ThreadlessDesign Book

THE MADNESS OF MISSION 6 Design by Travis Pitts

1. Welcome

Threadless is more than just a company. Businesses are startedand run by rich man and woman with day to day operationsdone by employees they hire. Creativity has taken a back seatto profit margins, share holders, and quarterly/ annual revenue. What doesn’t seem to matter is what makes people happy, how they can express themselves, and also be able to createa product that can be enjoyed by anyone. Enter Threadless; They a consumer driven company that has their entire t-shirt line up created and selected by anyone registered with theirwebsite. The consumer is the creator is a line you will hear from Threadless. Giving anyone with the ability to be in the spotlight for their talents, and having such a large variety ofdesigns from all corners of the planet is what makes Threadless successful. This design book is dedicated to everyone that has been brave enough to submit a design through Threadless and keep the machine moving.

Table Of Contents

Research5. 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.

3.

research

I WAS HERE Design by Dina Prasetyawan

Abstract5.

The following pages 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 to 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 beneficial 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 paper 6.

Threadless is an online ecommerce tshirt 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 benefit to our targeted audience. By increasing awareness about Threadless, there will be a result of increased traffic 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, gener-ating $17 million in annual sales with a healthy 35% profit margin.” (Marsden, 2010) The current trend of annual sales is too small of a margin in penetrating overall market share from online tshirt 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 campaign that includes multimedia (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. Thread-less 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 de-signers 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

Strengths Weaknesses

Oppurtunities Threats

Low overhead Smart business planCommunity comes firstConsumer is the creator

Small Company compared to large corporations like Old Navy

Flooded market with new t-shirt companies showing up everyday

YouTube generation used to creating for their own

Social media spreads awareness

Current trend in business where con-sumers want to buy from local aver-age people

High cost to elevate awareness

Bigger company means bigger overhead. This might take away down to earth local feel the company already poses

Larger more established companies will continue to have higher sales

Consumers as creators trend could potentially be a trend. This could affect the company’s longevity

Creative Brief Menu 10.

•Name: Threadless•Industry: Clothing and Accessories •Category: Online design clothing

•T-shirts designed by online community•IPhone cases from t-shirt designs•Other accessories such as hats, bags, etc

•To identify the key strengths and benefits of Threadless and create unique campaign for general public. •To determine opportunities for further growth of the brand.

•Increase market awareness overall. •Increase online traffic towards Threadless website by 5% over the next year.

•New Logo•New Mobile and Xbox 360 app•Digital and print advertisement•“Create your own Tee” booth at events•Internet Radio Ads

Company Name

PRIMARY PRODUCTS or SERVICES:

Campaign Project OBJECTIVE:

BHAG:

Deliverables

InnovativeCrowdsourcingEncouraging

Key Tenets

Target Audience

•Male and Female•Age 18-35•Single•Income 25,000 –50,000•Mostly college graduate•lives worldwide primarily cities

Two Primary Competitors

Old NavyTee Fury

Strengths•Consumer is the creator•New Age Business plan with low overheadWeaknesses•High cost to elevate awareness•Small company compared to giant like Old Navy and Gap.

Key STRENGTHS & Key WEAKNESSES

Positioning

Overall within the clothing Ecommerce, Threadless’ positioning stands low against giants such as Gap, and Old Navy and remains firm against smaller businesses like Tee Fury

USP

The only online design community where the customer is the creator.

•Encourage anyone and everyone to submit designs for the chance to be a t-shirt.•No corporate affiliation, entire business is community driven. •Strong Social Media Presence over any “small” competition.

SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

•Fresh Products: New Designs Every Week!•You Design: Customers Design the Product and vote on what is made into a shirt.

Feature/Benefit

•Evoke a response to visit the website•More design submissions because of this•Higher percentage of users rating designs

Call to Action

Current Logo

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 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

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.

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, threadless was still the same.

17.

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

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 first 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 reflected. 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 fill 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”.

Social Media29.

HOMEWORK EVIDENCE Design by Glenn Jones

Threadless Get’s Designers Made!

The entire business model revolves around social media as people submit designs to a website where registered users vote on the shirt design. Social Media is a broad spectrum to state for a campaign project. To specify in more detail there will be multiple approaches to this. Threadless already has over half a million followers on both Twitter and Facebook, which establish a deep impact for promotion on this campaign. By creating #ThreadlessExpressMore on Twitter, we will be promoting the fans of the company when they tag the shirt they are wearing or spot a design. The chance to get recognized by the company will be a big draw for the fans. The same will be done, as Threadless will recognize people that post their shirts in great ways, or sightings of Threadless throughout media. The next step is to utilize apps such as tumblr for people to also hash tag designs, submit their favorite shirts being worn, or spot people in media wearing them.

Yourself

#ThreadlessExpressMore

Express

Grassroots Marketing 30.

DEXTER WHITE Design by Juan Carlos Bueno

Grassroots marketing is a more down to earth in your face approach. Being at events, where your audience will interact with you is an effective memorable way. Threadless will tour music festivals such as SXSW and Coachella with blank shirts and have people create designs to submit at these tents. The best shirt would be voted on by the crowd and than tossed out to the audience to the show. This is the most primal way to demonstrate how Threadless works. A Video documentary will be done at each festival and promoted on both Youtube and Vimeo. This video will be promoted at the festival and encourage the people to visit the site.

All those years of practice

can now be put to good work.

Electronic Media31.

EXTRA PULP Design by Chris Sharron

Smartphone Apps and Xbox 360 Integration will just be two ways we gain more awareness through electronic media this year! Through being able to rate designs via Kinect on Xbox and the iPhone app, and make purchases will innovate how we make purchases. The app will gain popularity from ratings and innovation which will bring more awareness from an increase in users. We will also allow, through the app , the ability to try on clothing before purchase!

#ThreadlessExpressMore

Download the App to Try on the designs

Internet Radio 32.

MAGIC BACON RIDE Design by George Otsubo

Commercials are still needed to grab the attention of people not introduced to Threadless yet. Whiletraditional radio is not the best affect for the millennial generation, Internet radio such as Pandora would be effective. Apps for Pandora through the phone, tablet, website, and even vehicles would broadcast these special radio commercials for the call to action to stand up to self expression, get made through Threadless, and help others as well. A special link while the commercial airs would bring the user to the Threadless website.

see the ad on

References33.

A BOOK LOVER Design by Lim Heng Swee

Brabham, D. C. (2010). MOVING THE CROWD AT THREADLESS. Information, Communication & Society, 13(8), 1122-1145. doi:10.1080/13691181003624090

Brooks, C. (n.d.). How to launch a viral twitter campaign. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/launch-vi-ral-twitter-campaign-28160.html

Burkitt, L. (2010, January 07). Need to build a community? learn from threadless. Retrieved from http://www.-forbes.com/2010/01/06/threadless-t-shirt-community-crowdsourcing-cmo-network-threadless.html

Cannon, T. (2012, September 12). An introduction to color theory for webdesigners. Retrieved from http://webde-sign.tutsplus.com/articles/design-theory/an-introduction-to-color-theory-for-web-designers/

Fire, B. (12, November 12). Threadless gets social media marketing. Retrieved from http://bonfiresocialmedia.com/-threadless-gets-social-media-marketing/

Google, A. (12, November 12). Google adwords for video. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/land-ing/awv/?sourceid=awo&subid=ca-en-ha-v_ads_hasearch&utm_source=online_ads&utm_campaign=-google_search&utm_medium=adcpc&utm_term=Watch-Business-Grow-Advertise-BKWS&utm_content=CC294-YouTube-B2B-ENG-US-AFS-YT-BRAND

Nickell, J. (2007, June 06). Threadless.com: The history!. Retrieved from http://www.threadless.com/pro-file/1/skaw/blog/227766/Threadless_.com/thehistory

Weingarten, M. (2007, June 18). 'project runwa'y for the t-shirt crowd. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/maga-zines/business2/business2_archive/2007/06/01/100050978/index.htm

STORYTELLERS Design by Maxim Cyr

fin.

HEY, MR. BLUE SKY Design by Lim Heng Swee