The Effigies T-shirt
This dragon shirt was created for The Effigies, one of Chicago’s first punk bands in the early 1980s. They became known for using the city’s flag on The Haunted Town album artwork, reappropriating a civic emblem into a symbol of local counterculture.
I first noticed this shirt in Another State of Mind (1984), the DIY punk documentary directed by Adam Small and Peter Stuart. It is worn by a member of Youth Brigade, another influential hardcore punk band featured in the film. Caught in the raw images of the early punk movement, this piece of clothing survives as a small artifact of the underground scene.
The band’s name is set in Modern Gothic Capitals, an alphabet originally drawn with a quill pen by artist and book illustrator Walter Crane (1845–1915). Decades later, the letterforms inspired several type designers, leading to the creation of Crane Titling NF by Nick Curtis (2006), Crane Gothic by David Nalle (by 2009), LFD Penwork 160 by Dick Pape (2012), and BU Scarecrow by Michael Boles (2013). Long before becoming typefaces, these gothic capitals found a place within punk music scenes.
