The Colorado River is the life blood of the west. Weaving through seven western states and supplying water to nearly all major metropolitan cities between Denver and Los Angeles, the Colorado River is a vital economic and recreational asset to the west.

The Colorado River Cleanup is a nonprofit organization based in Grand Junction, CO dedicated to cleaning the river and its banks. Floating sections of the river, the CRC pulls everything from bottles and cans, to car bumpers and tires from the water. For the 2018 cleanup the group commissioned a piece of art for their crew t-shirts.

The CRC requested an art collage using garbage pulled from the river and features of western landscapes. The design shape is based on the iconic and endangered Colorado Humpback Chub. The body of the fish is based on an empty bottle and the fins are built out of various items of trash. The white line crossing the design traces the path of the river as it moves through the west.

For the color scheme, orange tones were selected as a tribute to the arid high altitude deserts found in western Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. The blue stroke unifies the entire design and calls back to clean river water.