What’s with the tomato?

We get this question all the time. Or, almost as frequently: “What’s with the apple?” (At which point we pulverize the person asking with our laser eyes, because those are clearly tomato leaves on that there fruit.) (Also, we totally have laser eyes. Don’t question us.)

The Ch1Con logo came to be around the time we were designing the t-shirts for the 2012 conference. Because everyone attending that year had known each other for a while, we had a ton of inside jokes established. Most involved threats of bodily harm.

Is someone taking too long to send you a chapter of that new project you’re completely in love with? Chuck a bottle of Justin Bieber nail polish at her.

Did you kill off someone’s favorite character? It’s time to feel the wrath of banana poisoning and Larry the Man-Eating Hamster.

One of the longest-standing jokes we had was about tomatoes. Or, more specifically, the classic threat of throwing rotten tomatoes at a bad performer writer.

So, what better image to put on our 2012 conference t-shirts than a nice, healthy-looking tomato, right? It speaks of success, and youth, and hard work, and yes, I am completely pulling this symbolism out of my butt.

Basically what it comes down to: We drew a tomato. We liked the tomato. And it became the Ch1Con logo. (We promise our decisions generally have much more symbolic resonance.)

We hope to see you at the 2014 Chapter One Young Writers Conference!

~Julia, founder