Third Place Books’ New T-Shirts Designed With Community’s Help

First place: Colin Barrett

Six lucky winners will see their bookstore-inspired designs hanging around Third Place Books come December. The bookstore, with locations in Lake Forest Park and Ravenna, Washington, hosted a contest this fall to find an original design for new, limited-edition bookstore T-shirts.

Borrowing the idea from Watermark Books in Wichita, Kansas, Third Place looked to the community for submissions, asking for innovative and fresh designs inspired by and reflective of the nature of Third Place Books and the love of the written word. Entries had to include the Third Place Books logo.

Second place: Corey Dugan

“We were really looking for something that didn’t focus on our logo, but blended it into the image organically,” said Events and Marketing Manager Wendy Manning.

With a wave of creative and clever submissions from August 15 through October 15, the choice was not easy. The judging committee, composed of bookstore staff, selected six winners out of the 24 submissions received. Managing Partner Robert Sindelar and Manning made the final decisions.

Third place: Randy Walker

The first place design, from Colin Barrett, and second place design, from Corey Dugan, will be printed as the new Third Place Books T-shirts, to be available in the store in December. Manning noted the professionalism of the designs as well as the ease with which the staff could envision them as T-shirts as deciding factors.

The third place design, from Randy Walker, was submitted by the artist without expectation of winning, but to simply make the judges smile. “Which he did!” said Manning. Walker’s design will be made into a poster and displayed in the store, along with three honorable mention design winners.

The winners will receive bookstore gift cards ranging from $50 to $500.