The Brief

One morning I received an email from the Shake the Field team. Shake the Field is an Alabama based educational brand under Alabama Forward, encouraging civic and cultural engagement in Alabama communities. I had worked with them on a previous illustration project when they sent me the following email:

Hi Lauren!

We absolutely loved your courthouse design – your artistic style is incredible! We think you'd be a perfect fit for our next project.

As part of our Shake the Field community outreach program, we sell t-shirts as a way to generate independent revenue that helps us continue our work in the community. We're going to be vendors at the upcoming Selma Jubilee on March 7th, and we'd love to unveil a new shirt design featuring a slogan one of our team members created: "The Movement Ain't Gonna Power Itself."

Here's the inspiration behind it: The phrase speaks to the idea that there's a place for all of us in creating lasting change. Even when we're feeling overwhelmed by the news or everyday life stressors, we each have something to give and somewhere to plug in. Each one of us is a little spark that keeps the engine moving – and it won't move without some force (think Newton's first law of motion!). The phrase actually came from a personal place: my mom used to tell me "the room isn't going to clean itself" when she was frustrated with me procrastinating on cleaning my room.

We'd love it if you could create a design based on that slogan!”

I was excited to work with the team again and jumped head first into the design.