Z Strip - The Story of the Zumen T-shirt

It was a Monday morning.

I see how this could be a one-line horror story by itself, but thankfully, it was not a blue Monday. Anyway, the banters and discussions within the marketing team were more than usual because we were planning for something special – our first event abroad. We were going to participate in MODEX, a prestigious global meet for the Supply Chain industry held in Atlanta, USA.

We had a lot on our plate, from planning the logistics and deciding on the booth design to outfits and giveaways, all within a small timeframe.

Challenging? Yes.

Exciting? Very, very much. 

The inception and the conceptualizations of ideas – both sensible and crazy, coupled with the excitement, sense of ownership, and healthy collaborations are some things exclusive to the startup culture. It took a while, but we crossed out every item on our to-do list for our pilot event participation. Well, almost every item. 

We still couldn’t figure out what giveaways to have at our booth, and we thought of everything from candies to costers. Finally, we decided on t-shirts because…well, they’re handy – you can use them for your jogs or your gigs. We thought we had slain the dragon, but boy were we wrong!

Next came the bigger challenge, what do we want our T-shirts to say? 

This question opened the doors to a lot of other questions, queries, and sub-queries –

     1. Should it be a conventional solid tee with the company logo or something entirely new?

    2. Should it be a solid color or a burst of colors?

    3. Full sleeve or half-sleeve? 

    4. Round-neck? Collar? Buttons?

But the biggest question of all – What should be the design of the t-shirt?

Thus began another round of brainstorming with the clock ticking in the background. While there was always the option of slipping back to the usual logo with the plain background, we didn’t want to settle. After multiple espressos, hunting for motivational quotes and staring into empty space, it dawned on us. We were looking at ideas and inspirations while there was one right in front of us. We could just make a theme out of our current situation – the theme of People, Process, and the race against time. 

For this, we took inspiration from the Manufacturing industry, where skilled teams work tirelessly to produce something marvelous within the deadline. We also added our love for automobiles and racing to the equation. We were in awe of how people and the process work together in both the factory and on the race track. This resembled the engine and transmission during a drag race working in sync to push the speedometer needle to the end and the machine to the finish line. We took inspiration from these ideas to create – 

The Zumen Strip 

 

Let’s break it down

As mentioned already, we decided to create something as a tribute to the manufacturing industries that streamline the meticulous planning and the team’s efforts to create something spectacular and stands the test of time – And all of this within a specified time! 

 

The general theme represents the design of the speedometer, which is the most common part in the automotive industry, across any vehicle, model, or make.  

 1. Each of the lines represents the levels of speed.

 2. The increase in the strip’s length indicates the linear acceleration across every process involved.

 3. The colors not only rhyme with the Zumen brand color palette but also closely resembles the colors from a  speedometer, which also signifies our connection to the automotive industry.

 4. And finally, the red strip signifies the finish line and the longer time of the product in the market.

We finally had something simple yet meaningful and close to what we do at Zumen and in the manufacturing industry. We concluded this again on a Monday. So, all in all, a good start to the week!

Ready. Set. Go!

“The coolest styles are kind of simple and classic, but everything else you keep simple”