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Remember the boring designs on your college sweat shirts? The ones you totally wanted to get rid off? When in college, we have a sense of belonging to the place. It is here that we grow up to be first, responsible citizens, better individuals and learn to value things around us. In college we look forward to a lot of things and one of them is the college t-shirt or sweat-shirt. Each one of us likes to show off our college logo.

But given the trend today, not many of us like to wear the college t-shirt with logo of the college, day in and day out. In fact many students would skip the whole idea of sweat shirts altogether. But the Oberlin College in the state of Ohio has come up with an innovative idea of getting students to wear t-shirts with quirky designs and what’s more…they are designed by the students themselves. Talk about being innovative!
 
This actually a part of the 7 week entrepreneurship project offered by the college to the students who can now design t-shirts and put them up for sale at the college bookstore. And these quirky designs are all based around the sensibilities of the Oberlin College.

This idea has picked quite much as students were seen wearing these t-shirts to the college fashion show where they were shown off on students themselves amidst a lot of cheering from fellow students. In fact the fashion show was quite a hit and one of the student’s stated that they wanted the fashion show to on the lines of the hit reality show ‘Project Runway” but they did not manage to accomplish something of that sort. But they haven’t lost hope!

The designs that won on the show will now be put up for sale in the college bookstore. All these t-shirts are designed with keeping in mind what best resembles Oberlin. One of them features a red-eyed squirrel which is commonly seen around the college campus while another one feature the comfortable cushioned chairs in orange that are found in the college library. Another favourite is a t-shirt which features the world view from Oberlin. And due to the popularity of this t-shirt, the design will be now copyrighted and only then made available to the students.

The students who wanted to design and those who wanted to be involved in the marketing of the t-shirts were split into teams. They were allowed to use their own ideas and creativity.

This is a great move on the College’s part. In this way they are not only encouraging their students to be innovative and creative but they are making sure that the students learn to value things around them that the college has to offer. Plus it was not only about designing t-shirts but getting the students to get into the entrepreneurial mode. They wanted their students to learn what branding is through a first hand experience.