GRAND RAPIDS — If you’re a proud Grand Rapidian and want to let the world know that John Ball is your homeboy, then Fred Quillin has a shirt you may want to check out.

Quillin, 27, is readying his first wave of T-shirts and pullover hooded sweatshirts following a successful Kickstarter capital campaign this month that has raised $4,000 to help launch his Grand Rapids Shirt Co. venture. The campaign formally ends Monday.

The first series of shirts feature iconic Grand Rapids imagery — including a portrait of John Ball with the caption “John Ball is my Homeboy” — and logos culled from historic pictures. Quillin hopes they will spark a kind of impromptu civic-minded conversation and pride for local history among the younger generation.

“It’s a business, but I also like to think of it as an elaborate art project,” said Quillin, who works as a youth instructor at the West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology, where he teaches such things as skateboard design and screen printing.

Quillin, who has designed the six initial shirts, has 30 more designs waiting to be realized. The product will be sold through his website at $25 each for a T-shirt, and about $50 for a hoodie. He may partner with local retail shops as the business expands.

He’s hoping to settle on a local screen printing company shortly and is saving for a digital screen press long term. He’s also looking into offering women’s styles after a demand was expressed during the Kickstarter campaign.

In addition to the zoo’s namesake, John Ball, the first designs feature old City Hall, a Mr. Burger logo, the city logo from the 1888 plat map, a design featuring the city’s motto “Moto Viget” — Latin for “strength in activity” — and an iron fist and bicep above the words “Bring Back Hydro-electricity!”

The last is a nod to the city’s history as a hydro-electric pioneer, Quillin said. The first direct current hydro-electric powerhouse in the country was located at the Wolverine Chair factory between Bridge and Pearl streets in 1880.

It’s the kind of conversation starter that Quillin, a member-at-large of the Grand Rapids Historical Commission, hopes to spark with the shirts. In his Kickstarter video, he asks: Why aren’t we taking advantage of the Grand River to help power the city now?

The 11-minute video is a cross between a comedy and a plea for civic engagement, featuring Quillin joshing around with the bronze statue of John Ball at the zoo, hanging out at Mr. Burger, as well as lamenting the demolition of the historic Grand Rapids City Hall in 1969.

Quillin eventually hopes to locate his company in a now-vacant two-story commercial building at 824 Bridge St., next to a yard where his grandfather, Lester Quillin, a professional boxer with the Furniture City Fighters, had his first fight in eighth grade in the 1920s.

Although attributing his idea to the “ghost of John Ball” in the video, Quillin, a 2002 Jenison High School grad and Central Michigan University alum, said the idea actually germinated on a volunteer trip to Uganda four years ago where a shirt featuring the Great Lakes was used as a tool to explain where he was from.

His relationship with Grand Rapids was strengthened by jumping between local schools as a kid, which he said instilled a deep understanding and appreciation for the diverse city neighborhoods. Locating on the West Side is part of an overall goal that includes raising the profile of that neighborhood, which he said too often gets a bad rap.

Quillin spent the summer filming and creating music for the Kickstarter campaign after unsuccessfully pitching his idea as a shirt delivery service in May at 5x5 Night.

Expect him to keep up his habit of creating quirky commercial spots on YouTube as the company develops and expands branding and marketing efforts through social media.

“It’s supporting the Grand Rapids economy on a hyper-local level,” Quillin says in his video. “By supporting Grand Rapids Shirt Co., you’d be supporting local business, a local artist and local history.”

E-mail the author of this story: localnews@grpress.com