The most common thing we are asked here (besides of course, “How do you maintain your lovely figures?”) is the question of the story behind our name, Eight Seven Central. So here, for posterity, is recorded the tale of our naming.

It was late in the year 2009. While the rest of the world was abuzz with talk of President Obama’s Nobel surprise and the balloon boy hoax, a few of us had gathered with the existential conundrum of deciding who we were. . The names “Bridge City Design” and “Ronnie’s T-Shirt Emporium” were thrown out, but nothing seemed to fit. After several weeks of deliberation, we did what any good young designers would do. We put off the decision of defining who we were which led us to the name Eight Seven Central. You see, we knew we could screen print aesthetically pleasing t-shirts; we knew we could build beautiful websites, but we also knew we could be more than that. The only things we were really sure of were our midwestern roots, and we chose to nod subtly toward these while refraining from limiting who we could be.

In a lot of ways, we are still in that same position. We’ve stretched, laughed, diversified, cried, and won awards, but ultimately are still growing into our name.

Here are the people that make us who we are.