Five years of alumni commissions from our archives, reimagined as limited-edition sweatshirts for all to enjoy.
Every summer, the Carnegie Mellon School of Art commissions an alum to treat the cotton crewneck t-shirt as a blank canvas. The resulting shirts are distributed at the start of the fall semester to our students, faculty, and staff — a ritual welcome to the new academic year and a visual marker of our evolving campus culture. As one of those alumni, Steven Montinar (BFA ’21), described it, clothing is the “packaging of the body,” a way to showcase our personal tastes and the subcultures we inhabit. From Hello Kitty to nameplate jewelry and tattoos, each inspiration behind these designs expresses the individual artist’s practice while also fostering a sense of shared identity in our school. For the first time, we’re opening the archive and reissuing all five years of these commissions as sweatshirts, inviting our global community to proudly wear a piece of this ongoing history.
Please Note: These sweatshirts are sold at production cost via Bonfire. The School of Art does not profit from these sales.
2025: Designed by Coco Allred (BFA 2020)
Artist and educator Coco Allred drew inspiration from “dream clouds” — combining creativity, play, and community. “I wanted the design to feel like an invitation, a reminder to myself and others to go back to modes of making that feel easy and are a form of play and relaxation,” she said.
2024: Designed by Steven Montinar (BFA 2021)
Multidisciplinary artist Steven Montinar layered together multiple influences, including nameplate jewelry and iconic examples of three-letter branding, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s stacked logo. “My practice is based on all these different aesthetics, ways of fabricating, thoughts, forms of cultural markers that make up subculture and culture in general,” he said.
2023: Designed by Rosabel Rosalind (MFA 2023)
Artist Rosabel Rosalind created a design inspired by classic American tattoos. “Much like the multiplicity of artistic practices within the School of Art, tattoos can be a serious approach to self-expression, bodily reclamation and storytelling, conveying a deep and meaningful idea,” she said.
2022: Designed by Christina Lee (BFA 2014)
Illustrator Christina Lee drew on some common motifs across her work, including flowers, a pencil, clouds, and a mouth. “I’m drawn to bright colors and objects that have strong semiotic qualities,” Lee said. “I like to employ a wacky sense of humor that’s relatable and fun while also commenting on quotidian universal truths.”
2021: Designed by Huidi Xiang (MFA 2021)
Artist Huidi Xiang drew upon a common motif in her artistic practice: five apples, which she first became interested in because Sanrio, the company behind Hello Kitty, calls the character “five apples tall.” “Starting from that, I gradually developed apples as a math model in my art practice, and it’s become an important tool in my studio,” she said.