5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

5 Ways To Improve YourT-Shirt Ideas RIGHT NOW

by Michael Essek

1. Be More Specific

2. Use In-Jokes

3. Know Your Why

4. Figure Out The Joke

5. Answer The 3 Big Questions

6. (BONUS) Use The ‘How-To’ Framework

7. (BONUS) Use The ‘Support Your Local…’ Framework

8. BONUS The Simple Text Switcheroo Method

9. BONUS The Opposites Method

2

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

1. Be More Specific

Here is a TShirt designin' tip from the world of copywriting: Be more specific.

Specificity communicates authenticity and trustworthiness.

It makes you more believable.

For example, a headline like ‘How to make an extra $500 a week gardening’ isn’tvery specific.

Whereas ‘How to make an extra $512.50 a week removing Japanese Knotweed’ ismuch more specific - and more believable (and interesting) as a result.

Same with TShirt design.

Don’t go with ‘I love Dinosaurs’ when you could instead go for ‘I love Stegosaurus’.

(pretty sure that is the correct plural form).

Creating somewhat general, non-specific and ‘generic’ designs displays anignorance of your chosen topic - and people can usually smell that through theirscreens.

Designs that really ‘hit’ will be highly specific - featuring a message and visualsthat are easily recognised and understood by your target audience.

Besides that - specific designs tick multiple boxes.

3

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

A Stegosaurus design is obviously highly specific and relevant to stegosaurus fans(a small niche) - but it also appeals to people looking for a general ‘dinosaurt-shirt’ (a bigger niche).

If you're a dinosaur fan (hey - who isn't?! which one would you prefer?

● I Love Dinosaurs (pic of a dinosaur)● Steg' Your Pardon? (pic of stegosaurus)

Other stegosaurus puns are - probably - available, but you can have that one forfree).

So next time you’re working on ideas and designs, ask yourself this:

● How Could I Make This Design More Specific?

some examples of how you can do this:

● instead of covering a general topic - like a hobby or a broad interest(eg. rock climbing, feminism) - choose as your specific subject mattersomething ‘within’ that topic - something that only insiders are likelyto know about (eg. Carabiners, Mansplaining).

● go deeper into the rabbit hole - and look for sub-niches,sub-communities or sub-topics within your broader topic. don't stopat level 1. (eg. Climate Change > Melting Ice Caps The Danger toPolar Bears).

● look for in-jokes, repeated catchphrases and sayings, and otherrecurring topics of discussion from within your target niche -wherever they gather online. Let your target customers tell youexactly what they're into, and what they find funny.

4

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

If you do this more often then you'll come up with better, much more interestingideas - and you'll be creating designs that are much more likely to generateinterest and sales.

5

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

2. Use In-Jokes

An in-joke is a joke that’s only understandable to members of the ‘in-group’ - or aswikipedia puts it: to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, orother community of shared interest.

When creating designs for certain groups of people (‘in-groups’ as defined above)- in-jokes make for great design ideas.

But how do you know whether an ‘in-joke’ is really an ‘in-joke’ at all?

The true test is whether people outside of the in-group get the joke.

If I as an outsider - can understand a joke intended for a particular group I’m nota member of - how well will that joke appeal to the intended audience?

The answer is not very well at all.

To visualise this concept, see below:

6

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

The boring zone is for jokes that everybody gets.

You don't want to be in the boring zone.

So when looking for in-jokes - ask yourself if non-group members would get thejoke. If they would, it’s probably not that great of an in-joke.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but the more ‘in’ the in-joke is (the more exclusive,the less broad in its appeal) - the more likely it is to generate a passionateresponse from a potential buyer:

(and passionate responses from target markets means sales).

So don't be afraid to use the really in-jokey in-jokes. Often the more in-jokey thebetter.

To round this out, here's a couple of example designs - based on in-jokes thatoutsiders are unlikely to understand:

7

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

● Hodl BTC BTC bitcoin, Hodl explained here)● SUP Girl (SUP Stand Up Paddleboard)

As shown in these examples - acronyms and slang terms are great starting pointsfor in-joke designs.

So keep an eye out for terms and phrases that show up often inside your targetmarkets - stuff that grandma wouldn't understand. (unless of course, grandmasare your target market).

The point is this: don’t try to be all things to all men - instead embrace the powerof the exclusive, divisive and incomprehensible (to any and all but the truebelievers).

Look for in-jokes - especially the in-jokes that are completely meaningless toanyone else.

Those are the ones likely to generate the strongest response from your targetmarket - and that's what you want (because that leads to sales).

8

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

3. Know Your WhyDo you know your customer's why?

I have 3 questions I recommend you ask yourself before undertaking any newTShirt design:

1. Who is going to wear this?2. Why are they going to wear it?3. How are they going to find it?

Let's focus on number 2 the WHY.

There are a lot of different WHYs.

Here's just a few examples - and you could probably list out some more:

● They love the joke on the shirt. They saw someone wearing it on thesubway and it spoke to them in some way. So they went looking for theShirt online.

● It makes them feel like part of a community. Wearing the Shirt identifiesthem (both internally and externally) as a member of a particular 'tribe'.People love to express their membership and support for particular groups(eg. through wearing the TShirt of their favourite band).

● They want to express a message. People wear TShirts to protests andpublic gatherings to make themselves heard and spread their views. Itmight be support of a particular candidate, or a broader movement (eg.'Don't Eat Meat').

● They want to support an artist. Independent designers and illustrators arein a unique position - simply because they're independent. Many consumersare avoiding faceless corporations and trying to support the little guy

9

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

directly (This forms a large part of both Redbubble and Teepublic'smarketing). People enjoy supporting an artist whose work they admire, andin such a case the specifics of a design could matter very little - they justwant to buy something to give you that pat on the back.

● They want to achieve a particular 'look'. They're looking for designs thatmatch a specific aesthetic. This could be a teenager looking for TShirts tomatch the 'goth' trend she has in her head. Such buyers are not motivatedby the brand or who the artist is - they're only interested in the design andaesthetics of the shirt.

This stuff is important - because the WHY drives the customers response - andthis in turn should impact your design.

For example - customers who just want to express a message will not beespecially interested in aesthetics and style. A simple text-based design may bejust what they are looking for.

In such a case it won't matter how attractive, intricate or aesthetically pleasingyour design is - because if it doesn't achieve the WHY they wanted (a simple 'Votefor Biden' message, for example) - then they aren't going to purchase it.

So before you design anything - figure out the WHY.

Once you have a decent idea of your customer's WHY - you'll make theappropriate design decisions. You won't be flailing in the dark, unsure of whatcolours, fonts or style to use...instead you'll have a much better picture of whatthe customer is looking for.

Once you know the why - you are much closer to supplying the answer - andtherefore much closer to landing a sale.

10

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

4. Figure Out The JokeThis week my children (ages 5 and 2 have started telling 'jokes'.

Here's an example:

Why did the ghost go to the sea?Because he wanted to be eaten by a shark.

...that's it. That's the joke.

Didn't like that one?

Ok, let's try another one:

Why did the goat go on the trampoline?Because he wanted to see a blue dragon.

(that one was Jonah's - he's 2.

As you can see - my kid's joke writing abilities are not yet fully formed.

But they are at least part way there.

They've noticed that jokes (at least, 'jokes' as they understand the term) follow apattern.

In this case - a simple 'why' question, followed by an answer: Why did (X?Because (X.

11

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

What my children haven't yet grasped is that you need more than just a pattern -you need to understand what to put into it.

Ideally something actually funny.

This is a similar problem faced by designers - especially when they try to come upwith ideas for a subject they aren't well versed in.

Trying to follow frameworks and patterns without understanding your topic -knowing why something is funny - and what makes it funny - is a recipe for failure.

You need to first find the core of a joke (what makes something funny) - and thenyou can turn to proven frameworks (patterns) to help you turn that joke into agreat design.

Here's an examples from my live stream a few weeks ago:

Subject: A forest fire started by a gender reveal party

The Joke (the conflict): innocuous, small, unnecessary family celebration VS largescale catastrophic disaster

Relevant Framework: I Survived (X

Resulting Idea: I Survived The Great California Gender Reveal Party Of 2020

(solid) Joke + (relevant) Framework = great idea.

For more on this topic, check out the Trend Riding live stream, and in particularcheckout the 'joke identification' part:

12

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

to wrap up this lesson:

● don't design something unless you're sure you understand the joke● if in doubt - use the Joke Identification method to discover what

makes this subject, topic or issue funny● once you have a handle on the joke, THEN look to framework to turn it

into a winning idea● look out for relevant frameworks, ones that 'fit' with your subject or

joke (eg. I Survived X

13

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

5. Answer The 3 Big QuestionsThe 3 Big Question you should be able to answer before you design any TShirt:

1. Who is going to wear this?2. Why are they going to wear it?3. How are they going to find it?

If you can’t answer each of those questions - you’ve got problems.

Your answers don't even need to be that great.

For example - in one of my recent live streams I shared a silly idea I had afterreading the following phrase: ‘Nuggets Of Wisdom’.

My idea was to have some Chicken Nuggets looking wise and smart, then simplywith ‘Nuggets Of Wisdom’ as accompanying text.

Pretty simple, very original (I think), and no research required.

So let’s take that example and try to answer the 3 big questions:

1. Who is going to wear this?

Some possible answers include:

● people who like Chicken Nuggets● people who like food based puns● people who like puns

14

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

So there we go - first question answered.

2. Why are they going to wear this?

For the same reasons people wear any funny pun-based shirt:

● to make others laugh● to let other people know that they have a sense of humour● to let other people know that they identify with the topic (Chicken

Nuggets)● to, in a general sense, identify themselves with something funny and

enjoyable People often like to wear stuff just because they think it’scool - it doesn’t have to be seen or noticed by others to be somethingof value to the wearer).

3. How are they going to find it?

This one is a little trickier - because it’s unlikely people will be searching for thisexact design on a Shirt.

But it’s likely that there are people looking for a ‘funny Chicken Nugget’ basedshirt…or ‘funny food pun’ shirts…or just ‘funny pun shirts’ in general (and ourdesign is an appropriate result for all those searches).

Yes, this may be a crowded field (or alternatively - a very sparse one) - but thepoint is we have identified some possible routes for people to find our design,namely:

● They search online for ‘Funny Chicken Nugget Shirt’ (for example)● our design shows up in the search results - because we’ve used such

terms in our Title, Description and Tags

15

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

● They see our design…they like it…they buy it

There are of course no guarantees here, and a lot of variables to be considered -but the point is: we have provided a reasonable answer to the question.

---

So there we go - we've answered all 3 questions.

Would our ‘Nuggets of Wisdom’ design be a winner?

We don’t know. The questions don’t tell us that.

But they do show us that there’s at least a possible path to sales here.

And if you create designs that can provide a reasonable answer all 3 of the bigquestions - your chances of making sales increase exponentially.

16

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

6. (BONUS) Use The ‘How-To’FrameworkComing up with original design concepts doesn’t have to be complicated.

In fact, coming up with new ideas can be incredibly simple, straightforward andfast - if you know where to start.

One of my favourite short-cuts for coming up with original ideas is to use provenframeworks: idea or concept ‘templates’ that are easily adaptable to any giventopic or trend.

I’m going to share an example of a layout framework that:

● you can use right away● is completely evergreen● works for any subject or market

...and produces concepts that work brilliantly on TShirts, Posters and lots more.

I call it the ‘How To’ Framework.

The process is very simple: you're going to create step-by-step ‘How To’Instructions related to your topic.

(don't worry if that doesn't make sense right now - examples to follow).

To use this framework on your subject - simply ask yourself: what’s an example ofan objective that my target audience is trying to achieve?

17

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

For example, if your subject is gardening - objectives might be:

● how to grow tomatoes● how to keep slugs off your lettuces● how to grow the world’s biggest pumpkin

That’s easy enough right?

From there you simply create a design that delivers on that headline promise.

(in other words, you show your audience how to achieve stated aim - step bystep - with accompanying graphics).

Here are some really simple examples of ‘How To’ designs:

● how to kill a zombie● how to be a triathlete● how to do the time warp

...as you can see, this framework is super flexible.

Plus ‘How To’ designs don’t have to be super complex - and there’s lots of room forhumour and additional layers of jokes.

For example - for bonus points and extra humour - you can render your design asan Ikea-style instruction booklet - such as the following examples:

● Musketon’s Nikea (how to assemble a Nike trainer for sneaker fans)● How To Assemble Stone Henge● How to Create a Dinosaur

18

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

You can also take popular slang phrases or idioms and use this framework tocreate a ‘double meaning’ based joke - for example:

● How To Pick Up Chicks● How To Cheat Death by Hilary White

---

so now you know about this framework - make a note of it, and try it out whenyou’re trying to come up with new ideas.

The more frameworks like this that you have to hand - the more ideas you’ll beable to generate.

And the more ideas you generate - the better your ideas will be.

19

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

7. (BONUS) Use The ‘Support YourLocal…’ Framework

One of the fastest ways to come up with original ideas for your designs is to usewell known sayings as frameworks.

here's an example of one such saying:

'Support Your Local (X'

This is a popular phrase that's easily adapted to any topic or subject, and can beused in a variety of ways.

Allow me to demonstrate...

This phrase can be used in a 'straight up' way (ie. non-funny, non-ironic) - forexample:

● support your local farmer● support your local barista● support your local library

...all straightforward examples, adapted to specific local entities or professions.

In the above examples it expresses a simple message that few would disagreewith; shop local, support your neighbourhood businesses and groups (rather thenbig conglomerates) - a message that is extra relevant in the current pandemic.

20

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

And the phrase itself makes an ideal TShirt framework because:

● TShirts are the ideal medium for showing support for a group orexpressing a message like this

● People love to express support for local things (in opposition to 'bigbusiness' etc.)

● The phrase itself is well known and widely understood

...and BECAUSE it's well understood, you'll find it being used ironically or in quirkyways - eg:

● support your local girl gang● support your local ska band● support your local street cats

How To Use This Framework

By slotting something related to your topic into 'X' - you'll see immediatelywhether this works - either ironically or non-ironically.

To make it even easier, think of the phrase like so:

“Support your local... {profession / group / business related to your topic}”

So for example - taking Halloween as our current topic, we can arrive at thefollowing:

● support your local pumpkin patch● support your local coven● support your local serial killer● support your local haunted house

21

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

...that took a few seconds of thought - so with a little more time I'm sure you couldcome up with several ideas that would make for promising leads for your owndesigns.

22

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

8. (BONUS) The Simple TextSwitcheroo MethodHere’s a TShirt idea technique that's really simple - and doesn't require detailedgraphics or illustrations.

I'm calling it The Simple Text Switcheroo.

The Simple Text Switcheroo takes a simple phrase or saying and renders it in anunexpected style.

Here are some examples:

● 'Merry Christmas' in a heavy-metal-font-style -

23

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

● or "Death Metal" in a cutesy-rainbows-and-clouds style -

What do these designs have in common?

They work because of the juxtaposition between the 'message' (the text) andthe 'delivery' (the style).

The message carries one meaning - but the style in which it is delivered carries avery different meaning.

24

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

Hence a conflict - a contrast - and therefore (hopefully) - humour!

As you can see from the examples above - this approach can work with the veryshortest and simplest of phrases - so you don't need to be some master jokewriter to use it.

You just need to have a decent 'contrast' between a given message and a givenstyle.

Let's walk through exactly how you can use this method:

First you need a phrase, a saying or a greeting. This is your 'message' part, whichwill contrast with our 'delivery' (style).

Ideal examples to use as your text for this method for include things like:

● Popular slogans ('save the whales', 'eat the rich')● Greetings ('merry christmas', 'happy hannukah')● categories, topics, subjects or hobbies that have strong visual associations

('death metal'...'cross stitching'...'skateboarding')● slang terms or text-based memes ('ok boomer'...'yeet'...'poggers')

The most important thing is that your text carries a certain meaning or associationthat is obvious to the customer or reader.

Sayings or phrases that instantly evoke visual associations (like Merry Christmas,Death Metal) are likely to yield the strongest design concepts.

Once you have some text that you think fits the bill - your job is to find a visualstyle that is suitably different from the message itself (and thus creates ajuxtaposition).

25

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

A good place to start is to identify the 'opposites' of some of the standardassociations of your phrase.

For example - the text 'Merry Christmas' would be associated with feelings like;warmth, safety, family, wholesomeness, good will etc.

And the opposite of those feelings might be stuff like: danger, depression, anger,anti-authority etc.

Then we need to see if we can find a visual style that evokes a sense of danger,anger, anti-authority etc.

An example of a style that fits those feelings would be the 'Death Metal' style.

Which is why the Metal Merry Christmas example works:

Let's do a few more examples:

'Save The Bees' - a well established environmentally friendly message, whichwould usually be associated with floral, outdoorsy-type graphics.

what would the 'opposite' of such a style be?

26

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

Well - a typical 'Save The Bees' Shirt would be quite 'organic', evoking nature, thegreat outdoors, etc.

So we could look for a man-made, artificial, cold or tech-like style.

Something like the 80s retro style:

So a retro 80s Save The Bees design may indeed work - because there's asufficient contrast between the message and style - plus the '80s' style translatesso well to a TShirt (you just need the right font, right colours and a couple ofsimple graphic elements).

another example:

27

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

'Life Is Meaningless' - a serious, depressive, nihilistic message.

What would work well here is something cutesy / flippant - like rainbows andunicorns, or a cross stitch style.

Something like this, or this.

Combine that message with that style - and you have the makings of a funny ideathat resonates - even if you aren't a nihilist or a cross-stitcher.

----

so there you have it - the old 'Simple Text Switcheroo' method.

Try it out on your favourite messages / slogans / sayings - and you could soonhave a bucketful of hilarious design concepts that hit the mark with a broad rangeof customers.

---

ps. This method can also work for 'names' - like group titles or even individualnames.

For example - this 'beach boys' tee works because the Beach Boys have a certainassociation with good times and family friendly-ness - whereas Black Flag (whichthis design parodies) are an anti-authority punk rock band.

(obviously you shouldn't do designs based on bands - but my point is that you canapply this same technique to more than just sayings and phrases).---

28

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

9. (BONUS) The Opposites Method

The Opposites Method is a way to come up with unique funny phrases by lookingfor 'opposite' words in well-known idioms or sayings.

Some examples of the Opposites Method in action include:

● Live Slow, Die Whenever (example)● Y'all Need Satan (example)● Follow Your Nightmares (example)

The underlying principle behind this method is simple: when you take a well knownphrase and reverse or invert one of the words - you create the a humorouscontrast, which can form the basis of a funny, unique design.

This method works for generating your own phrases - but how you render that asa design is up to you.)

So - how do you use the Opposites Method?

Here's a step by step:

You'll need a subject or topic in mind - but once you have that...)

1. Find a word related to your topic that has a clear 'opposite' word Antonym).You're looking for an 'opposite' that is likely to appear in at least a fewwell-known phrases or sayings.

2. Find phrases or sayings that feature your 'opposite' word. You can use a sitelike The Idioms Dictionary for this.

3. Once you have a suitable idiom, simply swap out your 'opposite' word foryour original word. If it works - congratulations - you've got an idea!

29

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

Here's an basic example of this in action:

Let's take 'Valentines Day' as our subject.

A word related to Valentine's Day that has a clear opposite word is: Love.(opposite word: Hate).

So we just need to find an idiom or phrase featuring the word 'hate'.

.....such as: 'Haters Gonna Hate'.

Now we simply switch our original word for the opposite word - and arrive at:'Lovers Gonna Love'.

Another example:

Subject: Dinosaurs - or more specifically - Diplodocus.

What's a word related to Diplodocus which has a clear 'opposite'?

Well, Diplodocus has a long neck and tail - so we could use the word Long - andthe antonym Short.

I looked for idioms that include the word 'short' - and came up with:

● Short Back and Sides● Life Is Short

So now we just swap out 'short' for 'long' - and we arrive at:

● Long Back and Sides● Life Is Long

...both of which could be the makings of a neat design concept (alongside a cuteDiplodocus illustration of course).

30

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

Top Tip: to expand your word options and opposites, put your related words intothesaurus.com first. Not only will this broaden your input words, but it alsoincludes a clear 'Opposites of...' section - which can help you brainstorm morespecific and as-yet un-tapped ideas.

31

5 Ways To Improve Your TShirt Ideas RIGHT NOW Michael Essek

Thanks for Reading!

If you want more advice like this, be sure to sign up to my newsletter atMichaelEssek.com

And if you’re looking for comprehensive training and resources for generating ideadesigns that sell, checkout my Ideas Workshop Class at michaelessek.com/ideas

Keep on Creatin’!

Best,

Michael Essek

32