The 2020 Experience: Strada’s Annual T-Shirt Competition

07.2020People

By Street Talk Editor

For the past 4 years, Strada has engaged employees in an Annual Summer T-shirt Design contest. Designs are submitted anonymously and every employee has the opportunity to vote for their favorite. The prompt for the competition this year was “The 2020 Experience.” 2020 marks our 20th Anniversary and in the midst of the world’s crises, this annual tradition helped to spark joy across the firm.

We received 6 very cool designs and the final scores were close! Check out the stories behind each design. Which one is your favorite?

“Break in the Routine”

“This design uses typography to basically embody the “shift” of this year post COVID lockdown. Topography (as seen in the red portion) that represents irregularity.” -Haris Ayoub, Designer

What was your inspiration for the design?
“My inspiration came from typography art and topography.”

What will you remember most from this first half of 2020?
“For me, personally, it will be leaving a job, starting a new job, and then being sent home 2 weeks later.”

What is the perfect caption for your design?
“Roll With The Punches”

 

---

 

“Video Meeting”

“My design synthesizes typical quotes we hear in video meetings and all the software/apps/programs/etc. we use here at Strada to facilitate our WFH communication, and a cat. It’s supposed to be a lighthearted take on all the funny problems that often arise in our many video conferences of late.” -Natalie Kahn, Communication Specialist / Graphic Designer

What was your inspiration for the design?
“I just started at Strada, so I was trying to think of a WFH-inspired design people could relate to and that would make them laugh.”

What will you remember most from this first half of 2020?
“The first half of 2020 was the second semester of my senior year of college. I think I’ll most remember my virtual thesis presentation and graduating from home.”

What is the perfect caption for your design?
“Year of the video conference”

---

 

“53+”

*WINNING DESIGN*

“I tried to capture as many snapshots of the Strada work-from-home experience, both the struggles and funny things about working together apart.” -Grace Ding, Architect

What was your inspiration for the design?
“Although working from home can be pretty challenging, one of the most interesting things was getting glimpses into people’s houses, family, pets, etc. Our marketing team even put forth a company-wide call to share your at-home workspace, as we were now at “53 offices and counting” so those pictures were definitely an inspiration here!”

What will you remember most from this first half of 2020?
“I loved seeing any cat or animal in other people’s houses. That always makes me happy.”

What is the perfect caption for your design?
“Strada-part, but still Strada-gether!”

---

 

“Strada Together, Creating Art Apart”

“The concept was that no matter if together or apart, Strada works together to create something beautiful. Even if through a computer screen!” -Eric Phillips, Architect

What was your inspiration for the design?
“The general layout is based off of ‘The Creation of Adam’ by Michelangelo, but Adam and God are shown in the form of Le Corbusier’s the Modular Man. Thought it was fitting…”

What will you remember most from this first half of 2020?
“No matter how grueling sitting at home alone is, every time one of my great coworkers pops up on my computer screen, I still feel the energy that drives us. It helps that we’re all so close and some of us even really good friends. The beer:30s (Our Weekly Happy Hour) have been great as well — one of them even going as late as 4am!! It’s a great chance to unwind from the week and discuss truly important things at Strada and life itself.”

What is the perfect caption for your design?
“Strada: Creating Art Apart”
Secondarily: “2020, you cruel mistress.”

---

 

“I miss my desk”

“This design expresses my appreciation for the nice chair / workspace that I was using in the office as opposed to the chair I have at home which occasionally makes my back hurt.” – Haris Ayoub, Designer

What was your inspiration for the design?
“My uncomfortable chair… LOL… and a vision chart.”

---

 

“Disciplines”

“This concept was to highlight that all of our different disciplines are related, but different. There’s also a secret STRADA spelled out in the images.” -Grace Ding, Architect

What was your inspiration for the design?
“We always talk about one of our main differentiators as a firm is our huge range of in-house disciplines, but it’s really hard to show that with one image. I found a graphic of red rectangles with some black lines on top and thought that might be a good way to express our different yet similar design disciplines.”

What will you remember most from this first half of 2020?
“I still stand by that thing with the cat that I said earlier, but if I have to pick another one, I’d say the smile on people’s faces on the other side of the webcam. Even though we’re all busy, tired, and stressed, our coworkers are still so accommodating, willing to help, caring for you as a person, and are just as happy to see you as they were in the office.”

What is the perfect caption for your design?
“Many disciplines, one Strada”

---