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LINCOLN — Robert Rieck designs T-shirts that reflect his edgy sense of humor.
He is like any designer, except when it comes to putting pen to paper. He draws with his mouth.
His drawing tablet is connected to a computer and placed where he can reach it from his wheelchair. Rieck is a quadriplegic.
The 34-year-old designs and sells T-shirts online and in local stores. Rieck’s T-shirts range from the irreverent to the inspirational.
After his accident in 1996, when he slid 60 feet down a Colorado mountain, people acted uncomfortable around him. So he came up with a way to break the ice with “walkies,” his nickname for able-bodied people.
He designed a batch of shirts to give them something to talk about.
His first design satirized the traditional handicap symbol, with its occupant giving the middle-finger salute.
Other designs feature slogans like “Warning: Staring Causes Paralysis” or “Yes … I will give your children a ride for a quarter.”
Rieck based those designs on his initial experiences as a quadriplegic.
It wasn’t unusual for people to act as if he were not there. They would speak to his caregiver about him. If they did make eye contact, sometimes they would ask, “So, what happened to you?”
“You feel really odd when you first get a disability,” Rieck said. “You’re almost in an infantile state. You lose a lot of voice and you feel like you lose a lot of control.”
He said his outrageous shirts help him reclaim his voice and make it easier for “walkies” to strike up a conversation with him.
Now people walk up to him and say they love his shirts.
“It’s kind of empowering to wear shirts that have a message,” he said. “It lets people know I have a thinking mind.”
With the help of Nebraska’s Vocational Rehabilitation program, Rieck graduated from Southeast Community College with a business administration degree and a marketing focus in 2002. He said the degree gave him the ambition to go further with his art and start a business.
He created his company, QuadAntics, in 2005 after he discovered cafepress.com, a Web site where anyone can upload designs (graphic or text) and have them printed on whatever product they choose.
The site also allows entrepreneurs to have their own online storefronts. On Rieck’s site, cafepress.com/quad, his designs appear on T-shirts, stickers, posters and even clocks.
The QuadAntics shirts also are sold at Exotic Gift Emporium, Dirt Cheap and the League of Human Dignity in Lincoln.
The gift store and the record store feature Rieck’s more adult-oriented designs, including some with sexual innuendo or off-color remakes of recognizable logos. The League of Human Dignity, an advocacy organization for those with disabilities, carries more family-friendly shirts.
When Rieck woke up in the hospital after his accident, he expected to go back to his job as a baker and to his hobbies — playing table tennis and skateboarding. He didn’t understand the magnitude of what had happened to him.
“When they said rehab, I thought that meant a cure, not this is your life,” Rieck said.
In rehabilitation, he learned new ways to do daily tasks — comb his hair, brush his teeth.
“It’s very frustrating and embarrassing. And it really humbles you,” he said.
Rieck said his girlfriend, Jessie Garner, also a quadriplegic, has provided tremendous support. It was her persistent encouragement that persuaded Rieck to start designing.
“Meeting Jessie really helped,” he said. “Over four years, she taught me a lot of things, like to start drawing again.”
The couple live together in a home specially designed for them. When Rieck isn’t designing, the two like to play Wii or watch ultimate fighting.
Rieck occasionally volunteers at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, visiting patients with spinal cord injuries.
He will listen to them and show them how he’s coped with his accident.
“I try to show them the different things I learned and that you can live life in the chair,” Rieck said.
He plans to market more images while picking up new drawing techniques and learning about computer programs that can help him design.
“I’ll just keep doing this. I hope my business keeps getting better and better,” he said. “Life keeps going. You have to keep fighting.”
Contact the writer:
444-1304, news@owh.com.
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