Antique oil cans arguably feature some of the best graphic design ever created. Coming in a close second are the logo designs of vintage automobile and motorcycle manufacturers. The bold use of font and simplicity of colors compose a striking aesthetic. I found 12 of the best t-shirt designs featuring motorcyle manufacturers or motor inspired logos.
Anvil Knitwear recently launched an app called Shirt Scan which allows you to deliver content through QR (quick response) codes that are printed directly on t-shirts. With this app, groups and organizations can tell more of their story in the form of videos, articles and photos to an audience than could possibly be delivered on a single t-shirt.
At the 2011 Boulder International Film Festival, Anvil demonstrated the capabilities of this new technology. Attendees scanned the QR codes on BIFF merchandise to unlock content related to the festival, such as pictures, schedules and articles covering each day’s top things to see and do.
As I was preparing laundry yesterday, I noticed that I had barely enough whites to constitute a full load. I went scrounging around the house, searching for a errant sock or other white item to add to the pile. “Don’t I have any white t-shirts to wash?!”, I thought to myself. Nope, not a single one in the hamper. Curious. Working for a t-shirt company, you can imagine I have quite a few t-shirts in my wardrobe. I opened the chest of drawers to verify whether or not I even OWNED any white t-shirts. I haven’t seen one all winter.
After much opening and shutting of drawers, much leafing through and shifting of shirts, unfolding and refolding, the result was clear. I counted exactly eight white t-shirts in a drawer, all free giveaway t-shirts that I have been unable to part with though I rarely wear. The majority of the eight are charity walk and other free giveaway tees. I keep these shirts because they are from a cause close to my heart, but I rarely (if ever) wear them.
This prompted me to think more about charity event t-shirts. What is the purpose of the charity t-shirt? Why do they occupy the bottom of my drawer even though I support and personally identify with the cause printed on them? How can we improve the charity event t-shirts’ standing? Can they be top-drawer material? If so, how do we get them there? Click here for answers to these burning questions…
Ben Heck’s “Portal”-Inspired T-Shirt
Geek idol and modding god, Ben Heck, created his own high-tech t-shirt inspired by the popular video game “Portal” by Valve Software. The project utilizes a small LCD display, a miniature security camera, and a battery pack to create a t-shirt that creates the illusion of having a see-through ‘portal’ on your torso. Check out episode 4 of “The Ben Heck Show” for a full step-by-step breakdown of how he made the shirt.
A lot of people, of the course of their lifetime, accumulate quite a lot of t-shirts. And, whether they realize it or not, they inevitably categorize their collection of tees by purposes, uses, and perceived value. Think about it. Some shirts we may only wear when we’re doing yard work or painting. Other shirts may only be used for sleeping in, never to be seen in public. Still, another shirt could be a prized possession–perhaps from a tour of your favorite band or a rare find at a vintage clothing store.
Nick Foster, from the design blog Sleeping In My Head, has created an infographic entitled “The T-Shirt Lifecycle” that beautifully illustrates his own subconscious categorization of his t-shirt collection. Click here to visit his blog to see the high-res version of the image below.
Like most software programs, the BlueCotton Design Studio has some really cool and useful features that may not be obvious to the casual user. One such feature is grouping! Grouping allows you to select multiple objects at once, letting you scale and move those objects as a collective group. This is especially useful when you’ve got your design just how you want it, but maybe not exactly where you want it.
Using the grouping feature is pretty straight-forward. When in the Design Studio, simply click and drag the selection box around the objects you would like to manipulate as a group. Now, with the objects selected, you can move and resize them together just as if they were a single object! Check out the video below for a simple demonstration of how to use Design Studio grouping feature!
Want more tips for using the BlueCotton Design Studio? Be sure to read our previous entries regarding the Distressed Effect and our library of Design Ideas.
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