Sixty years ago, on May 29, 1953 at 11:30am, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed as having reached the summit of Mount Everest, Earth’s highest mountain, with a peak at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) above sea level.
To celebrate this feat, our newest shirt says “Life is a Journey” in Nepali. You pronounce it “Jeevan Yatra Ho.” The back depicts a portrait of Everest.
Now available online and in-store for $28. SHOP NOW
Olivia and I chose to do an Everest shirt for a special reason close to home- her husband Matt’s father and grandfather were apart of the expedition team. John Hunt, Matt’s grandfather, father to his mother, was a British army officer who was the leader of the expedition. He basically organized the entire fiasco. Matt’s father, George Lowe, was part of Edmund Hillary’s support party. To summit Everest, large teams are needed with each member playing a pivotal role along the way- carrying equipment, making camp, blazing trails, making things happen, etc. etc. Though only 2 men reached the summit, without the other members, nothing could have been achieved. George Lowe and Hillary also crossed and explored Antartica.
After consulting 2 Nepali friends, I was able to nail down what we wanted to say. Initially we wanted to write “Explore” in Nepali but there’s no equivalent to the translation. The closest was “to look for” which is something you would say when you are searching for your car keys. Exploring the greatest heights on Earth and finding your keys are no comparable, so we had to move on.
“Love in different languages” has always been our theme but we wanted to change things up. As the ZAM brand has grown, we’ve found it important not to corner ourselves. Love is our main vibe but concepts like adventure, global culture, and life positivity are our message. We’ve always tried to describe a “Love of Life” with Zamforia and we think this Nepali tee is a kickass example of that.
I hand drew the type face of the front. The letters work well with curves and sharp angles but the elongated stems really bring the letters to a higher level. The vertical gradient simply enhances it.
The back has the date of the climb and height of Everest- May 29th, 1953 and 8,848 meters, respectively. I used meters because the expedition teams were New Zealanders, English, and Nepali- they would’ve used meters.
