The winning Peachtree T-shirt
Frank Martinez of Atlanta wears his T-shirt after finishing the AJC Peachtree Road Race. Jessica Ferguson's design was selected as the winner. -- Jason Getz
Jessica Ferguson
Occupation: A student at West Georgia scheduled to graduate in December.
Residence: Carrollton (from Kennesaw)
Age: 22
Number of Peachtrees entered: None.
Number of Peachtree contests previously entered: None.
What was the goal of your design? When I created it, I wasn’t trying to win. I wanted to create something that I’m proud of. My concentration of painting and drawing, I used those skills. I was trying to do something that was different. My teacher, when he gave us the assignment, we looked at past. They always included the peach or the skyline. My teacher told us we didn’t need peach.
What was your inspiration? I love to paint. Clint Samples, my teacher, said you should try to use stuff other than computer graphics. I started with a palette knife and used acrylic paint. I scanned each letter in with Photoshop and then made it digital. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something risky.
How long did it take to design? Three months. We would do a design and then critique them. We had eight or nine critiques.
What would it mean to win? It would mean a lot. Winning that is a huge accomplishment because 60,000 people will be wearing that. These T-shirts are considered trophies for the runners. It’s a really big honor to know that your design was chosen.
Click here to search the 2011 AJC Peachtree Roadrace results.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
129 comments Add your comment
Smitha
July 5th, 2011
10:52 am
I like the design. Simple, vibrant ‘peachy’ colors without the literal Peach. But hate the Tshirt itself. Atlanta Track Club gives GREAT technical tshirts in almost all its races – why not this one? The generic sized Tshirt never fits right on me and after one wear at the fireworks in the evening of the race, the Tshirt is banished to my race shirt collection.
ATL71
July 5th, 2011
10:55 am
This was my first Peachtree. The feeling of accomplishment when crossing the finish line was quite remarkable. Well done, ATL Track Club and all the volunteers.
As for the design: It was not the one that I voted for, as I wanted a shirt with a patriotic theme to recognize July 4th.
Lis
July 5th, 2011
11:00 am
Good enough job on the design. But I just dont like the shirt. Looks bad and washed out on gray and just doesn’t have anything to do with the city or the 4th. Out of all the race shirts I have, this is my least fave.
Also, relax on the all caps and stuff people. Jeez, it’s a shirt.
pjz
July 5th, 2011
11:38 am
I didn’t vote for it. And ditto on the sponsors being on the back instead of messing up the design.
KT
July 5th, 2011
12:08 pm
Jessica, huge congratulations!!! I love the design and it shows a true sense of artistry. Please don’t be bothered by all the negative feedback. Remember most people only comment when it’s something negative, so for every negative post you read there about 1000 people who love your design. You should be so proud of yourself and your design, this is one of the t-shirts I will actually wear on a regular basis.
john reese
July 5th, 2011
12:15 pm
Shits dope. Any of the haters that don’t want their shirt ill buy it.
Sharon
July 5th, 2011
12:44 pm
This was my first Peachtree Road Race. Was very disappionted in this T-shirt design. VERY UGLY. When I voted. this design was TRUELY THE WORST ONE. STILL CAN’T BELIEVE THIS DESIGN WAS THE WINNER.
Stacy
July 5th, 2011
1:49 pm
This was my first time to participate in the Peachtree, what a great experience!
I love the t-shirt design! The design is original, shows so much creativity, and the colors are lovely!
Great job to all who participated in the race!
Kudos to Jessica for adding such a beautiful element to this historic event!!!!
Rick
July 5th, 2011
4:07 pm
If I had a vote this would have been the last one I would have voted for. But the fact is the Peachtree has had an incredible history of less than creative T Shirts. How about another color? RED, BLUE, ORANGE I don’t care.
Lin
July 5th, 2011
6:06 pm
Who picks the final shirts? I agree we could use some original designs (non-computer generated) but this was the worst yet. It looks like kid’s finger paint. What says Atlanta? What says July 4th — our Indendence Day? The others at least had that appeal. For now on, I’ll make sure I vote and get all of my running groups to make sure they cast a vote. I normally like to wear my shirt but didn’t even bother getting a picture this time.
New Method of Determining Winning T-Shirt
July 5th, 2011
9:06 pm
The Peachtree Road Race organizers should man-up or woman-up and develop a new way of determining the winning T-shirt. Perhaps the winner should be determined by a committee, consisting of some Georgia art professors, some of the Peachtree Road Race officials, some consistent runners, and some civilians who have made the Peachtree Road Race famous, such as Gail Barron. Select who you would like to be on the committee and it could change every year, but the winner should not be left up to public voting of people who probably have no other interest in the race. From their two consecutive wins, it’s obvious West Georgia College has a machine going whereby they’re in control of who wins. The rest of us have to work and we can’t compete with that. Some type of committee should choose the winner. I’ve been participating in the race, on and off, since the 80’s, and I’ve never seen this amount of unhappines with the shirt. The race organizers should take our complaints seriously and devise a new way to pick the winning shirt. I believe they did this at one time (don’t know who the selectees were at that time), but leaving it up to public voting has been a complete disaster, especially with the machines some of the contestantshave. West Georgia College can continue to submit crap and win everytime. This should have been expected.
AGREE WITH NEW METHOD OF DETERMINIG WINNING SHIRT
July 5th, 2011
9:10 pm
I AGREE WITH NEW METHOD OF DETERMINING THE WINNING T-SHIRT. THE UNIVERSITY OF WEST GEORGIA IS FIXING THE WINNER, AND THEY SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO HAVE THAT KIND OF POWER.
PRR Runner
July 6th, 2011
5:38 am
The “design” is nice but it is the gray cotton shirt that it is printed on that I have an issue with. I like the idea of having only the registered runners vote for the shirt design since they are the group that will actually receive it.
Sunday
July 6th, 2011
11:37 am
Congratulations, Jessica. Great work! Keep working hard on your writing skills which will polish your image. What a wonderful honor to include this accomplishment on your resume as you embark on I’m certain will be a very successful career in art.
Damian
July 6th, 2011
12:21 pm
I will congratulate Jessica for her design garnering the most votes. I’m not personally fond of the design, but then I also very rarely wear any of the other four PRR t-shirts hanging in my closet. My favorite, though, is the 2008 shirt. I doubt I’ll ever slip this one one to go out in public. (it really does look like finger paint)
I opted to not vote this year as non of the five candidates screamed “vote for me” this time around. It would be nice if every piece of artwork submitted was required to include at least two of four design elements: Atlanta, Peach (or peachtree), America (flag, or other use of a patriotic emblem/symbol), Running.
And I, too, like the idea of only allowing registered participants (and volunteers for that matter) vote for the winning design, or at least maybe having a method by which a registered participant’s vote counted twice as much as a non-participant.
So, sorry Jessica…while I’m glad to have collected this year’s PRR “trophy”, the 2011 t-shirt I got will most likely only ever see the inside of my closet. But just think, in a hundred years, any surviving examples will be a collector’s item. (but I bet it will still shock people to know that it took 3 months to design this thing.)
alex
July 6th, 2011
2:54 pm
Enter your comments here
alex
July 6th, 2011
2:57 pm
If you want a decent shirt do the j-ville 15 k-tecnical with good colors. This is an adolescent design on a poor quality shirt,worst design since the BMW debacle of the 80’s(all you yuppies liked that one).Lottery,mailing costs,UGLY and CHEAP t-shirt,decline of a once fun race……Sheesh
je
July 6th, 2011
3:53 pm
Congratulations Jessica!
I love what you have designedI I’m in the arts field myself and recognize creativity. It doesn’t look so graphic designed and so commercial like some of the other designs.
This was my first PRR and it didn’t matter to me what T-shirt it was. I am thankful for it no matter what.
Continue to prevail in your arts career and don’t let anyone bring you down! All these negative comments will only make you a stronger individual.
mc
July 6th, 2011
6:02 pm
Just so that all of you know, a writer from the Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote this article, not the designer…………… Maybe you should be criticizing how the Atlanta Journal Constitution actually hires people who do not know how to write grammatically correct.
And if any of you actually read the article, this design was not just painted but was also digitally manipulated in Photoshop, which is probably why it took her so long. I’m an art person myself so I know that dealing with computer designing software takes awhile and is not easy. The article said that each letter was individually scanned in. She had to take the time to manipulate each letter of the word. If any of you are familiar with Photoshop, you know that there must of have been alot of layers to be dealing with.
You may not like the paint effect but you should keep your mouth shut when talking about how much work and time goes into it, especially when you probably don’t have any experience with the software or media. I don’t think your six year old children can manipulate and create computer graphics using Photoshop.
All she did was design it. The public selected it. So criticize the mass instead of the actual artist. I am sure she is used to dealing with criticism. So you don’t have to like the design, but don’t attack her personally.
Also, I know someone who submitted the design last year, and I learned that the Atlanta Track Club is responsible for picking the color of the actual T-shirt. So email them with your complaints…
Nebo
July 6th, 2011
9:02 pm
Design is nice, but the cotton blend is not. It doesn’t breathe like my other four, 100% cotton Peachtree Road Race shirts. A bit disappointing.
Leaky, creaky and beloved, Lester Park School comes down – Duluth News Tribune | Screen print news
July 7th, 2011
3:59 am
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]
alex
July 7th, 2011
7:46 am
In the good old days, there was a time limit and NOT anyone who payed for a number could get a t-shirt;I saw people walking at 1 mile.. Thus these “voters” may not be actual “runners” and many were not even “walkers”. I agree that only contestants should vote and there should be a time limit instituted,LIKE THE GOOD OLD DAYS, WHEN THE T-SHIRT MEANT SOMETHING…sHEESH
alex
July 7th, 2011
7:49 am
Then again we could give trophys and medals to everyone,stop timing so that no one would be disappointed and all the people could live in buckhead and drive bmw,s ..Oh atlantans do that already..
mc
July 7th, 2011
8:27 am
Just because it says “blog” does not mean she wrote it…read the top—” by Doug Roberson” ……….he is the one who can’t write. He interviewed her and then butchered the write up…They used the term blog very losely, and in result made her look bad…..nice job AJC
DGGj
July 7th, 2011
9:27 am
I agree with Damian. Atlanta/peach or Peachtree, patriotic emblem/symbol and running should be required elements of the PRR t shirt design. It was a lovely design—it just didn’t reflect the event, the participants or the 4th of July.
What Do Facebook T-Shirts Look Like In Seattle? – TechCrunch | Screen print news
July 7th, 2011
4:01 pm
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]
Marie
July 7th, 2011
4:32 pm
I’m ok with the design but I can’t understand why the color grey was the shirt color 2 years in a row. For the past 3-4 years the volunteer shirts have been more attractive than the runners. I hope the ATC officals will refrain from using white and grey shirts for the next 10 years. People like colors. Fun colors inspire people to wear the shirts more often.
Stop West Georgia From Padding the Vote!
July 7th, 2011
7:13 pm
The proof is there that West Georgia keeps winning because they pad the vote. And all these words of praise for this despicable shirt are coming from unemployed West Georgia alum — the rest of us have to work; so, obviously, they have more time to out-vote us. We need to find a way to choose the winning shirt so it can be more democratic (not the party but fair to all, West Georgia alum. We can’t keep using crap as the winning model for the Peachtree Road Race T-shirt. West Georgia doesn’t care as long as they get publicity somehow.
UWG student’s design chosen for Peachtree Road Race T-shirts – Times-Georgian — T-Shirts Printing
July 9th, 2011
3:59 am
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]