Every year, our annual t-shirt tells a story about where SiteHost is heading. In 2025, we celebrated the New Zealand developer community with a shield design inspired by our national bird, the kiwi. This year, we're doing something that reflects not just what we do, but how we're growing.
The challenge: Doubling our data centre, doubling our commitment
When we decided to expand our data centre to twice its size, it wasn't just about adding more capacity. It was about scaling responsibly. There are 384 solar panels on our roof, and every kWh that they produce goes straight into powering our operations. With this expansion, we're doubling down on sustainable hosting.
But how do you capture that in a t-shirt design?
Finding the visual language
Every year, the t-shirt design is a personal challenge for me. I work with two rules:
Don't repeat what we've done before.
Design something we'd actually want to wear ourselves, the way you'd wear a shirt from your favourite band.
The challenge wasn't just finding a new visual approach. We've explored various styles over the years. What matters is creating something authentic, something that doesn't feel like just another tech company shirt. I needed something that could communicate growth, modularity, and environmental harmony all at once.
The solution? A floating structure made of interconnected modules, suspended above pristine water, surrounded by nature.
The concept: Growth that doesn't touch the ground
The design features a striking isometric structure. Imagine stacked containers or building blocks, each one representing a piece of SiteHost's growing infrastructure. These modules are deliberately abstract; they could be server containers, they could be architectural elements, or they could simply represent the modular way we build and scale our services.
What makes this image powerful is what it doesn't do: the structure floats above the water, never touching the environment below.
The reflection in the water was intentional. I wanted to show that our growth doesn't have to disturb nature. The floating structure, the birds flying freely, the native ferns—these all say the same thing: we can expand without leaving a footprint. You can see below that some of my earlier drawing wired the floating structure to the earth. That idea didn't make the final cut.
Look closer and you'll spot solar panels integrated into the upper modules, a direct nod to our solar-powered data centre. Native New Zealand ferns grow around the structure, creating a frame where technology and nature coexist.
The process: From hand to vector
The design journey started with countless sketches on a digital tablet, working freehand to find the right composition and mood. The woodcut engraving aesthetic emerged as the answer. It's detailed and classic, bringing a different energy to the usual tech aesthetic.
After finding the right composition through hand-drawn iterations, I transitioned to vector tools to refine every line for printing. The colour palette stayed true to our brand—vibrant orange borders against black and white—and the shirt itself remained black, our most popular choice from previous years.
A collaborative vision
While I led the design, the concept was developed in collaboration with Ben, working through ideas until we landed on something that felt right. It's a project that happens throughout the year, between code and other responsibilities. It's challenging and also rewarding, a creative break that makes finding that moment when everything clicks really satisfying.
Why it matters
This isn't just a t-shirt. It's a statement about how we think about growth at SiteHost. We're doubling our capacity, but we're doing it thoughtfully. We're adding infrastructure, but we're powered by the sun. We're building something bigger, but we're not leaving a bigger footprint.
The design captures that vision: solid, modular, and growing upward while respecting the ground beneath it.
And, of course, it's something that we hope will impress you when shirts start arriving early in 2026. This will be our largest t-shirts giveaway ever, and one that I hope you'll be proud to wear.