When the 2020/21 academic year began on October 18, TAU found itself in an unprecedented situation. The restrictions dictated by the pandemic meant that students couldn’t come to campus. New students began their studies without ever sitting in a lecture hall, having coffee with friends in the cafeteria or talking to a lecturer in the hallway.

To give new students a feel of TAU’s atmosphere, and begin the new year in a slightly different way, the university joined forces with the Gelada studio – creating a special minicollection of T-shirts inspired by TAU’s slogan ‘Pursuing the Unknown’. The idea behind the designs: If you can’t come to the university, why not let the whole city be your campus? Every design in the collection pays homage to a different iconic site in the city of Tel Aviv.

Every student in the first year of undergraduate studies at TAU chose her/his favorite T-shirt. Enthusiasm ran high, and now the T-shirts are being delivered, by mail, directly to the students’ homes.

Photo: Yanai Yechiel

“TAU is proud to be an integral part of the city of Tel Aviv,” says Alon Weinpress, TAU’s Marketing Director. “A city which, like the university, constantly renews itself, innovates, looks for the next big thing and invents the things that everyone will talk about tomorrow. We looked for a way to connect our new students, who have never met us, to these values, and give them a small taste of Tel Aviv. Our collaboration with Gelada has bred something that totally reflects Tel Aviv but is also cosmopolitan. We are very happy to support local industry.”

Yaron Mendelovich, owner of Gelada, says: “Gelada Tours is an illustration, design and production studio. We like to think of ourselves as a fictional travel agency, in which every collection, series or project is a unique journey. We form collaborations and create products related to many destinations in Israel, around the world and beyond the planet. This collection, inspired by Tel Aviv University, emphasizes the values it represents: innovation, freedom and creativity. Together with illustrator/architect Kiril Cherikover, graduate of the Architecture Department at the Bezalel Academy, we created a series that combines urban nature, beaches and culture. We tried to connect the graphic language with unique icons of Tel Aviv and the spirit of the city as we see it: a city of initiative, knowledge, pluralism and freedom. A festival that never stops coupled with a lot of hard work.”