Project Brief

An experimental merchandise design and vender research. The National Council of Architecture Registration Boards (NCARB) is a nonprofit organization that is comprised of and collaborates with the architectural licensing boards across the United States. They develop recourses and programs to help regulate and create more direct routs for architects to become licensed.

NCARB has a booth at the 2022 AIA National Convention and want to offer a gift for those attendees who show their NCARB membership badge. This year they wanted to give away a T-shirt that relates with their theme “Destination Architect”. With a tight deadline of one week and a budget of $4,000, they needed a custom design made and a quantity of 500-700 shirts to be printed and delivered in time for the event.

Design Objective

To stay true to the theme “Destination Architect” and the design and illustration style of their existing website for the event, I wanted to lean into the idea of a map. Inspired by the blocks created by roads on a map, I illustrated elements from their existing website and videos and placed them inside of those blocks. The lines represent the roads that one would travel to arrive at each destination, and each destination is something that you will encounter on your path to becoming a licensed architect. This design represents the theoretical map that NCARB provides to help navigate the process to become an architect. The front of the shirt will show the illustration, while the back of the shirt displays NCARB’s tagline “Let’s go further” with a map pin illustration that is repeated throughout the website.