an international hit. Our soon-to-leave Junior Professional Officer, Shoko Ishikawa, made them happen. This is her story, straight from her Quarterly Report.

After the logistics for the Campaign launch had been settled, we realized that we did not have any promotional material on the Campaign to hand out to the guests. Campaign T-shirts were suggested but the cost of 500 T-shirts had not been included in the Campaign budget. Evelyn approached the Philippines National Committee for assistance, and it generously agreed to contribute $2000 to the Campaign to cover printing T-shirts.

The next step was to have the T-shirt designed and printed. However, with only two weeks to the launch, there was not enough time to involve a professional for the design so we had to rely on in-house resources, namely me. With inspiration from the Campaign slogan “A Life Free of Violence”, I made a couple of sketches. One was of a flower, and another of a woman reaching her hands out and stretching as if she were enjoying her freedom. I showed both images to Evelyn, Penny and Greet (our new volunteer) who gave me positive feedback.

Over the weekend I experimented with more sketches focussing on the image of the woman. The flower was dropped, as it did not seem to carry the message of a life free of violence well enough. I tried illustrations of several women together, and then a man and a woman (since violence against women is an issue of gender relations), and these evolved into an image of a family. Many of my friends were involved in designing the T-shirt. Throughout the weekend I asked friends whether they had any talent in drawing and illustration. I carried my colouring pencils and crayons with me, and if my friends were interested, I had them try a drawing. I explained the Campaign and the kind of image I wanted for the T-shirt. One of those drawing sessions was held in a German food restaurant over dinner. As four of us were waiting for our orders to come, I brought out my paper and drawing tools. We each tried a drawing of a family, and I decided to use for the T-shirt the one drawn by Suwanee (a friend working for an advertising agency).

The next day I scanned the drawing into the computer together with the slogan "A Life Free of Violence; It's Our Right", which was traced from the slogan on the LAC campaign memopad and enlarged. I worked all day on the layout of the image, the slogan, the Campaign logo and title and presented it to Lorraine on Monday morning. Lorraine’s immediate feedback was that the short dress of the woman should be lengthened into a sarong which is more customary in Asia. Making this change was not simple as it involved rescanning the modified image, adjusting the colour contrast, the background colour, etc. Numerous samples were printed out with different layouts, different letter sizing, and colours. Fortunately Lorraine's husband Geoff, who was in the office, helped me with some of the graphics problems and suggestions on the layout.

By the end of the day the T-shirt design was ready and sent off to the printer. A week later, 500 T-shirts in three different sizes were delivered to our office.

The design was an immediate hit. Ratna, our regular printing contractor from whom we ordered the T-shirt printing was full of praises. Lorraine and Evelyn changed into the T-shirts right away and wore them throughout the day. Evelyn started distributing the T-shirts among the UN offices and soon reported back that everyone was asking for and even willing to buy the wonderful T-shirt. We then decided to take advantage of their willingness to pay to collect donations in exchange for the T-shirt, so that we could print more later. During that day and the next a total of 57 T-shirts were given out. The attention we received was very encouraging so we agreed to also sell the T-shirt at the launching in the Philippines.

On the day of the launch, we set up our T-shirts “shop”. Geoff Corner kindly volunteered to help me with the sales. By the end of the day, 140 T-shirts had been distributed. About two thirds were sold and the rest given to PETA, CAPWIP, and others who helped us organize the Campaign launch. The remaining 210 T-shirts were left with YSTAPHIL, Pilipina and Ms. Chona Echavez to sell on commission in the Philippines. The UNIFEM-sponsored delegate from Indonesia, Ms. Gadis Arivia, approached us to ask if she could reprint the T-shirts in Indonesia with the words in Bahasa Indonesian. Gadis was captivated by the design of the T-shirt that sent a peaceful message to end violence against women, and thought that this would be the best starting point for raising public awareness in Indonesia. We agreed that she could take the design and modify it as necessary.

Dated: 31 Oct 1998