Threadless.com is a popular online Tshirt brand built on the creativity of their customers. Users submit designs for shirts which are judged by other users. The most popular are printed and revenue is shared with the artist. The process leads to innovative designs, but the characteristics of winners are predictable.
The Threadless community has established an emergent design aesthetic as distinct as any driven by a major brand or retailer. This presentation highlights styles & attributes typical of 250 randomly selected, successful designs and provides all the information you need to create winner.
Humor
Of Threadless shirts are humorous in nature. This example “extra pulp fiction” combines caricature, puns, and anthropomorphized characters. If you want to get a shirt printed at Threadless, think funny.
Animals
Threadless is usually described as a “community centered online apparel store” but could also fairly be called an animal themed shirt brand.
Anthropomorphized Objects
Anthropomorphized objects make up 25% of selected designs.
Pop Culture
10% of the designs in this sample make use of well known cultural icons, like Darth Vader from Star Wars. It is an interesting legal issue, do these design count as “Fair use” or is it trademark infringement?
Food
Food, often given human characteristics, makes up a large portion of Threadless designs.
Zombies
The living dead are a weirdly popular Tshirt motif.
One Color
Two Color
Nearly 50% of Threadless Tshirts are printed in two colors or less which are more profitable than multi-colored alternatives. Is this design preference or business decision?
You could find many other patterns in the Threadless collection if you parse the data in different ways. If you are interested in how communities, empowered with production tools are reshaping design, follow me on twitter @JosephFlaherty Or subscribe to this blog.
