MAKE: Thomas Dolby T-Shirt Design

All right, this is getting weird, in that “OK, what happens next?” level of good things popping up.
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A few months ago, I find out that my musical hero Thomas Dolby (“She Blinded Me With Science” is what everyone knows, but in some ways it’s the least of what he’s done as a cool musician) is holding a competition through his blog for fans to design a t-shirt for a special one-off gig in Ilsington, England, that is called “Thomas Dolby and Friends: Circumnavigating the Flat Earth”. It will include many cool musicians that have worked and collaborated with Dolby over the years, and is meant to be a celebration of a lot of the music he’s made with them. Sounds pretty cool, so I activate my design tools and go to work. From the outset, they say that they can’t pay really for this, that the rewards are having done it, and that’s about all they can promise. Still cool with me.
So, I design and submit. Others do as well on the forums. As with all things, it takes time, as it’s around the holidays.
Last night, I get an email, from the moderator of the boards, alerting me that Thomas has looked over all the entries, and mine has been picked for the winner.
This morning, I get another email. From Thomas Dolby himself, thanking me for the design, and apologizing that he can’t fly me over for the gig, but saying I have a “rain check” for when he tours the states for, as he puts it, “The VIP treatment”.
That’s what kind of nice person he is.
If you heard a distant pop this morning, it was my head exploding, many miles away.
Here’s the design that will be produced: