Last year my friend Greg and I developed some fun department branding for LinkedIn’s CorpIT. We invented this little dude, Mac G we call him, to represent the fun and helpful team that keeps LinkedIn’s, primarily Mac, workforce running. He skates with lightning speed all over LinkedIn to spread Apple love via system upgrades, knowledge product creation, and some amazing morale-boosting events. He’s a pretty fun little guy that, like many great things, would have never existed without the influence the beloved Steve Jobs.

From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU, Steve! for the company you’ve led and the powerful tools they’ve created. If I had a dollar for every hour I’ve spent using one of your products… oh wait, I’m sure I’ve gotten much more than a dollar for every hour. Apple, your tools have served to create and foster the most significant professional opportunities in my life. Now I’m striving to use these opportunities to do the same for many others. With that I offer, in my own little way, Mac G as a memorial to your founder, Steve Jobs. He certainly did his part in making our world more like The Jetsons.

The request I get for company T-shirts is, “Design a shirt for us that people will actually wear.” People are wise to the fact that it’s not cool to get a shirt for a service day or work initiative that gets immediately demoted to the pajama drawer after the first wash. Knowing full well the level of respect that most free T-shirts receive, I make it a rule to only design shirts that I would be proud to wear myself. Here’s a few that I’ve done for LinkedIn:

The entire mentality of the corporate T, especially in the tech universe, is much deeper than it seems on the surface. You can read this in-depth article on this topic, by Adam Nash. Knowing the importance of culture in a shirt design is the first step in creating something lasting and meaningful, that makes a team proud. It’s not an ad for a company, it’s a symbol of your tribe.