A band once proudly showed me the new t-shirts they had designed to sell on the road (merchandise sales being an important source of income for touring bands.)

I stared at the plain white cotton tee.

“Flip it over, I don’t see anything.”

“Well, there’s nothing on the back either, that’s the point,” they responded.   “There’s nothing there.  Its minimalist.”

I’m all for bucking popular trends, but putting the band’s name on your band shirt that you are selling to your fans is, well, kind of the point.

“Hm.  How will people know it’s your band’s shirt?”

“Here.”  They held up the left cuff of the short sleeve within inches of my face.  Sure enough, there was the name of the band, in 12 point type.  It could span 3, maybe 4 grains of rice laid end to end.

“How much are you going to charge for it?”

“We don’t know yet.  Ten, maybe fifteen dollars.”

Conceptually, and perhaps artistically, their approach makes sense.  But it seems risky to bet on people paying five times the normal price for a tee shirt that, minus some illegible tiny type, they can get down the block.  In attempting to make a living with your music, you need to be mindful of what motivates people to buy your work.    It is especially important if you are counting on paying for tour expenses like gasoline and food from your sales income on the road.

Whether it is music or merchandise, people want to identify with some aspect of your identity, your creativity.  It is good for you to have fans spreading the word about you, whether through the music on their stereo or the shirt on their back.  Great looking, interesting merchandise should represent you well, and will sell much better than poorly executed or ill-conceived efforts.  If you can’t do it yourself, then hire a graphic artist or design company whose work you like, and make sure you approve their final design before it goes to the manufacturer and a hundred t-shirts/buttons/etc. are printed.  It will pay off in the long run.

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Finding the right artwork is often about searching around until you meet a person or company you ‘click’ with and whose work inspires you.  For our money, here are some examples of fine artwork/merch services.  If there are others you want to share, drop us a line.

T-shirt/Merch companies:  http://www.propagandatshirts.com/

Buttons:  http://www.busybeaver.net/

Designer:  http://www.michaelrenaud.com/category/work/design/

Posters/postcards:  Infocomm    http://www.wpco.com/pricing.php

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