Creating The Freedom Tee

The Freedom Tee was born at our in-person Lightward retreat earlier this year. At the retreat, myself and fellow Lightwardian Matt, had an afternoon where we got to talk about our idea for a Lightward merchant store through Shopify. Both Matt and I really wanted this merchant store to happen, but our main reasons were a little different. Before Matt joined Lightward he was actually a Shopify merchant using our apps Locksmith and Mechanic, and he wanted to stay connected with the ever-updating Shopify code and layout. I wanted it as a way for our Creative Team to be able to share the Lightward brand with the world through whatever wonderful things(s) they wanted to create.

We started the afternoon going through our brand guide. As a company that is primarily known for its tech side of things, it may be surprising that we have a brand guide. For those close to Lightward, this brand guide is no surprise and started a cascade of many wonderful dreams becoming realities. In our brand guide we have shapes, lines, colors, auras, and an arrow that all interact with each other in certain ways and those ways are ever-evolving. 

Next, I asked everyone to write down and talk about what Lightward meant to them. Below are some of the answers:

“Creative expansion and forward motion towards deeper understanding, authenticity, empowerment, freedom, and play.”

“An environment to see and feel and make what’s possible. A creative touchpad. Where imagination meets reality.”

“An invitation to grow from where you are into the spaces outside yourself, and to share in the rich soil and shade with those around you.”

“Lightward is a process. Lighward is a vehicle. Ever-changing. Never static.”

We then asked everyone to start sketching or writing what they thought the first Lightward shirt should have in it. I still have those sketches and plan on using more of them in the future for whatever we decide to create next. This 2+ hour session was so wonderful. We learned a lot about what this company means to each of the people in it and that I knew that knowing that was going to be the base and driving force to where I would go with the final design of the shirt.

When it comes to me and my creative process with anything, I will go in spurts of hyper-obsessive focus and then the other side, not thinking or touching it for weeks at a time. That was no different for the Freedom Tee. After our afternoon during the retreat, I knew that the shirt needed to have a quote that symbolized a core characteristic of Lightward—and that needed to be placed over the heart. I also knew that there needed to be a shape full of colors that had the Lightward wordmark under it and the line going through. 

For the remainder of the retreat and the next couple weeks, I did nothing else in terms of designing the shirt. I literally waited for inspiration to slap me across the face like that water and tortilla challenge that went around social media for a while. Until that moment where I would get slapped, Matt was leading the way and teaching me how to create and design our merchant store. That process deserves its own article and one that I hope is written by Matt soon. :)

A few more months passed and I was sitting at lunch with Abe and Isaac. We were talking about the Journal and how they were in the process of designing the cover for it. I was currently at a sticking point with my design process for the shirt. I had the back of the shirt finished, but just didn’t know what the quote was going to be in the front over the heart. Abe and Isaac continued to talk about the Journal and I swear out of nowhere, a creative tortilla comes flying from the other side of the room and slaps me in the face! It dawns on me that the first Lightward shirt should be connected to and an extension of the Journal. I posted that in the Slack Journal channel, and within 24 hours our quote was decided.

We may only have one quote on the shirt but all the quotes that were on the table were very much so like the quotes that people who work at Lightward use to describe what Lightward means to them. All the quotes had messages of play, love, fluidity, creation, and freedom because at Lightward we want to help you interpret and rediscover what makes you want to play.

At Lightward we want to help you explore, experiment, and embrace your inner light. At Lightward we want to remind you of your own freedom.

Find the Freedom Tee in our store, at lightward.shop.