Friday, March 25, 2011

Farmer University


My dad got this for me several years ago.
He gave it to me for Christmas, he also got apparel just like this for my siblings and other family members that year. He ordered them out of a catalogue who custom manufactures and prints apparel and merchandise. Since they have your name and billing address already on file they can generate a bunch of ads with your name on them that may be relevant to you. I'd imagine that if I wanted to I could get a whole bunch more of these printed for some exorbitant fee. It's a company called Alumni Originals and they have semi-original designs for all kinds of stuff.
http://www.aotees.com/
I got this as a gift so I'm not going to look at it too harshly. I really like that it is grey, the color adds a certain aged look. I only have about three college themed shirts so even a fake collegiate shirt may come in handy sometimes.
The design is reminiscent of very traditional college seals from all over the country. In what is usually described as a "college" font it says "FARMER", my family name. At the bottom in the same college font it says "UNIVERSITY" basically indicating that I went to a college that was founded by my family. Or, in my unfortunate case, that I went to a university for people who farm. =\ The seal that they created for these mass production colleges is extra-generic. It consists of a circle and a shield. Within the circle it says "Intellectus Sapientia Scientia" in Latin, meaning: understanding, science and wisdom. On the shield it has 3 stars and a book, on the pages it says, "Alma Mater" basically meaning the one who taught you. Obviously no such place exists, I just wanted to make that clear.
Wearing this shirt is fun for a party with new people or an event with a whole bunch of college graduates. When hanging out with people that are out of school they'll wear college colors or whatever. This is funny to wear ironically when other people are wearing real shirts. Also I guess I could wear this to a family reunion or when visiting people out of town, but that would be kinda dorky.

There was a time when people just called me by my last name. I thought this shirt was a clever way to play on that. When people see this shirt they'll usually read it out loud like, "Farmer University?" and then notice it's a joke. Once that realization is over there isn't much left that is interesting about the shirt.

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