2024 Merch Design Competition

For the first time ever (as far as we know) The Dead Elk Society hosted a design competition for fresh DES gear. In May, we asked SEFS grads and the greater SEFS community to submit illustrations for shirts, hats, and the like - and you delivered! We received 10 designs that ranged from elegant to meme-worthy. See the full spread of submissions here.

Dead Elk Tarot | Keenan Ganz | AI

Voting was held for three weeks in which the SEFS community could rank their top 3 designs. A total of 44 SEFS-sters voted and after much nail-biting and anticipation, the scores were calculated to give us our final 3 designs.

Our first place design was none other than the very groovy Dead Elk tarot card designed (with the help of a little AI and minor modifications by Fern) by one of our very own Dead Elk Officers, Keenan Ganz!

This celestial design will be used for a brand new batch of t-shirts and some stickers! And, for those of you that have asked, yes we will be removing the ears before this goes to print - we're biologists after all.

Floral Elk | Gracie Rogers

Our second and third place designs were tied! One of these illustrations was a sweet floral skull drawn by a new SEFS grad - Gracie Rogers. You'll be able to purchase this on another batch of shirts and stickers.

The other design was a trippy little Dead Elk illustrated by our current DES president, Fern Crossway. We think they'll look swell on a baseball cap and, of course, more stickers.

New merch will be available at upcoming events (like the 2024 grad retreat!) and on our little online shop. And, for those of you that love the old design, never fear, our laser-eyed elk will continue to be available in all the same places!

Trippy Elk | Fern Crossway

Thank you again to everyone who submitted art and participated in voting! There is so much creativity in our community and I'm excited to show that off. I know there was a lot going on over spring quarter (ex. a strike [!!]) and I'm so impressed with the turn out for this call regardless. Fingers crossed for a smoother contest in 2025!