All,

I know we all love words, but we don't need to write novels on our shirts!

Most people will glance at a T-shirt for maybe 2-3 seconds, and I doubt they could take in all of that text. Think of it like advertising a product. Advertisers spend millions (billions?) of dollars trying to figure out how to get people's attention in 2-3 seconds by developing product identity--slogans and logos--to interest people and get them to ask more about the product. Look at soda and car companies for some great examples of this. "Zoom zoom" and Mazda, anyone?

Newspaper design focuses on headlines and photos to attract readers, novel covers use the art and the title, and even daily products like cereal and soap offer little more than a picture and a brand name up front. Once the consumer is hooked, then they start in with selling the product: $54,000,000 in sales, 4 Emmys, 6-speed manual transmission, 240 calories, etc.

We should brand our "product" with a standardized logo and come up with a slogan or headline aimed at grabbing people's attention. Maybe we could keep the front of the T-shirt simple with just a logo and catchphrase, while making the back a place for more information.

I don't have a lot of experiences with developing ads or T-shirts, but as a consumer of mass media--as well as a creator of not-so-mass media--I know what types of things grab my attention.

My two obols,

Joshua

P.S. The television adaptation of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, an OU PW alum, premiered yesterday on the Sci-Fi channel. I tivo'd it but have yet to watch it. It has an 8 central time slot on Sundays.