BEHIND THE DESIGN: IRON MAIDENS

Hey, it's the 13th!! Did you miss me?

This month, I want to talk about the shirts we did for the Iron Maidens Raw Open powerlifting competition 2 weeks ago.

Before we get into design, I just want to throw out some history about this partnership. My wonderful friend, Morit (who you might remember from Thirteen Journeys!) connected me with Margie of Iron Maidens. Margie told me all about their mission; because they know it better than I do, I figure maybe it's easier to read this snippet from their website:

The Iron Maidens Stay Strong Scholarship was created to help women who don't have access to financial aid pay for higher-level education. The money we raise pays for 80% of college tuition for undocumented students, Dreamers, and women who have been victims of predatory for-profit colleges. Students in these financial situations have no access to financial aid dollars and the undocumented students are ineligible for most scholarships. Rather than selecting recipients based on common criteria such as grades or academic achievement, this scholarship rewards persistence—the grit and determination to keep going during hard times. We believe this recognizes and addresses the reality our students face, and also captures the essence of the Iron Maidens Competition. Now, more than ever, we are proud to be giving this necessary support to undocumented women who are working to improve their lives through education.

So, the event raises money to donate to this incredible scholarship... support other women? COUNT ME IN. Because who run the world? GIRLS. 

It's really important to me to pay it forward; the whole purpose of Thirteen Fit Apparel is to help and empower people. To be real, MY whole purpose is to help and empower people... and just so happens design is my outlet. Projects like this, I LIVE FOR. So anyway, I teamed up with Margie to come up with a design for all the female athletes + the volunteers.

We did a lot of brainstorming; I was thinking about some wordplay.

Let's break it down:
Iron is one of the elements (hello, high school chemistry... which, by the way, I aced). The symbol on the Periodic Table is Fe.
Maidens... ladies. Female. Fe.

Minimal but clever, if I do say so myself. And always bold. I love bold design. So that's where we went. The "Fe" is the focal point, encased in a square just like on the Periodic Table... but look closely! That square is made up on empty barbells, heyyyyy. Below the "Fe" reads "6.2018." Instead of the atomic number, "6.2018" because that was the date of the event: June 2018.

I've got to say, there is nothing like being in a room full of people wearing something you designed... for such an important cause. The event was one of the best events I've ever attended. Women ROCKING the platform, moving all kinds of weights. There were ladies from ages 18-72! It was incredibly inspiring and the air had an amazing energy.

NOT ONLY did I get to be a part of the event, I got to meet other women entrepreneurs who always inspire me to keep going!

It was a great day for women, a great day for education, a great day for fitness and a great day for purposeful design!

Photo by Pratt | Media, @prattmedia

Interested in custom design? EMAIL ME! paige@thirteenfitapparel.com and let's get this party started.

'Til next time,
Paige

*All images courtesy of Photo by Pratt | Media, @prattmedia