Recent graduate Bailey Sorensen has left her mark on ACU through her T-shirt designs that are now being sold in the Campus Store.
Sorensen is a Colorado native who graduated in May, but soon after graduation her name was recommended to Chellee Ross, the merchandise manager for the Campus Store, to produce new T-shirt designs to add to the selection of shirts already in the store.
“The decision to work with Bailey was based on the recommendation of some of our student workers,” Ross said. “We told her what style and look we were wanting; she was then able to design based on her own experience with ACU.”
The beginning-to-end process of designing the shirts and selling the designs to the Campus Store took about two weeks, Sorensen said. She also said the shirts are courtesy of skills she learned while in school.
“This so much more than a graphic designer helping out a college campus store to get more fun stuff in there,” Sorensen said. “It is a huge testament to ACU because I came from there. I’m a product of their education, and I am so proud that I was able to showcase that and that I was able to use ACU as a canvas.”
Ross says what makes Sorensen’s designs special is that she was familiar with ACU’s culture and had an eye for what students, alumni and faculty would find interesting.
“It is not often we are able to work with vendors who have actually experienced ACU,” Ross said. “I think one of her designs is especially reflective of that. The ‘Innovative, Exceptional, and Real’ shirt will probably not hold a lot of meaning to people outside the ACU community, but anyone within our community recognizes it.”
Ross went on to say that Sorensen combining ACU community with modern and cool designs is a good marketing tool for the university because the shirts hold meaning for its wearers but are trendy enough to catch the attention of others.
Future designs that are made by students and alumni, Ross said, will be tagged as “For a Wildcat by a Wildcat” so people can identify items designed and created by fellow Wildcats.
During Homecoming weekend, the Campus Store will be fully stocked with new merchandise like picture frames and mini canvases as well as Sorensen’s T-shirt designs.
“We are getting fully geared up so all the Wildcats, past, present or future, can find something to support their favorite university,” Ross said.
Sorensen has since moved back to Colorado but has high praises for the university that taught her how to begin her professional career.
“The biggest part about this all is that I’ve developed my own business, and really it’s showcasing what ACU taught me,” Sorensen said. “It’s so amazing to think that I am 12 hours away from ACU, and yet there is something so substantial that ACU provides people that can really go anywhere.”
Sorensen can be contacted through her website olivefigandco.com, which also features a blog post about designing for the Campus Store.
