HMMT t-shirt design contest

Every year, the organizers of HMMT design t-shirts worn by the scores of Harvard and MIT student volunteers who run the contest. (These t-shirts are also sold, in a different color, to any attendees who wish to purchase them.) The picture above shows the 2008 t-shirt, which had a puzzle on the back.

In 2007, the back of the t-shirt had a mathematical version of the periodic table of the elements. A memorable HMMT t-shirt from 2002 used a famous quotation from Seneca: "Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit ," which translates roughly as "There has been no great mind without a mixture of madness."

I think my favorite HMMT t-shirt of all was the 2003 shirt, which was an athletic style t-shirt that listed the player's name across the back as "Archimedes," and the player's number was given as π.

If you are feeling creative, the organizers of HMMT 2009 (who include AAMC alumna Beth Schaffer!) invite you to submit a design for this year's t-shirt. The winner will receive free t-shirts for his/her entire team of 8 students (not to mention fame, if not fortune!) More information about how to create submit your entry is pasted below:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament <hmmt-request@mit.edu>
Date: Sun, Dec 28, 2008 at 4:15 AM
Subject: [HMMT] HMMT T-Shirt Contest

Greetings,

We are pleased to announce the first annual HMMT T-Shirt Contest. HMMT creates t-shirts each year, and this year we'd like to ask *you* to submit designs. Designs must use at most two colors on each side and must be compatible with two different background colors (one for students, and one for staff). The winning design will be chosen by a panel of the contest directors, and the winner will receive free t-shirts for his/her entire team of 8.

To submit your designs, please email them to us at hmmt-request@mit.edu by January 15. Please submit your design in svg,jpg, eps, png, pdf, or bmp format. Note that a sketch of the design is fine, as you can provide a higher quality image if your design is selected. Keep in mind also that the final design must be sent to the printer in a vector graphics format.

You can seek inspiration among the old designs at http://web.mit.edu/hmmt/Public/graphics/tshirt/. We look forward to receiving your designs!

Sincerely,
Rishi Gupta, Beth Schaffer, and Yi Sun
HMMT Tournament Directors