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T-shirt design story: how Gia (12) and artist Jamie Browne collabed

Meet Gia: a twelve year old girl from Lombok. She’s a local, but unlike most local girls, Gia loves to surf and skate. The lack of interest from her friends doesn’t stop her from following her passions – as long as she can ride the waves of her favourite surf spot. Now, Gia made a drawing about her passion for surfing and it’s this drawing that’s now raising funds for her school which was heavily affected by the earthquakes of 2018…

In 2018, Gia’s school got heavily hit by the earthquakes on Lombok. A traumatic experience which you can’t get over with, when your school won’t be rebuild. That’s why Gia and her class mates decided to take action. She took her pen and paper and created incredible drawings of Senggigi – the Indonesian village Gia is living in. Then surf artist Jamie Browne designed a T-shirt using Gia’s drawing. And with the proceeds Gia is raising funds to renovate her school.

Jack Black’s favorite charity T-shirt

Actor and singer Jack Black showed his followers on Instagram he likes T-shirts with a story. In his post he wears Gia’s T-shirt. Jack Black was quite clear in his messaging: ‘Let’s help build Gia her School of Rock!’

How Gia’s drawing turned into a T-shirt

If there’s one artist who’s in the heart of surf and skate culture, it’s Jamie Browne. He’s well known throughout these laid-back communities for his awesome and funny illustrations. You might know them from Volcom tees as Jamie is part of their design team. His images are usually in black and white, combined with a witty pun. Why did he want to collab with Gia?

“What motivated me to work with Gia and Face This is that I thought it was a really ingenious way to work with the community you’re helping at the same time. It’s not a hand-out, the kids get involved and have some fun and get a sense of the world and what’s possible for them. Maybe they can be an artist too. It’s a really inspired way of making things together, to help something.” Read full interview

 


Watch Gia’s story

Watch the short video (3:49) below to see how the earthquake affected Gia and her school. But also how her passions for surfing inspired her to make a beautiful drawing and how this drawing is fighting this earthquake right now. Thanks to artist Jamie Browne who turned that drawing in an awesome T-shirt:

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