Last December, before a soul crushing winter had fully descended on Boston, Sitecore sponsored a posh Meetup at Stoddards pub. While mixing it up, I ended up talking to Rick Cabral about making some t-shirts for the user group. While at the Sitecore Symposium the previous fall, I noticed a few other groups had made their own shirts and I thought it was really cool and as it turns out, I may know a guy who makes t-shirts. So knowing I could supply the backend, I asked Rick what kind of design he thought would be good. I didn't really expect it but his eyes widened and he started talking about how he always envisioned this soviet-era propaganda with the slogan "Join the Sitecore". I almost died laughing because I could totally see it. I didn't need any other explanation and let's be honest, with the goatee, he looks kinda like Vladimir Lenin and would perfectly fit the caricature. And just so you know, as Rick continues to insist, he didn't come up with the idea of immortalizing himself, I did.
Shortly after the meetup I contacted my old, old friend Jay at Antidesigns to produce the design. Working with his team, we went back and forth for few rounds, working from some cruddy source images I pulled off the intarwebs but the image wasn't good enough. It was just too grainy and he wasn't projecting the right message. Here's a few of the early designs: