Threadless
Design Book
1.
Table Of Contents Research 5. Abstract 6. Research Paper 7. Target Audience 9. SWOT 10.Creative Brief
Development 13. Moodboard 15. Competitve Survey 16. Logo Development
Style Guide 19. Style Guide 21. Color Pallete 22. Typography 23. Photos
Final Solutions 27. Online Video 28. Television Commercials 29. Social Media 30. Grassroots Marketing 31. Internet Radio 32. Electronic Media
THE MADNESS OF MISSION 6 Design by Travis Pitts
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research
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I WAS HERE Design by Dina Prasetyawan
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Abstract
The essay below studies, discusses, and analyzes the overall campaign project for the Threadless.com brand awareness and revenue gain. The history of Threadless 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
6 Research paper .
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 consumers. By encouraging anyone and everyone to submit designs, 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.
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 By increasing awareness about Threadless, there will be people on Etsy. This trend could show to be a fad and a result of increased traf�ic and sales on the website. The Threadless must leap at the chance while it exists. main idea to get across to the audience is the consumer is Threadless will expand into a larger advertising camthe creator. From design contests, submissions, and voting, paign that includes multi-media (commercials, banners) every step of the process falls on consumers participating. and also continue to maintain, but increase, a large social Social Commerce Today points out “Threadless has an media presence with over 500,000 followers on both enviable reputation; it sells out of every line it Facebook and Twitter. produces – generating $17m+ in annual sales with a healthy 35% pro�it margin.” (Marsden, 2010)
7. Target Audience
Male and Female
Hipsters
Single
Age 18-30
Liberal
Free living
Income 25,000 – 50,000
college graduate
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 maintain 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
9. SWOT
(Strengths,Weaknesses,Oppurtunies,Threats)
TECHNICOLOUR REX Design by Elisha Hale
Creative Brief Menu 10.
development
THE HORDE Design by Aled Lewis
13. Moodboard directive word: Self Expression
14. 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 company. 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
15. Competitive logo Survey T
he design logo process of changing what is already established is a bold new move for Threadless to take. By looking at the competition and how they display their logo to the general public, we can take away that there is a large, wide variety of logos Competitor ranging from a simple text design with single color, to a multi color facet that includes a more complex design creation made specific forthat brand to Black grab the attention of the viewer and draw them in. What is clear is this; the larger Blue names like Old Navy, Gap and Woot all have just the word and Red seem to rely more on the name brand it has established from Black/Yellow years and years of sales, service, and Red/Green advertising.
Green Black/Red/White
Chart
16.
PARTY ANIMAL Design by John Hegquist
Thread reads RGB, another color code system used in graphic design
Logo DesignProcess,Font, Style, Rationale.
Needle represents the way clothing used to be made in a DIY fashion.
Threadless
KG ALways the Good Time Font Similar to previous Threadless logo Font
FREDDIE MERCURY Design by Pablo Bustos
Threadless 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.
Single Color
Threadless
Threadless
Threadless
Threadless
Height: 1.5 Inches
17.
Length: 2 Inches
Threadless
aA bB cC dD
Not changing the font of the logo too drastically was important to execute. People have recognized Threadless for the company’s san serrif style font so we wanted to maintain that for recognition and show with a change in brand for expansion, threadless was still the same.
Style Guide
Caution Bananas! Design by Glenn Jones
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Style Guide
DOCTOR-HOO Design by Mallory Dyer
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Color Palette 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 that represents 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.
R:168 G:32 B:121
R:51 G:189 B:221
R:0 G:0 B:0
R:255 G:204 B:04
Typography aA bB cC dD The third font typeface is called Copperplate. This font is a thinner more modern style that would be pleasing towards graphic designers The font is easy to blend into advertisement and use for larger bodys of copy.
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.
aA bB cC dD The Majority of the font used throughout any print will be a solid yet light hearted look. This will be done to represent the free spirited mood of the campaign. With that being said CooperBlack was selected as the font. It is large and visible and makes for a pleasant view.
THE COMMUNIST PARTY Design by Tom Burns
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23. photos
Models
Designs
Supporting logos
24. Threadless uses just about anyone as the face
designers
of the company. From the designers and supporting employees to the customers and designs created that have become popular beyond the website. Threadless is a customer driven company that believes the customer is the creator and wouldn’t change that philosophy when advertising or attending any public event. Some companies hire celebrities, paid actors, or even corporate individuals to �ill the space and time of any advertisement or public event. Threadless will use what they know: The people that make this company great, the designs they create, the designers, and of course the logos of companies that support Threadless in any of the programs they utilize for the users. RUNNIN' RHINO Design by Allan Faustino
final solutions
DEDICATION Design by Matheus Lopes Castro
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Online Video 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)
Threadless Get’s Designers Made!
GENTLEMAN T Design by Sean Anton
Television Commercials 28. 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�.
Visit Youtube.com/Threadless To see the full video on how this design got made.
ABE Design by Joe Carr
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HEY, MR. BLUE SKY Design by Lim Heng Swee