USC Artist Bob Wertz Uses Shirts to Postpone “Creative Extinction”

Spartanburg, S.C. –  The Curtis R. Harley Art Gallery at the University of South Carolina Upstate is pleased to present “Designasaur,” an exhibition of shirts by Bob Wertz. Wertz, who serves as associate director of visual branding at the University of South Carolina, created the “Designasaur” project to “postpone creative extinction.”  The exhibit runs September 28 to October 26, with an artist’s reception to be held on October 4 at 4:30 p.m.

“For a year, I designed a shirt each week as part of my creative passion project, 52 Shirts,” explained Wertz. “I wanted to explore who I was as a designer and experiment with a range of different techniques. The shirt designs — each accompanied by a blog post — explored a variety of topics. Some designs dealt with current events while others recalled stories from my childhood. Several shirts marked holidays or seasonal occurrences. But many of the shirts were a reflection on my creative process — a narrative of my development as a designer and artist.”

“Designasaur” features a subset of Wertz’s 52 Shirts project. He says the project shows the entire spectrum of his creative life and the influences that made him the person he is today.

Wertz is a designer, creative director, graduate student and college instructor living in Columbia, South Carolina.  In addition to his work as USC’s associate director of visual branding, he teaches a senior portfolio class in the School of Visual Art and Design. After working as a designer and creative director for more than 20 years, Wertz recently returned to graduate school to pursue a Masters of Arts in Communication.

SketchbookB.com, a blog that Wertz established in 2008, is home to his many side projects — from publishing typefaces to a recent project to design a shirt each week for a year.

An active member of the creative community in South Carolina, Wertz was a founding board member of the South Carolina chapter of AIGA, the professional organization for design, and has served two terms as president. He lives in Columbia with his wife, Liz, and their three children.

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