ThreadlessDesign Book

Table Of ContentsResearch5. Abstract6. Research Paper7. Target Audience9. SWOT10.Creative Brief

Development13. Moodboard15. Competitve Survey16. Logo Development

Style Guide19. Style Guide21. Color Pallete22. Typography23. Photos

Final Solutions27. Online Video28. Television Commercials29. Social Media30. Grassroots Marketing31. Internet Radio32. Electronic Media

1.

THE MADNESS OF MISSION 6 Design by Travis Pitts

2.

3.

research

I WAS HERE Design by Dina Prasetyawan

Abstract5.

The essay below studies, discusses, and analyzes the overall campaign project for the Threadless.com brand awareness and revenue gain. The history of Thread-less is looked at as they were founded in 2000 and grew year after year. Studying who Threadless is as a company, there are youthful founders that represent what the community is; a creatively driven group of people that range in age from 18-35. Threadless has grown to the point where they have been able to pick up big names such as Disney and Minecraft to designate design contests.

Threadless is 100% done through the Internet and smartphones. They have had great success through social media and should continue this trend through their advertising methods to grow. This essay will study which methods of advertising will be the most bene�icial to the company and attract the most people within the designated target audience. The essay will show how to present a campaign to the viewers and what it should look like through font, color scheme, and themes shared through out it.

THE BEST CHANNELS SINCE 1465 Design by Eduardo San Gil

Research paper6.

Threadless is an online e-commerce t-shirt store that is based out of Chicago, IL. The business structure of this company is to put the fate of designs into the hands of con-sumers. By encouraging anyone and everyone to submit de-signs, vote on them and have the highest rated be selected for print, Threadless proves that they keep the power of the company in the people's hands. Our campaign aims to embrace the social commerce business model and sell this as a key bene�it to our targeted audience.

By increasing awareness about Threadless, there will be a result of increased traf�ic and sales on the website. The main idea to get across to the audience is the consumer is the creator. From design contests, submissions, and voting, every step of the process falls on consumers participating. Social Commerce Today points out “Threadless has an enviable reputation; it sells out of every line it produces – generating $17m+ in annual sales with a healthy 35% pro�it margin.” (Marsden, 2010)

The current trend of annual sales is too small of a margin in penetrating overall market share from online

t-shirt sales with companies like Old Navy posting annual revenue sales over $5 billion (Wikinvest, 2012). If

Threadless fails to grow in awareness, then the window of opportunity in increased market share and annual

sales could be gone.

The popular trend right now is online social experiences. More people are getting news from Twitter

and Facebook, and making purchases from everyday people on Etsy. This trend could show to be a fad and

Threadless must leap at the chance while it exists. Threadless will expand into a larger advertising cam-

paign that includes multi-media (commercials, banners) and also continue to maintain, but increase, a large social

media presence with over 500,000 followers on both Facebook and Twitter.

Target Audience7.

Male and Female Age 18-30

Single

Income 25,000 – 50,000

college graduateHipsters Liberal

Free living Subculture Interest

Target Audience (Cont.) 8.

The Treadless target audience are a free spirited age group of the next generation that doesn’t focus on the destination of where they are going but more of the ride there. What that means is they live in the moment. Moment to moment these 18-35 year olds are taking what they wear and making it something new every day. Threadless allows them the freedom to express themselves through the designs they make, the ones they rate, and the shirts they choose. Our target audience is the best audience in the world. They are always changing with culture and coming into their own. With the audience changing, the designs being made with Threadless will main-tain relevance as new designers join and continue to make Threadless as striving company and the forefront of business 2.0

CEO and Founder Jake Nickell

SWOT(Strengths,Weaknesses,Oppurtunies,Threats)9.

TECHNICOLOUR REX Design by Elisha Hale

Creative Brief Menu 10.

development

THE HORDE Design by Aled Lewis

Moodboard13.

directive word: Self Expression

Directive Word: Self Expression

We wanted our mood board to have a theme of self-expression to attract the artist in all of us. Threadless founder and CEO, Jake Nickell said, “I find great

value in learning how to do something on your own” (Nickell, 2011). This mood board was a challenge for us because this company could go in so many directions,

having the most effective directive word was key. Having the right words to promote young artists and grab their attention was my goal. We chose words that

described what Threadless is all about. They believe in the customer being the creator. Threadless is nothing without young hungry designers and people to rate

their designs. I wanted this desire and passion to reflect in my mood board. Community was picked because Threadless is more of a design community than a

company. I chose passionate for Threadless’ ambition to give every artist a vehicle to drive his or her design motivation. Promotional was chosen because Threadless will promote every artist that has a winning design. Each t-shirt has the creating

artist’s name on the inner neck. Finally self-expression was chosen because Threadless wants people to express their design, users to express their taste in

which designs are t-shirt worthy, and the customers to express the shirts that fit their personality best.

Our colors were Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. These colors were chosen to represent how a design transitions to print on a t-shirt and CMYK are the print colors. My texture was a t-shirt to represent where the art goes. The

images are of Threadless employees and designers. They are what make up the com-pany. Another shows a company and paint brush to represent the art that can be

done through graphic design. The last part was a funkalicious astroman that is one of the most famous designs for Threadless. This is to show how big a design can

get for an artist. The font I chose was a handwritten style with a block look. This was selected to portray the homemade creation of designs by users.

FUNKALICIOUS Design by Christopher Golebiowski

14.

Competitive logo Survey15.

Competitor Chart

Black

Blue

Red

Black/Yellow

Red/Green

Black/Red/White

Green

The design logo process of changing what is already establishedis a bold new move for Threadless to take. By looking at the competitionand how they display their logo to the general public, we can take away thatthere is a large, wide variety of logos ranging from a simple text design with single color, to a multi color facet that includesa more complex design creation made specific forthat brand to grab the attention of the viewer and draw them in. What is clear is this; the larger names like Old Navy, Gap andWoot all have just the word andseem to rely more on the name brand it has established from years and years of sales, service, and advertising.

PARTY ANIMAL Design by John Hegquist

16.

FREDDIE MERCURY Design by Pablo Bustos

Logo Design-Process,Font, Style,Rationale.

Threadless

Thread reads RGB, another color code system used in graphic design

Needle represents the way clothing used to be made in a DIY fashion.

KG ALways the Good Time Font Similar to previous Threadless logo Font

Threadless

Threadless

ThreadlessThreadless

Threadless

Single Color

Full Color The color was going to be the easier part for me selecting. I already had the CMYK line up, which consists of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, selected from the mood board because it represented the printer colors as designs get printed on tees. However, other than the black the colors were pretty bright. I needed to make sure the colors were visible through the black and not hard to look at on any backdrop. I first had the string be blue and the needle yellow but it was too busy and took away from the black lettering so I switched it. This made it more harmonious. The T was magenta as T is a representation of tee or t-shirt.

Threadless

Length: 2 Inches

Heig

ht:

1.5

In

ch

es

aA bB cC dDNot changing the font of the logo too drastically was important to execute. Peoplehave recognized Threadlessfor the company’s san serrifstyle font so we wanted to maintain that for recognitionand show with a change in brand for expansion, threadlesswas still the same.

17.

Style Guide

Caution Bananas! Design by Glenn Jones

19. Style Guide

20.DOCTOR-HOO Design by Mallory Dyer

R:51G:189B:221

R:0G:0B:0

R:255G:204B:04

R:168G:32B:121

Threadless believes in a color is a color and there isnt one that shouldn’t be worn. An individual expressing themself would most likely look to color �irst for their mood. Threadless allows any color and encourages all of their artists, designers, users, and customers to try every color! Finding the right palette for this campaign would limit Threadless to 4-5 colors when the combinations on the wheel are endless! Because Threadless believes no color should go unworn we have selected a palette thatrepresents the printing process. The CMYK model works by partially or entirely masking colors on a lighter, usually white, background. The ink reduces the light that would otherwise be re�lected. Such a model is called subtractive because inks "subtract" brightness from white.

Color Palette21.

aA bB cC dD

aA bB cC dD

Kg Always the Good time represents the transition in font on the logo. The current Threadless logo is a similar Sans Serrif font that wil make for a smoother transition in the brand realignment and changes being done for this project.

The Majority of the font used throughout any print willbe a solid yet light hearted look. This will be done to represent the free spirited mood of the campaign. With that being saidCooperBlack was selected as the font. It is large and visible and makesfor a pleasant view.

aA bB cC dDThe third font typeface is called Copperplate. This font is a thinnermore modern style that would be pleasing towards graphic designersThe font is easy to blend into advertisement and use for larger bodysof copy.

THE COMMUNIST PARTY Design by Tom Burns

Typography 22.

photos 23.

Supporting logosModels Designs

24.

designers

RUNNIN' RHINO Design by Allan Faustino

Threadless uses just about anyone as the faceof the company. From the designers and supporting employees to the customers and designs created that have become popular beyond the website. Threadless is a customerdriven company that believes the customer is the creatorand wouldn’t change that philosophy when advertising or attending any public event. Some companies hire celebrities, paidactors, or even corporate individuals to �ill the space and time ofany advertisement or public event. Threadless will use what theyknow: The people that makethis company great,the designs they create,the designers,and of coursethe logosof companiesthat supportThreadlessin any of theprogramsthey utilize for the users.

DEDICATION Design by Matheus Lopes Castro

finalsolutions

Online Video27.

GENTLEMAN T Design by Sean Anton

Threadless Get’s Designers Made!

Creating video documentaries on designers that were successful in getting their designs printed on t--shirts will be an excellent method for Threadless to promote those within, have them promote the Threadless product as their video gets released and encourage people further to be noticed through Threadless. "Websites like Vimeo and YouTube would host the videos. their favorite shirts being worn, or spot people in media wearing them. (Fire, 2013)

Television Commercials 28.

ABE Design by Joe Carr

Visit Youtube.com/ThreadlessTo see the full video on howthis design got made.

Short clips of promoting the videos will be used as 15 and 30 second commercials on TV and On Demand services. The purpose of the commercials will be to bring the customers to the website and view the full video. By viewing the full documentary video on the site, the people are more engaged and likely to visit Threadless with a greater impact than just quick spot that simply sends the message of “Visit Threadless”.

fin.

HEY, MR. BLUE SKY Design by Lim Heng Swee