Pre-planning my game, I knew a standout T-shirt design was on the horizon.You say: The arc reactor? C'mon man that's too 2012. A Maze? Too chaotic. A QR code? Cool, but something's still missing. So I dove deeper—piecing together a coherent, tech-forward logo from scattered elements to craft a design that will truly fit the bigger picture.

Wait, no logo design is complete without making it look like that it has been made out mathematical magic.

Everything will make sense soon enough, just wait till you see how I bring the second one to life.

Tasked with designing a T-shirt, I had plenty of ideas—but I knew the real magic would come from combining different elements and hiding easter eggs for the keen-eyed. Early on, I explored two design directions. This was one of them—the one that didn’t made the cut :

Now, coming to the direction I finally chose—it was a quirky idea that brought together all my nerdy instincts. So I started wireframing, sort of. And honestly, this was my very first iteration. This also answers your question about where that 5×5 new logo came in—it really shines in the isometric view.

Later, I learned that for custom prints to be cost-effective, the design needed to stick to black and white and stay within a limited rectangular print area at the center. So in my high-fidelity iteration, I removed the QR code layers forming the circular base in the original pencil-paper version to make the T-shirt budget-friendly. The following illustration deciphers the design for you in detail.

Solid design, right? Surprisingly, even though it was well received by almost everyone, this one was also rejected 🥹 turns out a senior preferred a more minimal look. But stick around till the end of the case study—there’s a twist waiting for you.

Oh also, here are some techish stickers I created in between.

But after seeing the previous design, the team was confident in my ability to deliver something great again—if that was just the first iteration, what could come next? So, poor me was back to the figma canvas again. But this time, I came back with a blast.

Now, I know you might argue—how is this even minimalistic? But come on, it’s a huge leap from where we started (in terms of minimalism). Just look at the designs below. And yet, the same senior had an issue with having a cube on the T-shirt. So, even this minimal design was rejected—despite the entire club loving it and rooting for it to be printed after being awestruck by the concept.

At this point, it felt like the classic design iteration loop trap. Honestly, I was feeling a bit low—so I started throwing random elements together, just hoping something might click by chance. But hey, that’s not how it works in real life... right? Right?

Behold! my random lab experiment that somehow worked and got instantly approved. (Though many of us, including me, were still rooting for the earlier designs.) This one symbolizes connecting dots/people to form IMG, reflecting collaboration and problem-solving at its core.

Never mind—had to strip it down even more. Here it is: Wohoo! Officially printed T-Shirts, 2024.

This is the twist I was talking about—these designs really stuck with the members. The hype to wear them was so strong that, instead of going with a new design this year, my previous ones were brought back for print. But then came a strange dilemma: the club was completely split, half the members wanted the all black-and-white version, while the other half rooted for the colored cube.

In the end, we landed on a pretty unexpected solution—two T-shirts for 2025, and each member got to choose their favorite. With custom quotes (yes, I got two!), everyone had the freedom to personalize their design and bring in their own creative twist. Yayy! And that’s the story of T-Shirt(s) 2025.