Vintage T-Shirt Forum & Community Authentication Appraisals

I recently sold this on Etsy:



It turns out the woman who bought it was the woman who designed it back in the 70s. How cool is that? Especially since it is a pretty iconic picture. Of course, I asked her a of couple t-shirt questions... couldn't resist. When she replies, maybe I'll post the answers here, like a mini-interview.

Sweet! Looking toward!

That's so cool!! I love stories like that!

So, here are some interesting things she told me:

She was doing graphic design in San Fran in the early 70s and she ended up putting up a bunch of Greenpeacers in her apartment.

She said she designed the shirt in either 1975 or 1976, but could have been as early as late 1974.

Her boyfriend, at the time, was the photographer on the Greenpeace seal campaign.

She helped start Earth Force and drew and designed their Save the Elephants shirt.

She never charged for her work and found out that Greenpeace wanted her to do the art since the original artist wanted $1,500 and a 25 cents per shirt royalty.

She considers her art donations lifetime contributions to the cause.

Her former design partner probably still has the original artwork.

They wrote a book together, The Whole Whog Catalog, complete with preface by Chevy Chase.

Her dog once ate a $60,000 Greenpeace donation check that was put in the mail slot of her apartment.

She had other old Save the Seals shirts, but her kids wore them out, so she said this one would "mean a lot" to her. All in all, definitely the most interesting, and fascinating, buyer I've had.

Awesome story and interview! I study math at the university and I can tell the probability for this is pretty low...