By day, Cathy Brautigam is a full time graphic designer for Laughlin/Constable, but by night, and just about any other time she can squeeze it in, she does a little designing for herself -- and for anyone else who thinks that a handmade Mike Gousha T-shirt is a $20 purchase that might go down in Milwaukee history.
Brautigam, a 29-year-old self-taught Milwaukee artist, says the idea for the Gousha T-shirts materialized at a party last winter, before the WTMJ Channel 4 news anchor announced his retirement plans.
"I was telling my co-worker Pat Laughlin about how I wanted to start making some Milwaukee celebrity T-shirts and he mentioned that he wanted a Gousha shirt," she says. "So I made one and every time I wore it out people would ask me where I got it and if I could make them one."
It certainly didn't take long -- thanks to the mystical powers of Myspace.com -- for the Gousha tees to catch the attention of someone at Channel 4. The result? A bulk order of over 40 Gousha T-shirts for the entire Channel 4 news team.
"I haven't spoken to Gousha about it personally, but I do know that a bunch of people at the station wore their shirts on his birthday. I'm pretty sure there is on-air coverage of it somewhere," she says. "I'd love to meet him and give him a shirt of himself."
After the launch and success of the Gousha line, Brautigam felt inspired to carry out her plan to create a whole series of local "celebrity" tees. Making the cut were Peter Francis Geraci, who Wisconsinites may remember as the robotic white-haired man trying to sell his bankruptcy info tapes on television, as well as Atomic Records' own Mark Waldoch, whose shirt sports the acronym "W.W.W.D." (What Would Waldoch Do).
"They're all, more or less, drunken party ideas," she says. "Or, if my friends and I are driving down to Chicago or something, we'll spend the time deciding what to put on T-shirts."
Having only been screen printing for less than a year, she says there are only a couple of each design in stock, but says she's open to "mass producing" for anyone who inquires.
Brautigam's future plans include T-shirts featuring fake bands names (hey, why not?) as well as a Matlock design. Got an original idea for a shirt? Contact her via her Web site (see link for Lone Shoe Graphics below); she'd be happy to draw it up and print it for you.
Brautigam, a 29-year-old self-taught Milwaukee artist, says the idea for the Gousha T-shirts materialized at a party last winter, before the WTMJ Channel 4 news anchor announced his retirement plans.
"I was telling my co-worker Pat Laughlin about how I wanted to start making some Milwaukee celebrity T-shirts and he mentioned that he wanted a Gousha shirt," she says. "So I made one and every time I wore it out people would ask me where I got it and if I could make them one."
It certainly didn't take long -- thanks to the mystical powers of Myspace.com -- for the Gousha tees to catch the attention of someone at Channel 4. The result? A bulk order of over 40 Gousha T-shirts for the entire Channel 4 news team.
"I haven't spoken to Gousha about it personally, but I do know that a bunch of people at the station wore their shirts on his birthday. I'm pretty sure there is on-air coverage of it somewhere," she says. "I'd love to meet him and give him a shirt of himself."
After the launch and success of the Gousha line, Brautigam felt inspired to carry out her plan to create a whole series of local "celebrity" tees. Making the cut were Peter Francis Geraci, who Wisconsinites may remember as the robotic white-haired man trying to sell his bankruptcy info tapes on television, as well as Atomic Records' own Mark Waldoch, whose shirt sports the acronym "W.W.W.D." (What Would Waldoch Do).
"They're all, more or less, drunken party ideas," she says. "Or, if my friends and I are driving down to Chicago or something, we'll spend the time deciding what to put on T-shirts."
Having only been screen printing for less than a year, she says there are only a couple of each design in stock, but says she's open to "mass producing" for anyone who inquires.
Brautigam's future plans include T-shirts featuring fake bands names (hey, why not?) as well as a Matlock design. Got an original idea for a shirt? Contact her via her Web site (see link for Lone Shoe Graphics below); she'd be happy to draw it up and print it for you.
OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Julie Lawrence grew up in Wauwatosa and has lived her whole life in the Milwaukee area.
As any “word nerd” can attest, you never know when inspiration will strike, so from a very early age Julie has rarely been seen sans pen and little notebook. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it seemed only natural that she major in journalism. When OnMilwaukee.com offered her an avenue to combine her writing and the city she knows and loves in late 2004, she knew it was meant to be. Around the office, she answers to a plethora of nicknames, including “Lar,” (short for “Larry,” which is short for “Lawrence”) as well as the mysteriously-sourced “Bill Murray.”
