the bluecotton blog

Word Clouds are an easy and visually appealing method of presenting text as an image. Word clouds weight the most frequently used words with a larger font, while less important words become smaller and provide a pleasing background and context to the image.

Word clouds are a great way to spice up your club’s t-shirt when you would like to include everyone’s name in the design. Instead of the predictable columns of names, a word cloud will scatter your member’s around the name of the club.

1. Head over to Wordle to create your word cloud. Paste your text (club roster, club name, school, words that describe the club) into the box. Enter the club name multiple times so it considers this the most important word and makes it the largest word in the cloud.

2. Take a snapshot of your word cloud and save it to your desktop.

3. Come back to the BlueCotton Design Studio and upload your wordle to a t-shirt.

TIPS:
1. Creating your word cloud in black and white at Worldle will allow you to change the color of the text in the BlueCotton Design Studio.

Easy-breezy! Check out a few of word cloud t-shirts I created below.

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A few weeks ago I blogged about Chuck Norris’ favorite t-shirt, the American Apparel TR401. This week we are featuring Tom Dolan’s favorite t-shirt, the American Apparel BB401. Tom loves the light weight, 3.7oz., super soft, 50% polyester / 50% combed-cotton blend, and the durable rib neckband. Unlike other Poly-Cotton t-shirts on the market, the BB401 is made with combed cotton, giving it an ultra soft, worn in feel. This t-shirt’s smooth surface is ideal for screen printing and embroidery. Tom prefers the BB401 to the 2001 because it has a slimmer fit.

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Back in March of 2010, we invited you to play Words with Friends with us. Now we’re throwing down the gauntlet on a new word puzzler. Brought to you by Zynga, Hanging with Friends is the latest game we just can’t stop playing.

If you’ve ever played the popular blackboard game “Hangman” then you already know how to play Hanging With Friends! That’s what it essentially is–a mobile, turn-based version of the casual word guessing game. One really great thing about HWF is that you can have several games going at one time! I currently have 4 games going and am ready to add you to the mix!

Do you have an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad? If so, play with us! Just download the app to your device, create a new game, and search by any or all of our usernames below!

If you start a game with one of us, let us know that you’re a BlueCotton customer. If you beat us – we’ll send you a BlueCotton prize. Be warned- we’re in it to win it!

• BlueCotton (Mike)
• BlueCottonAngie (Angie)
• saul66 (Dan)
• BCLeann (Leann)

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Some things are just meant to go together. Ren and Stimpy, Batman and Robin, Bert and Ernie…so it goes for Saturday morning cartoons and breakfast cereal. Last week, I blogged about t-shirt designs inspired by firework labels. This week, I was inspired by Cheerios 70th birthday to bring you a visual smorgasbord of cereal t-shirts.

“Television took advertising for sugar cereals to a new level, and the master of the new medium was an ad man named Leo Burnett. He invented TV programs specifically designed to entertain children and sell Kellogg’s products. Much like Skippy a decade before, Burnett’s characters would turn to the screen in the middle of a show and pitch the merits of a particular brand. There was nothing subtle about it. Howdy Doody, Roy Rogers, Andy Griffith, Rin Tin Tin, the Beverly Hillbillies, Yogi Bear, and Fred Flintstone all became television icons because they were good at selling cereal.”
~ Read more about “How Cereal Transformed American Culture” by the mag

As I browsed the web for breakfast cereal t-shirts, I took a short jaunt through the cereal box graveyard and found a few that do not enjoy Cheerios longevity. Cereal manufacturers wrote the book on how to effectively market products to children. If it isn’t the movie-tie-in product, its the promise of a surprise toy inside. (We’ll be right back with the cereal t-shirts, after a word from our old-school sponsors below.)

And now..back to the blog…

10. Playing off the classic 80's movie "The Breakfast Club", Kellogg's offers their own breakfast club featuring the mascots of several of their flagship cereals.

9. Post Cereal's Count Chocula, Boo Berry and Frankenberry take a little stroll together.

8. Tony the Tiger was created in 1952, but didn't grace his first cereal box until 1958. Tony, in his most recognizable form shown above, was introduced in the 1970s.

7. Toucan Sam became the mascot for Froot Loops cereal in 1963. The cartoon character was created by Manuel R. Vega and originally voiced by legendary voice actor Mel Blanc.

6. Sugar Smacks were introduced in 1953 and have undergone several name changes. Dig 'Em the Frog is the official mascot.

5. Trix cereal was first introduced in 1954 by General Mills. Unlike other mascots, the Rabbit does not have a name...just a silly rabbit.

4. The mascot of Cocoa Puffs is Sonny the Cuckoo Bird, whose catchphrase is "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs". The cereal was first introduced in 1958.

3. Lucky Charms were created in 1962 by John Holahan. General Mills had challenged a team of new product developers to use the available manufacturing capacity from either of General Mills' two principal cereal products—Wheaties or Cheerios—and do something unique to them. Holahan came up with the idea after a visit to the grocery store in which he decided to mix Cheerios with bits of Brach's Circus Peanuts.

2. Famously "The Breakfast of Champions"...until this very t-shirt was worn by Vinny on Mtv's Jersey Shore.

1. Wheaties was created in 1922, as a result of an accidental spill of a wheat bran mixture onto a hot stove by a Minnesota clinician working for the Washburn Crosby Company (later General Mills).

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Today we’ve collected some brain-busting feats of t-shirt daring and human textile achievement from the Guiness World Records and other corners of the t-shirt universe.

No doubt you’ve all seen the timelapse video of the sponsored by a Swedish t-shirt company who achieved a Guinness World Record for wearing 237 total shirts at one time. Wearing over 100 pounds of t-shirts at once looks a little uncomfortable. Their record was beaten on May 22, 2010 by Krunoslav Budiselić of Croatia.

The largest t-shirt on record measured 236.88 feet in length and 159.78 feet in width and was achieved and displayed by the Qatar PetroChemical Company (QAPCO) at ASPIRE Park, Doha, Qatar on November 23, 2010 in support of Qatar’s bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022. This massive t-shirt weighed in at a whopping 6 tons!

The most people folding T-shirts simultaneously was 275 set at Westfield Shopping Centre in an event organized by Retail Trust as part of the annual fundraiser during Retail Trust Week in London, UK, on 14 May 2009.

The most t-shirts put on in one hour is 94 and was achieved by Jonathan O’Connell (Ireland), assisted by Vincent McQuarrie, on the set of Tubridy Tonight, RTE, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, Ireland, on 30th May 2009.

The most people arranged to form an image of an animal was 1,311 who formed an image of a white stork by wearing printed t-shirts with part of the image in an event organised by Ptaki Polskie (Poland) at the school of Goniadz, Poland, on the 19 September 2010.

UNIQLO UT, a massive Japanese T-Shirt brand has just opened an entire store which is essentially a giant vending machine. Set in Tokyo’s Harajuku district, the “shop” vends T-shirts in tubes, like tennis balls.

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