SPOKANE, Wash. – For Gordon Smith, the passion for Bloomsday runs in the family, literally.
“My grandfather was a Bloomsday runner for 33 years,” Gordon said. “My grandmother used to take me to see him score goals.”
Gordon grew up to become a Bloomsday finisher himself, and this year he designed the 2024 Bloomsday finisher T-shirt.
“There’s something that’s been on my mind for the last six months,” Gordon said.
Today, when the first finisher of the Bloomsday race crossed the finish line and picked up a T-shirt featuring Gordon’s winning artwork, the secret and his treasured designs were revealed.
“I’m so excited to know that this is going to happen not just in Spokane, but all over the world,” Gordon said.
Like Bloomsday, design is a family tradition.
“My mom did graphic design and web design, so I was kind of introduced to that,” Gordon said.
After earning a degree in design from Eastern Washington University, Gordon set his sights on designing Bloomsday Finisher T-shirts. The Bloomsday Finisher T-shirt is a trophy that Lilac His Bloomsday Run participants can earn after completing his 12 kilometers.
“I tried to create a design in 2020, but it was very cold because I had to submit it in person,” Gordon said. “I was too nervous. I’m generally a pretty shy person.”
Gordon said she loved the design of the 2022 Bloomsday finisher T-shirt and was overjoyed when Bloomsday contacted her that year to tell her her design had been chosen for the medal.
“I think that motivated me to keep trying,” Gordon said.
Little did he expect to hear from Bloomsday just a year later.
“It was Bloomsday and I answered the phone and they were like, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ Your design was chosen for the finisher shirt,” Gordon said.
The winning design can be seen in the video above. Mr Gordon said this was inspired by the Bloomsday course itself, which was the fifth time he completed it.
“The finish line is at the Monroe Street Bridge, so the bridge and waterfall were one of the things we wanted to incorporate as part of the design,” Gordon said.
Brayden Jessen of Zome Design said he printed Gordon’s designs on more than 35,000 shirts this year for Bloomsday in-person and virtual attendees.
“The Bloomsday order is like the ‘Super Bowl’ of T-shirts for all of Spokane and is easily the largest T-shirt order,” Braden said.
During the week of Bloomsday, Zome was printing as many as 2,000 shirts a day, Braden said.
“I really like this shirt,” Braden added. “The cool new colors are fresh for spring, the design is really simple and fun for all ages.”
Come Monday morning, you’ll be seeing a lot of these shirts around town. And you’ll keep looking at that shirt long after the balloon’s finish line drops.
“The day after Bloomsday, Monday, is going to be really fun because then you’ll see half the city wearing (Bloomsday) shirts,” Gordon said. “That would be really great.”
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