City of La Porte Merch Design
Case Study
Placemaking through apparel, merchandise, illustration, and hometown pride
I designed and illustrated a line of hometown-inspired merchandise that turned La Porte’s history, sports team, and geography, into wearable art.
After years of organic community support, high-selling markets, and residents proudly wearing La Porte apparel, the City recognized the impact of my work and hired me to officially further develop merchandise for the city to continue to spread community pride.
Services Provided:
- Custom Illustrations
- Graphic Design
- POD Curated Website
- Social Media Promotion
The opportunity
La Porte has deep roots, strong traditions, and beautiful lakes, yet there was no merchandise that truly captured the charm, personality, and pride people felt living there, beyond high school sports apparel.
The idea: creating place-based merch
As a designer and lifelong resident, I wanted to create illustrated apparel and merchandise that showed off La Porte’s small-town magic, in a way that felt modern, meaningful, and collectible.
What started as a passion project being sold at local markets and later online, quickly grew into a brand people connected with emotionally to show off their community pride.
The process: from research to retail
Every piece was intentionally designed to reflect
La Porte’s identity and build a stronger emotional connection between people and place.
Step 1: Research & Design
I began by diving into La Porte’s history, landmarks, lakes, and community traditions. Each design was custom and thoughtfully crafted to reflect local pride, nostalgia, and a sense of place.
Step 2: Merch Curation
From t-shirts, hats, and
sweatshirts to prints,
stickers, and tote bags,
I curated product lines that felt wearable, giftable, and timeless.
Step 3: In-Person Retail
The designs sold at a local shop and at 2–3 markets each year, building face-to-face connections and creating buzz around every new drop. People saved a dedicated space in their closets to collect the designs.
Step 4: Online Store
As demand grew, an online POD shop was created to make the apparel accessible beyond local markets and to offer a larger variety of styles and colors. This allowed people to purchase La Porte merch from anywhere.
Building momentum through social media campaigns
I created social media campaigns around upcoming markets, new merchandise drops, and giveaways to build anticipation, generate excitement, and drive people to in-person markets and retail releases. These campaigns consistently translated into high booth traffic, strong sales, and frequent sell-outs.
$50,000+ in total merchandise sales and
counting all focused entirely on La PorteApparel became collector’s items, with residents purchasing every new release
Locals wore the designs with pride and sent pieces to family members who had moved away
The La Porte History Museum adopted the apparel for retail in their gift shop
The City of La Porte partnered with me for official merchandise, hand-drawn maps, and fundraising initiatives
Strengthened community pride, place attachment,
and visual identity throughout the town
The results: community-focused designs with major sales
Thoughtfully Designed. Deeply Felt.
The impact: strengthening local identity through elevated design
This project proves that thoughtful design, illustration, and branding can do more than look good — it can build emotional connection, drive local pride, support tourism, and create real economic impact. By turning La Porte’s story into wearable art, the community didn’t just buy merchandise — they bought into their hometown.
This same place-based design approach can be used to elevate local history, downtowns, parks systems, tourism initiatives, events, main street organizations, and more; creating visual experiences that build pride, attract visitors, and tell your town’s story authentically.
Imagine this for
your community
Customer love
Region Design Co. created a fantastic t-shirt design for the City of La Porte from an idea we had. The shirt features OUR great lakes in OUR city. We are excited to roll these shirts out, and we thank Amanda for the amazing design & excellent service!
-Mark & Laura Krentz, Former Mayor & Mayoress of La Porte
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