Band T-shirts

If you are in a band, or doing band PR, getting a good band T-shirt can be your best marketing tool. Fans always want to express their devotion to their musical heroes and demonstrate their coolness to the world and that’s where a T-shirt really delivers. As downloads overtake physical purchases of music CDs, a T-shirt becomes the easiest way for a music lover to demonstrate their musical tastes to the world.

Designing Band T-shirts

Brand is the keyword here, so knowing what the band wants to express is crucial to getting it right. The Future Boy T-shirt shows how to brand a band. James Bourne (ex Busted and Son of Dork) has gone for a stencilled image with a street art feel but crisp and clean enough to be immediately identifiable from far away: that’s really important to fans, who want their fandom to be seen by all. In a neat twist, the Future Boy T-shirt shows Future Boy himself, wearing a T-shirt labelled ‘Future Boy’ all of which gets the brand name across in a witty fashion.

To create a great band T-shirt

• When using images, make them big
• Find unusual ways to share information: printing details on a sleeve is subtle, while tour dates on the back of the T-shirt are obvious and easy to read
• Make sure you can replicate your T-shirt image on other items like CD covers
• Keep it simple so you can play with the image for each new release - this means fans feel they are getting a ‘limited edition’ garment each time.