The 2023 Fear the Bird shirt design is here. The 17-year tradition began in 2007 as a joint initiative between the Division of Student Affairs and the Illinois State University (ISU) bookstore at the Bone Student Center. The purpose of Fear the Bird is to promote Redbird spirit and bring students to the Bone Student Center. The shirt design changes each year always featuring Reggie the Redbird. University Marketing and Communications (UMC) originally created the yearly design. In 2013, Illinois State students began to design the shirts, and this remains a tradition 10 years later.
The 2023 Fear the Bird Shirt was designed by Event Management, Dining, and Hospitality (EMDH) graphic design intern Maggie Kline. Kline graduated from Illinois State this May with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and a minor in art history. In addition to being an intern with EMDH, she was a sustainability student manager at the Office of Sustainability and a member of the Honors Program.
Kline said her design process included first meeting with Advocacy and Leadership Council (ALC), an EMDH student leadership group, to gauge what students were looking for in a design and reviewing past years’ shirts. She said designing a T-shirt can be difficult and involves a lot of trial and error. At one point, she had 24 working files of designs, which were narrowed down to four final designs. Since 2008, the students have voted and determined the winning design. Over 750 votes were cast for the 2023 design, and the winning shirt received 63% of those votes.
Kline, a Bloomington native, feels honored to know hundreds of students and staff will be wearing a design she created. “It will be really rewarding seeing people wear my designs around campus and the community!”
The 2023 Fear the Bird Shirts will be available for purchase beginning June 5 at the Redbird Spirit Shop, the official bookstore of Illinois State University, located inside the Bone Student Center and on North Street. Every Friday a partner within the Bone Student Center offers an incentive for wearing the shirt. Past incentives include free coffee from Starbucks, fries from Timbers Grille, a pop-socket from TechZone, and more.
For more information about the Fear the Bird shirt, email EMDH@IllinoisState.edu.
