Summer’s coming! That means I can get my collection of trendy t-shirts out of the drawer, apply shades and et voila – nuevo man! I wear design, so I must be trendy. Or am I?
The rub comes when you look at the t-shirts’ designs and think ‘oh, they aren’t quite how I remember them..I thought they were cooler than that!’
Has design become a thowaway item? Possibly. However, the development and progression of design and the study of different styles from the past and modern cultural influences means that the pieces of art – and let’s face it, some t-shirts are full of it – become a reflection of the thinking in the graphic designworld at that time. Date-stamping the t-shirt with a design style that displays a theme, brand or iconography of that summer season.
A perfect example of where brand and design style is extremely seasonal is Soul Cal, and it works perfectly. Soul Cal, a micro brand of the clothing store Republic, epitomises that Californian surf bum ‘just-out-of-college’ look with a chic and high quality style and product. Republic have positioned this brand to appeal to the younger generation with its just-affordable but trendy aspect across to the 40something who have the money and want to still look good in a t-shirt.
The designs that the t-shirts appear on change 2-3 times a year and express touches of current styles with a retro quality.
The branding of Soul Cal is excellent. For some time I actually thought that the brand was a separate, free standing one produced by a design/fashion house. However, it is actually one of Republic’s own brands.
Each t-shirt has many facets that add to the strength of the brand message. The overall quality of the t-shirt feels good. The tags inside are strongly branded and have, in some cases, multiple tags giving an impression of science and intelligence to the t-shirt that requires you to read the instructions before wearing it. They are merchandised on shelves with heavy duty cardboard swing tags that are, again, heavily branded with creative design and are surrounded with strong and convincing instore brand messages at the point of sale reinforcing the ‘I want to become a surf bum, but still wear nice clothes’ message. I actually overheard a couple of guys on the London Underground the other day – clearly workers in the corporate world by the way they spoke and their demenure, but were talking about catching big waves down at Newquay at the weekend. It’s that – successful City banker income blended with a penniless ‘live for the waves’ lifestyle that Soul Cal appear to aim the brand at. And it works.
So, while all this in your face messaging has been going on and the dreaming of the lounging in the VW Campervan on the edge of a sand dune beach in your Soul Cal t-shirt – you’ve just spent £60 on three t-shirts. Would you have spent £60 on t-shirts in M&S? I doubt it.
So it brings me back to the beginning of the topic. Are the designs that are produced on fashionable t-shirt modern design icons? I think the answer is yes. The tick the boxes in the required areas; they are stylish, of the moment, expensive and limited appeal. You could probably say they are like a David Hockney sketch or, dare I say it, a Banksy piece?
Next top: How Japanese culture influences British creative design.
