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How to Design for the Apparel Market

Art Doesn't Sell

In my experience as a designer and curator, there is a truth about the apparel world that has become apparent. If my hunch is correct, this probably spans the whole world of art:

Artsy fartsy doesn't sell in a mass consumer market.

I don't wish to discourage any artist from designing in their own voice, but typically, people enjoy simplicity; generic ideas, easily understood and recognizable.

By artsy farty, I am referring to esoteric ideas, themes, and execution.

For example, my best selling shirt at shirt.woot.com was Death on a Pale White Unicorn.

Whereas Death took only 1.5 hours, the piece over which I labored most, Plunder All, was received with only mild enthusiasm by the shirt.woot market.

Whereas Death on a Unicorn is easily understood, "haha, I get it, its... Death on a Unicorn, plain and simple, but whats this pirate about? He has brass knuckles but he has Love tattooed on his fist? And whats with the octopus with the keyhole in the head?"

Plunderall is not.





One may argue that shirt.woot is a vacuum in which the preferences of the consumers are very specific, but this is not the case.

In most avenues I've observed, there is rarely an exception.

[deleted link] started out attempting to be like their sister company Designbyhumans by starting out selling very artistic designs, then over time, the market tended to gravitate towards a Threadless-y Woot-y genre but uniquely [deleted link]

It seems every business tries to dictate it's theorectical market, but eventually the consumers from the web will eventually put them into a niche.

At [deleted link] , since we sell a different shirt every 24 hours, we still have a wide selection of genres we offer, but the obvious winners are pop culture related.

I've sold over a dozen shirts through [deleted link] . In the beginning, I started with artistic designs which took hours to create, and years of refining my skillset.





But to date, wonder what's been my best seller? Ceiling Cat and Darth Tut. Both pop culture references.





What made my artsty fartsy designs fail? Frankly, unless you are in a niche market like Design By Humans, the majority of the population does not have the palette or affinity for esoteric expressions. They simply don't have the ability or desire to understand a different language.

We are still very much like animals. We still exhibit the fight or flight tendencies in our decision making. We desire social validation and acceptance as community beings so if you apply this theory to products, we want a product that communicates a positive and acceptable message to the rest of the world. We don't want to scare anyone into thinking we are different.

To wear something that is difficult or even unable to be understood, you might as well be wearing something with a foreign alien language.

We live in a world of symbols. Male/Female bathroom signs are universally understood. The color red, a sign of urgency, skulls typically represent death, etc.

As artists, we can help to create new symbols, but we must teach the world first before they understand it and are at ease with it. So there are two paths.


1. Design using symbols that already exist.

2. Be the forerunner in defining a new set of symbols, or way of expression, until it becomes accepted, if ever.

The latter is the true artist's journey, so it is most difficult.

But it seems, that once you define a way of expression, you will have defined your niche, so you can rarely deviate from it once settled into popularity.

BTW, did you know that even with gallery art, the top selling designs are typically generic? Landscapes, abstracts, dogs, and portraits.

So what should you design to be successful?

It depends on your market, but typically

1. Look at trends. If you observe enough of the market, you will see consistency, an affinity for certain topics, or specific design aesthetics.

2. Include pop culture references. It's a no brainer for Marc Ecko and Adidas to be partnering with Lucas Films to create products that are Star Wars related. Star Wars is widely understood and enjoyed.

Immediately, when people see the symbols or imagery related to Star Wars, cha-ching. You know it's $$$$ MONEY $$$$.

If you look at Threadless, you will see alot of other topics that are pop culture/cult following related products.

Video games, zombies, tv/movies, etc.

Piggy-backing on something that's already popular is the easiest route to getting sales, and attention.

There is a legal issue here. You must parody, or coyly design in a manner in which will allow you to skirt copyright infringement issues. Thankfully, parody is a route.

3. Keep it simple stupid. Don't deviate too far from the normal way of expressing ideas, and don't be complicated in artistic expression. Solid low color designs are king. You want to create a design in which, someone walking by in a second understands what they are looking at. This is related to symbols. Symbols are simple images. Just as we recognize a smiley face with a cirle, two dots and a semi circular line, you want your image to be almost just as simple.

*** Addendum by @Hydro74 Twitter
4. Emulate popular styles/trends. "uniqueness is rare and not demanded by consumers or companies thus emulate what sells with a splash of creative twist."

.....

Recently, these are a few submissions I've seen at different sites which are obvious winners if they are printed. These are full of win. Obviously, it doesn't take a expert to recognize them as good sellers.

Although, the skills exemplified by these pieces are professional, I would chance to say that, concepts sell most shirts, so these could have been done by a crappy artist, and they would still sell.







.....

This is the way of the world peeps.

One of the only places I've been successful with my own brand of art has been Designbyhumans.com, as it's market gravitates to being somewhat esoteric and artsy fartsy. It's built its consumer base as such, but if you notice the shirt of the weeks/months, you will also notice that it's not necessarily the most artistic designs that win. It's mostly allovers, abstract designs, and designs that have a wide appeal by being mildly trendy, but not overly similar to trends already existent in the apparel market.

It doesn't necessarily take extraordinary artistic ability to win.

.....


If you are interested in submitting for a print at [deleted link] , email us with jpeg submissions. We like pop culture.

If you are interested in submitting for a print at Designbyhumans.com, submit here.

How to Win Online Design Contests

Ready for the answer?

Participate.

The End.

In all seriousness, in almost all things, the first step to winning or achieving is participation. You can't expect to shoot a ball in a basket unless you first attempt to make a throw.

The idea is simple, but the motivation behind emphasizing this fact, is for one main reason:

Online design contests need good designs.

Need.

NEED.

Having worked as an art director at Design By Humans and Teefury, one fact behind the scenes that is not apparent to the public, is that it's a stressful job to oversee the scheduling of designs, especially since there is a monetary risk value attached to it.

Every shirt need not be a success, but in the long run, businesses have to thrive by creating products that sell to help it's customers get a great product and B2B partners thrive, in this specific case, artists.

Online design contest businesses like DBH and Teefury have a quota of shirts to schedule and print, so the appetites of the businesses for art are quite voracious. Voracious like a fat man at a buffet. Are you a fat man? I didn't mean anything by it. Supposedly using analogies is a very simple way of getting the message to the reader.

This situation is not specific to online designs contest, but in other business that create products in general. Art directors working for other companies that may not have such a diverse product line still have to create new designs to satisfy the needs of their consumers. And consumers... people... need variety especially in a consumerist economy.

I worked as an artist for a small NASCAR product development company for a couple years. Even at such a small company that only did a few shirts a week, the need for new art was enough to expand our art department from 1 artist up to 5 with occasional pro freelancers.

The truth of the art business is that, companies dealing in art need a pool of art that can be easily accessible at any time to fulfill the potential sales needs that arise. Sometimes in the art world, it's a shotgun approach, especially if the company is working in the mass retail market. Mass retail seems to be such a lucrative market, that they have the pick of the litter, so art businesses need to pitch multiple products sometimes over and over until the time is right to the mass retailers.

So submitting and getting printed isn't all that difficult if you follow some basic rules.

It's like a lottery, but a lottery in which you can manipulate the variables in your favor to almost guarantee a win.

How Do You Guarantee a Win?

1. Participate

2. Participate/submit often.

Not only do you fill your portfolio with designs, and learn/improve with each piece, participating and submitting helps to your name float up to the top when directors may be considering designs to print provided you have the right kind of art.

Human nature has a tendency to reciprocate friendly gestures, and when you begin to participate in an online community it will build a foundation of trust. People do business with people they trust and know.

3. Cater your product to the market. This is a major key. Businesses that sell art have their specific genre into which they are pigeon-holed. If you think of any of the major sites online, what kind of art do you think of when you hear the brands:

DBH

Teefury

Threadless

Shirt.woot

Emptees

The chances are you can easily identity the product as the brand even if it does not have a logo on it just by the type of art.

Sometimes you do have to study the company's products and design accordingly. It's not a hard written rule, but behind the scenes, the comment...

"Um... that looks too Shirt.woot,"

or similar will arise.

At both DBH and TF, we have passed on designs that are great because unfortunately they were not within the genre in which we know is successful with our consumers.

Even in my own artist experience, I tried pitching very high quality artsy designs to Shirt.woot, and at first they we impressed and printed me, but they are much more reluctant now a days to do anything outside of their genre. It's proven in my sales numbers. At shirt.woot cute sells, arty farty sinks.

4. Be nice, or really, don't be a pain in the ass.

When you are a pain in the ass, by being high maintenance, asking too many questions, etc etc, frankly, you make the job of the AD much more difficult. The likelihood they will want to work with you again is not great unless you have great artwork and you are worth it.

Being nice also helps. Or just being business like and straightforward helps. Here is my art. Want or no want? Thank you. Neeeext.

The easier it is to work with you, the better.

5. Be your own marketeer.

In the online world, every artist can create an appreciable effect on sales by marketing to their fan base.

You don't have to have a fan base, but if you are going to be a full time artist, you better get one, or you wont be an artist for long.

Even if you can't make a dent in the sales volume by your promotions because it doesn't reach anyone, at least it will make you seem like you have your shtuff together, and provided you continue to promote, stick and move, you will most likely learn how to best market your art.

Behind the scenes we occasionally see the effects of this. Our perception is molded by your actions and efforts.

During the DBH 10K contest, we noticed the artists that were the best at promoting themselves were the ones who were able to generate traffic and votes, and concurrently, typically this correlates somewhat to sales. Only somewhat because if you build a product that is generally widely appreciated, it will sell on its own.

But seeing the numbers, we do get impressed with the ability of the artist to market.

The foundation of growth for online contests like DBH, Threadless, and Shirt.woot is that it requires that the artists all promote their works for the sites to get more fans and consumers. It's almost like a MLM. They thrive on concurrent marketing by the artists.

Help us, help you, help us, help you.

...

In the online design contest realm, the easier you set yourself up as a supplier the more likely you will get picked up, and have subsequent designs be printed.

It's not that difficult and only takes persistence, so take a stab!

Check the sidebar for a list of the most prominent contest sites and the main blog for reviews of the types of shirts being printed.

Submit to DBH

Submit to Teefury

Comments are appreciated!

Short Story 12.09.09

Staples: "Would you like to sign up for our Rewards Card, it will save you 10%"

Jimi: "No thank you."

Staples: "All we need is your name and phone number."

Jimi: "I'm moving."

Staples: "Staples is located all over the United States."

Jimi: "The world's going to end in 2012, I don't care to save money."

Staples: "I don't know where they get those theories."

Jimi: "I'm just kidding, it was a movie, I'm just seeing about your objection resolution."

Staples: "Even if the world does end in 2012, it will be OK, we will all go to Heaven."

Jimi: (Chuckling, thinking, hrm, is this guy Mormon, Baptist, or Crazy?) "Oh yeah?"

Staples: "Well, if you accept Jesus as your personal Christ and Savior. Although it is also a journey..."

(It's tending towards the Baptist phrasing with "as your personal Christ and Savior," and the caveat of believing in Jesus as a prerequisite for entry to heaven. )

Jimi: "Well thanks."

____________________________


Can you imagine the two stories?

Jimi: "Yup, that fateful day, I went to get a CAT6 cable I was saved from damnation!"

Staples: "Yup, that fateful day, instead of selling Staples Rewards card, I saved a soul from damnation! Praise Lord!"

____________________________


Critique:

As a sales technique, using the phrase, "as your personal Christ and Savior" is very confusing and off putting to someone who is not familiar with Christianity. The phrasing needs to be reworked to be more palatable. Just a FYI for those of you considering witnessing to people, read a sales book, and think about marketing. Even if its salvation, you have to be very human in pitching someone a product per say, especially if it's more than just a CAT cable. Winning someone to your side is a very delicate process.