When Jerome Foster isn’t working on the Volkswagen Chattanooga assembly line, he’s pursuing his passion for art. He recently found a way to combine the two when his hand-painted design was chosen for the 2014 Volkswagen Chattanooga United Way t-shirts.
Volkswagen Chattanooga had a company-wide t-shirt design competition, and chose Foster’s design from the employee submissions. So far, t-shirt sales have raised over $1,000 for the United Way, according to Armenda Blake-Scherle, assistant manager of team culture at Volkswagen Chattanooga.
As a result of this recognition, he’s now in touch with the Volkswagen Chattanooga gift shop, and is currently working on t-shirt designs for future merchandise, which he will submit for consideration in the coming months.
The 36-year-old Chattanooga native has worked at Volkswagen Chattanooga for the past two years, and has a history of community freelance artwork. He painted the murals that adorn the halls of Red Bank Elementary School, and regularly paints original t-shirts and shoes for friends and family.
When asked what inspired his original design for the United Way, Foster said, “I thought about what would represent the ideas ... provided in the contest packet, and the idea gradually came to me. Sometimes, it’s the simplest designs people like best.”
Source: Volkswagen