Muse

Make like a tree Jun 8th, 2007

Tree Shirt DesignTrees are very common in design. Whether it is a display of the roots steaming from a full luscious leaf barren tree, or if it is a very long and narrow tree, humans understand it as a symbol of growth. I would suggest that it not only stands for growth, but strength, integrity, and life as well. After redesigning a t-shirt that contained a tree and then noticing the common recurrences of trees in designs, I could not help but question the integrity of a design with a conifer.At what point is a design a cop-out? For myself it is when I take the easy solution. There is almost always an obvious solution to a design. A direct message gets pulled out of our head when we hear almost anything. Like the word apple automatically triggers the color red in our heads. It is uncommon that we come across an object or idea that doesn’t immediately trigger a response in our brain. When we do, we encounter something called learning. We try to associate this new thought with a previously learned one and this helps us recall it. Though this whole process can be scary, it can be something that over time can almost become enjoyable.Tree in DesignIn design, it takes more then just the obvious answer being placed on a page for a viewer to be taken in. Or does it? Why is a tree so visually appealing? Why do I like shirts with trees on them so much? A tree is such a strong symbol; It is a universal symbol. No matter where you are in the world you see trees. They all have the same structure. They are tall, they have bark, they compliment the sky, and depending on the time of year they have leaves. Trees stand for so much yet we ignore their beauty and meaning on a daily basis.This is why a tree through another medium besides nature become so appealing. It forces us to think. It forces us to think about the world that is around us everyday and see it possibly in new ways. We see a tree on a shirt and think to ourselves, “i have seen thousands of trees and they standing tall, strong, and healthy”. The tree as a symbol is an inspiration. It carries the potential of a smiley face without the cheesy intentions.