Chris Collins
The year was 1974, the city, Madison.
A young progressive named Paul Soglin was finishing his first year as mayor. David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs Tour played the Dane County Coliseum. A laughingstock of college football — the Wisconsin Badgers — stunned the nation with a last-minute upset over the No. 4-ranked Cornhuskers.
And an aspiring graphic design student created a T-shirt that, 42 years later, still evinces the spirit of the “Mad City.”
“It was the first T-shirt I’d ever done,” recalls 66-year-old UW-Madison alum James McKiernan. “I got $100 for that piece of artwork, and it was like the best money I’d ever seen as an artist.”
McKiernan, who is now retired after 40 years in graphic design and illustration, has turned to producing and selling his iconic and once ubiquitous T-shirt. He brought his post-retirement hustle to Orton Park Fest in August, where he sold dozens of the shirts.
A sign informs customers that McKiernan is the one who designed the shirt, whose beauty is in its subversive, comic simplicity.
Using pen and ink, McKiernan hand drew Mad City’s stylized art deco font, with Lady Wisconsin standing nude in the space between the words Mad City.
Asked why he removed Lady Wisconsin’s Greek garb and passed her a joint, McKiernan blushes a bit. “I did because...I did it because I was that kid.”
Inspiration for the shirt came from a local radio DJ who coined the nickname Mad City. Being the early days of T-shirt culture, McKiernan’s friend suggested printing the phrase on one. Once finished with the illustration, they printed 300 shirts, each one McKiernan numbered by hand and sold.
Martin’s Clothing Store and Tailor Shop offered to buy McKiernan’s design. That same year, Martin’s launched Madison Top Company to manufacture the shirts for retail. In addition to doing so, the company trademarked the phrase Mad City for use on apparel.
“They’ve been continuously printing this T-shirt since,” he says.
After college, McKiernan moved California to continue his art education, ultimately settling in Long Beach, where he established a design shop, Studio M, which specialized in corporate and entertainment design for companies such as Disney and Universal Studios. Despite Studio M’s success, McKiernan became increasingly down about having sold the rights to his Mad City design. Since 1974, thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the T-shirts have sold.
“Every time I came back to Madison I saw people wearing the shirts, and it kind of annoyed me,” he says. “It’s a matter of ego; I’ll admit that. I want to be associated with this thing.”
McKiernan moved back to Madison about a decade ago. The tees he sold at Orton Park last month were an updated version of the original. “With my extra 30 years of experience, I tidied some things up that had been nagging me and started printing them myself,” he says.
McKiernan pays Madison Top Company $1.50 for each T-shirt he sells, money that goes to support the screen-printing shop at Madison College, where McKiernan briefly taught a screen-printing course before retiring.
Sales were steady on a drizzly Saturday afternoon at the Orton Fest. He expected by the time the festival ended he will have sold 50 to 60 tees. His Artisan Street Vendor permit means he can set up shop on the Capitol Square, State Street and around Camp Randall, where he expects the red tees will sell well on Badger Saturdays.
After expenses, he pockets about $10 per shirt.
Looking back on his career, McKiernan considers himself “very lucky.”
“This is one of the first things I ever did,” he says of his Mad City design. “Then I went out and worked and did the same kind of thing my whole career. Now I’ve come full circle back to this.”
An older gentleman arrives to scan the merchandise. With a shirt hanging from his forefinger and thumb like clothespins, he glances at McKiernan.
“So you’re the guy?”
McKiernan leans back in his lawn chair, grinning slightly.
“I’m the guy.”
Upcoming T-Shirts: Designer for Madison Top Company’s upcoming line featuring Madison landmarks.
Former Bandmember of: Underculture, The Sills
Order Mad City tees online: madcityapparel.com
Selling T-shirts online: “...is a hassle. I’ll give you a price break in person.”
