T-shirts and hoodies feature original designs of museum fan favorites, including dinosaur mascot “Dippy” and TikTok Star Tim Pearce
[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 17, 2020] — Carnegie Museum of Natural History announces a new line of merchandise developed in partnership with two venerated Pittsburgh businesses, printshop and retailer Commonwealth Press and design firm Pfaltzgraphic. The local collaboration features five new items inspired by real fossils, mollusk curator Tim Pearce, and the Dippy the Dinosaur mascot and logo, originally redesigned by Pfaltzgraphic in 2019. The new products are available for pre-order now exclusively at the museum’s online store.
The new product launch, delayed due to the pandemic, results from museum visits in late 2019 and early 2020. Commonwealth owner Dan Rugh and Pfaltzgraphic designers Michael Pfaltzgraff and Brad Quartuccio sought inspiration from collection highlights, including specimens not currently on view to the public.
“We loved everything about being involved with this project,” says Michael Pfaltzgraff. “The museum has always been a very important place to my family and me, so getting the opportunity to design things for them is an absolute honor. Furthermore, getting to work with Commonwealth is amazing, as we have always been admirers of their work. The energy and ideas around this made this project fun to do. We really hope everyone likes the stuff!”
Curator of Mollusks Tim Pearce attained celebrity status in early 2020 when his snail jokes earned millions of views on the social media channel TikTok. T-shirts featuring an illustration of Dr. Pearce respond to demand for merchandise from his vocal online fans.
“I enjoy working with Pittsburgh artists, makers, and businesses to create products for the museum stores,” says Lori Braszo, Retail Stores General Manager for Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. “I especially appreciated that Mike and Dan took the time to visit and explore the nooks and crannies of the museum and remember how excited they were afterward, bouncing potential design ideas off each other. We ended up with some very cool designs that are sure to be best sellers on our newly launched online store at stores.carnegiemuseums.org.”
The museum celebrates its world-renowned fossil collection with a Camarasaurus skull t-shirt and sweatshirt. The museum’s Camarasaurus skull is considered one of the finest yet discovered of this species, and the designers’ work was inspired by a behind-the-scenes visit to the collection with paleontologist Matthew Lamanna.
| “Being able to meet in the museum pre-COVID with everyone and see the actual items was a rare and inspiring opportunity,” says Dan Rugh, owner of Commonwealth Press. “I’m stoked to be working with CMNH and the Pfaltzgraphic design team on all of this. It still baffles me all of the places I’ve been able to see and the things I’ve been able to be a part of … and all because of t-shirts. That’s one of the many beautiful things about Pittsburgh, we’re all just within a few degrees of separation from each other.” No new line of merchandise for Carnegie Museum of Natural History would be complete without Dippy, short for Diplodocus carnegii, the museum’s dinosaur mascot. The latest Dippy design (pictured at top) depicts the dinosaur against a dramatic sunset and accompanied by a pterosaur. The new items are available for pre-order now at the museum’s new online store, along with additional apparel, household goods, toys, and games. |
