Designing JCast Merch (Without Any Design Experience)
“I’m ready, I’m ready… to make something awesome!” – SpongeBob SquarePants
When we started JCast, the goal was simple: record a podcast, talk about tech, and see where it would end up.
Along the way, it became… more serious.
We upgraded our equipment. We kept recording consistently. The enthusiasm was still there, episode after episode.
At some point, it started to feel less like “a fun side project” and more like… a real podcast.
And then, on a completely random day, I had a thought:
This podcast needs merch.
Not for listeners. Not for ads. Just for us. For Viktor, Maarten, and myself. Something simple. Something fun. A small symbol that said: “Yes, this is real now.”
From Java to Pinterest
There was only one small problem.
I had never designed anything in my life. Let alone merch. So I did what every responsible developer does when entering unknown territory:
I opened Pinterest.
I scrolled through endless T-shirt designs. Podcast logos. Minimal typography. Quotes. Layouts.
Then I opened Canva and started playing with fonts and tiny design experiments.
And… nothing worked.
Everything looked either:
- Too generic
- Too busy
- Too cringe
- Or simply not “JCast”
I had something in my head, but I couldn’t translate it onto the screen. So I took the only logical next step.
I opened Figma.
Designing a T-shirt like it was a poster
Instead of thinking in fabric, I started thinking in something I did know: layout. I made A4 designs. As if I were designing posters, not T-shirts.
I placed the logo. Played with whitespace. Tried different font combinations.
Slowly, something started to take shape.
And the surprising part?
I loved it.
Variant 1: Minimal logo design
Variant 2: Testing color combinations
Variant 3: Typography-focused
This looked nothing like programming.
No compiler errors. No stack traces. No tests failing because of a missing semicolon.
Just pure experimentation.
Move something slightly to the left. Adjust a font weight. Delete half of it and start over.
It was calm. Creative. Almost therapeutic.
The first print
Eventually, I had something I was genuinely happy with.
So I had one printed.
Just one.
I brought it to the guys and showed it to them. They liked it.
And then something unexpected happened. Other colleagues heard about it.
“Wait… you made JCast T-shirts?” “Can I get one too?” “Do you have it in another color?”
Suddenly, this thing that was only meant for the three hosts… became something other people wanted too.
We made more. Different colors. Different sizes.
And people actually started wearing them.
The unexpected proud moment
The moment that stuck with me the most was this:
Seeing someone, who isn’t part of the podcast, wearing a T-shirt with a design I made.
Not because they had to. Not because it was merch.
But simply… because they liked it.
As developers, we often build things that are invisible. APIs. Services. Backend systems.
This time, I had built something you can literally wear.
And that felt incredibly special.
That small moment also made me reflect on what this project had really taught me.
Creativity, it turns out, is just another form of problem-solving. Being bad at something again is refreshing. Constraints, print, colors, layout, help design, just like constraints help architecture.
And sometimes, the most rewarding projects start with a random idea on a random day.
JCast started as a podcast. Along the way, it became a small community.
And apparently… also a clothing brand.
Curious about the podcast behind these T-shirts?