# Two sprigs of laurel were the whole problem

> A kettlebell print built twice — the first version's laurel sprigs closed an arched word and a bowed one into a sealed oval, an emblem where a chest print needed open sides.

August 19, 2026 · https://justog.club/stories/kettlebell-crest-swap

A kettlebell, front-on, drawn in the dense crosshatch of an old engraving. Two indian clubs cross
behind it like an X. `STRENGTH` sits above in one flat line, `OVER` beneath it, `EVERYTHING` flat
along the bottom. Nothing runs down the left or right side of the shirt at all.

This design was built twice. The first version had a laurel sprig on each side, and it had to go.

## What closed the first version into a shape it wasn't supposed to have?

Two sprigs of laurel, one down each side of the print, doing a job nobody asked them to do.

The first draft had the same kettlebell and the same three lines of text — but `STRENGTH` and
`OVER` arched upward and `EVERYTHING` bowed downward beneath the kettlebell, the way text curves on
a badge. Add a laurel sprig either side of that and the arc above, the arc below and the two sprigs
meet at their ends. Nobody drew a circle. Four separate elements simply closed into one, and the
print stopped reading as an illustration on a shirt and started reading as a seal stamped onto one.

## How does a composition close into a loop without a single frame line being drawn?

By filling in whatever a frame would have occupied, using ordinary content instead of a line.

An arched word above a subject and a bowed word below it already suggest the top and bottom of an
oval — that's just what curved text does to the eye. The sides are the only part left open, and
anything that fills them finishes the shape: a laurel sprig, a pair of wings, a rope, a length of
chain. None of those are a drawn border. All of them close the same loop a border would have drawn,
because the test was never about ink around the edge. It was about whether the eye can trace a
continuous line all the way round the four elements, drawn or not.

## Is a closed, badge-like lockup always the wrong choice?

No — it's the right one at a different size, for a different job.

[A blazer badge — a shield, a wreath, a name on a banner — is built to close
completely](/stories/breed-club-and-show-shirt), because it's meant to sit as one small,
self-contained mark, pinned or stitched or printed at pocket size on the left chest. That's exactly
what an enclosed composition is for. Stretch the same closed shape across the full width of the
chest, at the scale a statement print actually gets seen at, and the enclosure reads as a patch
bought rather than a design made — size is what turns the same geometry from correct to wrong.

## Why flat lines instead of an arch and a bow, once the sprigs were gone?

Because deleting the sprigs alone would have left the arc and the bow with nothing answering them
at the sides, and an unbalanced curve reads as unfinished rather than open.

The two indian clubs crossed behind the kettlebell already supply the only diagonal energy the
composition needs. Setting the three lines of text flat instead of curved keeps that X the single
thing in the print that isn't a straight horizontal, so nothing competes with it. It also makes the
open sides read as a deliberate choice rather than a border left off by accident — three flat,
stacked bands are a familiar enough shape on their own that leaving the sides empty doesn't look
like a step was skipped.

## Does the same test decide how other designs in this collection handle their sides?

Yes, and it isn't only about laurel. [One design here keeps an arched word above and a bowed word
below with the sides left open on purpose](/stories/bald-eagle-americana), and it stays a
three-band print for exactly that reason — nothing fills the gap either side. Another [settles the
same question with a single sprig of laurel rather than a matching
pair](/stories/stoic-hourglass-bonehand), which leaves one side open and the other closed,
and closed-on-one-side is fine, because a loop needs both.

## Does a kettlebell, a set of indian clubs or a laurel motif belong to anyone?

No. Gym equipment and a laurel sprig are both centuries past belonging to a single owner, and
nothing about drawing them in an engraved style changes that — a technique is a style, and style
has no owner. The words on this shirt aren't quoting a real gym, a real supplement brand or anyone
else's registered wordmark; they were written for this design alone.

## Does it print well?

Yes. Gold and cream on a forest green garment is a two-colour job that suits the engraving well —
crosshatch shading reads cleanly in a single ink as long as the lines stay thick enough to survive
the weave, which [is the same floor every fine linework design on fabric runs
into](/stories/bold-shapes-survive-fabric). Flat horizontal type also sets more cleanly than
curved type at this size, one more small reason the second version reads as the tighter print of
the two.

## How do I get one made?

Describe the equipment and the words at [JustOG](/) — the kettlebell, what's crossed behind it,
what the three lines say. Pick a direction, drag the crop frame, see it composited on the real
garment, and it's made to order and shipped.

Designs other people have published are in the [shop](/shop).

Two sprigs of laurel, deleted. The kettlebell never needed them.