Just a quick note to start. Yes, the layout of this store is wonky and there’s a lot of it I don’t love, but it is secure. And I would rather spend my time and resources designing great merch for people to wear and use instead of wrestling with XML and WordPress templates. I also want to keep my prices low and all the good templates (and or hosting sites) cost $$$ that I don’t make from this (or any other) store. And now on with the history, blah blah blah.
Coyote Shirts is my love. My name is Steve Buchheit, and I have been a graphic designer for 32+ years now. I graduated from the University of Akron Myer’s School of Art with a BFA in Design and more minors than I can to remember now. Since my graduation I have worked as a graphic designer in studios, print shops, in-house, and as a freelancer and have held about every title in this business except Creative Director, and that mostly because I never wanted that job. I’d rather keep my hands dirty in this business. I’ve always wanted to design t-shirts and posters, although I had little opportunity in the positions I held.
But life is complicated and graphic design is a young person’s game. So now, for design, I’m just a freelancer. My full-time job is as a Radiological Technologist, which means I take x-rays at a local hospital. I hold an associates degree and national certification (and state license) to do so. And as a rad tech, I’ve had more opportunities to design t-shirts. Healthcare workers are exceptionally proud of what we do, and we want to tell everybody. That’s when I started designing t-shirts as a side hustle.
I freelance under the name of Laughing Coyote Designs, but that can be hard to type out all the time. Fortunately CoyoteShirts.com was still available. So here you will find the designs of my heart. I do take commissions under several different scenarios from “I design the art for you and you only,” to taking my payment by keeping copyright and selling the art myself. While this is a work of love, it is still work.
Along the way I also started writing fiction. Mostly genre. I am a graduate of the Viable Paradise writing workshop (lucky class XIII). In the last decade plus I’ve had little time to write because of retraining for rad tech and working two jobs at the same time. When my life came to an abrupt u-turn in 2010 I was getting personal rejection letters and I was flogging my first novel. I started putting down words in a determined fashion in 2019 which was when my jobs all seemed pretty stable. And then you know what happened. But now as COVID-19 seems to be here to stay and we’re no longer in a panic. And now that my design job was given to someone younger and cheaper, I have been toiling in the word mines with purpose again.
There’s a lot more boring stuff in there. I was an elected village councilman, severed with various community organizations, protested, supported, and blathered on social media about various things. In an earlier life I played in bands, mowed lawns, flipped burgers, served in uniform, counted people in the Census, been technical support, and a business consultant (don’t hold that one against me). I’m a dreamer, friend, lover, and husband. I tend to be passionate about what I’m doing.
So that’s how I got here and why a lot of my work with t-shirts focuses on healthcare, art, and fiction with a little smart assery thrown in for good measure. I really hope you’ll buy some of my work as it helps me enjoy the two luxuries I’ve come to cherish; living and eating indoors. At the very least I hope they provide a chuckle.