Like many high school kids, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do after graduation. One of my best friends was headed for the Marines, and I thought, the Marines are cool, and I like their logo. (I once chose a school to attend based solely on it’s logo & mascot. That didn’t work out well either). I told my buddy that I might be interested in joining up with him, and he signed me up for a weekend boot camp for high school graduates considering a career in the military. Have you seen my resumé? Yeah, there’s no military service record on there. That little weekend getaway convinced me (rather quickly) that I was not cut out for it. I decided instead to draw pictures. However, the affinity for the Marines still remained and 20 years later our paths crossed once again. I got a call from Gannon Beck, an amazing illustrator and founder of Oo-Rah.com, a community that gives Marines a place to reestablish themselves with, and remain part of the Marine Corps community. He had seen my “Dont Tread On Me” poster and asked if I would be interested in designing another version for t shirts. I was sketching before we even hung up!
Rather than trying to redesign the exact image of the coiled snake on the Gadsden Flag, I decided to take the three coils and re-imagine them. I did a version from the side and two different concepts head on. Since the audience is the Marine Corps I decided to wrap the snake around the Marine’s famous sword. The “banner” design was ultimately chosen and is slated for t-shirts as well as challenge coins.
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