The T-shirts of DrupalCamp Ruhr

Many Barcamps and Conferences offer participants a corresponding T-shirt. In the olden days, let’s say 2006-2016, those shirts often featured the logo of the event, along with the logos of the sponsors. But company logo shirts tend to be forgotten – or are just worn when you need an old shirt while painting the flat. At least in my experience.

So when we opted for shirts for DrupalCamp Ruhr 2018 in Essen, Germany, we decided against sponsor logos, instead looking for a simple, logo-like, Drupal/DrupalCamp idea, hoping that these shirts might be worn later in real life.

I started to work on some designs. I am not an illustrator, but the results were, I dare say, quite ok for our purposes. Some people missed the shirts and asked how to get one. So in 2018, I promised to put the necessary files online. And just two and a half years later, I finally did it. So here we go.

All files are bundled in a Zip further down on the page. You may use the images for personal prints. On T-shirts, mugs, caps, whatever you like. But you are not allowed to use them commercially, e.g. in your own shop.

2018: LOVE

In 2018, I wasn’t involved in the planning of DrupalCamp Ruhr. But I offered to design a shirt. I started with the logo for our Drupal User Group (DUG) Ruhr – a combination of the Drupal 8 Logo and our own version of the Hammer and pick, an international symbol of mining, as Essen was once the largest mining town on the continent.

After moving the letters DRUPAL around for some time, and variations of »I ❤︎ Drupal«, I remembered the old pop art image LOVE by American artist Robert Indiana from the 60s.

So I rebuilt the logo. As far as I could find out in 2018, the font was Clarendon Black. That font turned out to be similar, but not quite the right one. So I had to tweak the letters a bit, and in the end, swapped the O with our Drupal User Group Icon. The result is obviously not original, just derivative work, but it looks quite nice for our small DrupalCamp.

Attendees got this logo on a black T-shirt. And because the word LOVE invites you to do so, the team got their T-shirts in red.

Behind the scenes: Here are two (unfinished) designs that didn’t make the cut in 2018.

Alternative: NOPE

I am also adding a variation I made for myself here: NOPE. Which is just good advice for life in general.
Hey, can you get this done over the weekend? NOPE. Do you wanna try this Pizza à la Tiramisu? NOPE. Here are ten AI tools that will transform your … NOPE!

Ok, fine, back to Drupal stuff.

2023: DRPL

For the DrupalCamp Ruhr 2023, I made four or five simple typographic designs. Some of those we might use in the future. We finally decided on the DRPL version. The idea comes from bands without vowels. Like German punk band KMPFSPRT. Or MGMT. Or BLK JKS. Hell, I myself have a band with friends called NVRVR.

I iterated through some typefaces and landed on VX Rocket by Daniel Zadorozny.

Behind the scenes: 

2023: Double Vision

After 2023, I had a really good idea for the next shirt. This time around, an actual illustration. But I didn’t know if my attempt at an illustration would be good enough to print. So I decided to design some fallback ideas.

The big change in the world of Drupal is the fact that we have two Drupal systems since the start of 2025: Drupal CMS and Drupal Core. So I thought about celebrating this with either some kind of overlayed font, a glitch design, or double line fonts. In the end, I had two doubled designs and an early version of the illustrated motif.

So I decided to print test T-shirts with the two doubled designs.

I also checked out some double line fonts and then stumbled upon this free font: Double by Vladimir Anosov.

For various reasons we decided to use one of the doubled designs. 2025 is the best time for it, since Drupal CMS is still quite new and fresh. We might use the illustrated motif in the future (I won’t spoil it here) – if there ever is another DrupalCamp in Essen.

The only thing we changed from the test print: We moved our DUG Ruhr Icon from the front to the sleeve. So the front featured just the font by itself.

Behind the scenes: Here are two other motifs I tried. The idea was: Look at our fancy new Drupal CMS (pink), but underneath it is all based on Drupal Core (blue).

Download

Here is a Zip file with all the designs in SVG format. This includes the three official motifs for 2018, 2023, and 2025. As well as the vertical version of 2023. Both test print motifs for 2025. And my NOPE variant.

T-Shirt-motifs for DrupalCamps Ruhr

Printing T-Shirts with Spreadshirt

We have printed all our DrupalCamp Ruhr T-shirts with Spreadshirt (spreadshirt.de, spreadshirt.com). I can’t say anything about other print services.

We prefer the Premium Bio T-shirts (Men, Women). They have really good quality. Spreadshirt has plenty of other shirts, so just pick what you like. 

These motifs are all one-color logo-like (except for the 80s version, see below). So the best options are flex printing and flock printing (DE, EN).

For our shirts, we used Flex print. Flex print has a smooth, glossy finish and convinces in terms of colour brilliance. This print will survive many wash cycles. But if you fold the print, there is a good chance you will damage the print a bit.

Flock print, on the other hand, is velvety soft and protrudes slightly from the product due to its fluffy surface structure. This looks quite nice when the shirt is new. This also survives lots of wash cycles. The disadvantage here: The print attracts small fluff. So after the first wash, the motif will look a bit more grey. And if you manage to wash a Flock print with a red shirt, there is a good chance that your white print will now look slightly pink. Yeah, I tested this (by accident). Even a lint roller didn’t help much.

For my personal shirts, I usually switch between Flex and Flock print depending on my mood. But I regret Flock print more often because of that damn fluff.

Spreadshirt offers other print options. Digital Direct is probably not a good option as the motif fades faster than Flex or Flock prints. If you really like the motif, you may try Embroidery.

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If you want to print the neon 80s motif, you have two options. If you want to keep the colors in the SVG, you will have to choose Digital Direct. But the way the SVG is prepared, you may also switch to Flex print. In this case, you are limited in the choice of the three colors. But you can pick variations of pink and light blue.

Another point you may want to pay attention to is the actual size on the shirts. It very much depends on how you wear them. If you tend to wear only the shirt, the motif may be bigger. If you wear hoodies, vests, or jackets over the shirt, it is a good idea to print the motif a bit smaller. For comparison, we printed LOVE around 18 cm wide, and the horizontal DRPL around 20 cm wide.

Washing your shirts

Do yourself a favor: look at the T-shirt label, and then wash your shirts according to the label. It will probably say something like: wash at 30° Celsius, do not tumble dry, iron at low temperature. If you can adjust the revolutions, rather use 400-800 RPM instead of 1200-1600 RPM.

If you don’t follow the label, this will happen rather sooner than later:

Have fun with your new Drupal shirts!

See you next DrupalCamp Ruhr.