The Wood Grain Whale Origin Story ~ Thanks Dad!
In case you missed it, I’ve been screenprinting on the same manual press since I was ten years old. My dad had a commercial print shop where I spent my afternoons after school, and I just couldn’t wait to learn the trade.
What I don’t talk about as often is that my dad was The Connecticut Shirt Man! In the mid-80’s he created a line of printed tees and sweatshirts that featured iconic scenes, emblems and landscapes from Connecticut, our home state.
Zazz (I call my dad Zazz, btw) started with craft shows like the Durham Fair and the Big E, hawking his tees every weekend, and then eventually opened a storefront on Echo Lake Road in Watertown. I still think about that space; the original printshop, the stock room that was actually an old vault, the big old factory windows. It was a really neat place to grow up.
Anyway, without much thought, one of the first designs I drew when I started cinder + salt was the Wood Grain Whale. The Sperm Whale is the state animal of CT and was featured in MANY of my dad’s designs over the years. One version I always loved was the painted wooden sign featuring the whale - in particular the stylized tail. I used this graphic as starting inspiration for my simplified single-color print.
I recently asked Zazz about his inspiration for the Wooden Whale Sign and he couldn’t quite recall but said, “uhhh I was probably inspired by getting people to spend money.” We both laughed and talked more about the origin of the whale over the years. He had a series of weathervane prints, the most popular being a horse, and the whale definitely was in the top 3 of that series.
When my Dad started Connecticut Shirt Man he was drawing all the designs himself and hand cutting them from film. I have the original job folder of his Wooden Whale Sign where you can clearly see the hand-cut pieces of film glued in place to transparency. And while I started cinder + salt drawing everything by hand with Sharpie marker, I always digitized the designs (eventually) so I could resize and reprint films if they got damaged. These old files are a treasure for me to look back on and appreciate the time and dedication it took to create his work.
For cinder + salt, the Woodgrain Whale has slowed down in popularity as we have broadened our catalog of prints, but it continues to be a fan-favorite of our Coastal Collection. We even use it on our Chatham apparel for our Cape Cod store. You can view the full collection of Wood Grain whale products here, along with our Humpback Whale, Whale Species Chart & our new solid whale which has debuted on linens and accessories.
And just for funzies, here's a peek into what you get when you search "whale" in the c+s design archives, dating back to 2012! What can I say, I love whales.
Drop a comment and let us know your favorite!