Major Project

History of the slogan tshirt

Though a staple on 1980s fashion, it started in the 1960s with Mr. Freedom by Roger Lunn and Tommy Roberts. They made wearable art in the form of tshirts, even the displays were out of the ordinary with their substitution of mannequins for inflatable dolls.

In the 1980s, it was reignited by Katharine Hamnett, by changing the narrative to something a little more politically charged. She said "if you want to get a message out, you should print it in giant letters on Ia tshirt."

She created the infamous "choose life" shirt, a slogan against war and destruction.

Punk 

Emerged in the mid 1970s in the UK, with antiestablishment views, freedom. Punks were against corporate greed and consumerism, voting more for a do it yourself lifestyle and to work with whatever you can get whether its from thrift shops or resuing someone elses junk. Punks were the working class using eye-catching fashion and music to draw attention and make a point to the people in charge and with money.

Vivienne Westwood:

Her career began in 1971, when she opened up the shop "Let it Rock" with Malcom Mclaren wear she made Teddy boy clothes. A year later she was more interested in leather, zips and biker clothing and so the shop was rebranded as "Too fast to live too young to die", where they produced provocative slogan tshirts to which got them prosecuted under the 1959 "obscene publications act", to which they responded with yet another rebrand and turned the dile up on the tshirt content. In 1974 their shop was called "Sex" and used the slogan 'rubber wear for the office'. They turned fetish wear into fashion and inspired a D.I.Y clothing aesthetic, there Punk rock was born.

Class war research

Also referred to the class struggle or class conflict, it is the socioeconomic divide between social classes, in summary the rich and the poor. It is effected by all three, political, economic and social issues. The issues include indirectly causing poor dying of starvation and poverty, war for resources and cheap labour, working class being subjected to unsafe working conditions with little reward and the threat from the rich of unemployment and in turn lack of wealth, all whilst taxes and basic necessities are raised and raised to above what they are able to earn in work. In the UK, the class issues mainly stem from rich people in the south of the country creating difficult living conditions and false narratives about the poorer north. This is not to say that the north doesn't contain rich people and the south doesn't contain poor people, it is just majoringly the north feel the negative effects of the south's decisions.

strike action uk- an article about the strike action that happened and is still happening across different professions abandoned their position and demanded better pay from the government.

cost of living crisis- an article pointing out the issue with a ceremony for rich people essentially being funded by the government, that means essentially some of that money is from people that can't afford basic essentials, whilst barely any help is being given to those same people in their time of crisis because the rich see this as more important. 

Design ideas

I want to focus on the Class war and the 70s Punk rock aesthetic, as they go hand in hand, so I need to not only focus on what's on the tshirt but also how it is presented physically in terms of customisation and modification.

These are some examples of sleevless shirts, they were essentially tshirts ripped up with holes in, safety pins holding parts together and stencil art on the front, because again punks were all about doing it yourself, low budget and unique.

SWOT Analysis

Exploration

For one of my design ideas, I thought about including a stencil style face of a politician, as punks include stencils a lot in their shirts for the d.i.y aspect. Punks are also very anti- establishment so including figures that represent the establishment like politicians or the Royal family combined with their message makes for a strong tshirt.

These were my initial ideas. I played around with two ways i could incorporate the QR code onto a shirt and an alternative no QR design for variety. 

In developing more designs I tried to make more ideas that didn't involve a QR and instead focused more on the slogan I had came up with for representing class war. 

I then experimented more with the idea of a protest design as it can both be used to incorporate a QR and slogans at the same time. 

For the initial idea I had where i wanted a politician on a shirt next to a slogan. I drew some prominent current figures involved in things such as tax related scandals,  as tax is something that causes a massive divide in class. 

Nadhim Zahawi

Rishi Sunak

I tried the same design with a slogan but with the different portraits in place, seeing which fit the best. 

These two ideas were after some feedback from peers, I tried to come up with ideas leaning more toward shock value, as punks were and still are known for making their opinions and points known through the powerful method of shock. I went for sarcastic phrases paired with a literal visual. I ended up really liking the right design and I think the feedback pushed me in a good direction in terms of getting my message across in a way I enjoy and so I will likely use it going forward in my final design.

 

I reserched and practiced some fonts that I could use on my shirts, from spiky fonts and copy looking fonts to stencil like fonts. Going forward I think the stencil font will best match the era of punk I'm replicating as stencils played a big part.

 marketing/ exhibition research 

A poster or flyer is one effective way to market an exhibition, they're versatile and can be put anywhere from notice boards to shop windows and lampposts or walls. People will tend to take interest if the content is bold and eye-catching enough.

   

I decided instead of looking at exhibition posters specifically, I would look at concert posters and fashion posters because they're alot less minimalistic and the font is always larger and easier to read. In a poster you want something straight to the point and easy enough to read in passing or at a distance as people don't always walk up to posters straight away. I like the idea of a monochromatic high contrast colour pallete as it seems the most like a slogan tshirt with the black writing on white fabric.

The second effective way you can market an exhibition is simply by creating a social media post to a town noticeboard or a page people can look at. This helps as it'll end up right in people's faces, you still want something vibrant however to catch peoples attention whilst they're scrolling or they may just go right past it. In the age of digital, it may be more effective at gaining traction than some posters.

With our exhibition, we decided to use both of these methods to cover the most ground and try to get the most people to view it. A Facebook page and posts were made, spread on noticeboards in and around the area to try and gain the largest amount of interest we could. The poster used online was also printed off and got stuck up around the town centre to try and catch people's attention on the day. 

This was my contribution to the design idea for the exhibition. I thought the shape of the tshirt would help keep straight to the point but still leave room for intruige as I'm not explicitly saying what the exhibition is about. The title is in big and bold like a slogan on the tshirt and the relevant info is placed slightly smaller at the bottom. I wanted to keep it simplistic as busy posters are sometimes overwhelming for the eyes and information is harder to digest. 

To hold an exhibition, you have to have a venue that's accessible and fitting. Members of the class worked on emailing all known spaces that accommodate exhibitions or creative people to see if there was any chance or availability for us to showcase our work there. Some of the places included:

* The Exchange

This venue would not have been the most suiable however, as 14 tshirts in a huge space would've looked lost.

* The Market

This venue would've worked fine size and location wise, however they didn't respond.

* Blackburn Museum

A nice venue but again, size could've been a hinderance.

* Prism Contemporary

This venue size would've worked and it was very close to the university centre and town centre, however

* The Cathedral 

This venue could've worked as it was used by a previous year group.

* The Bureau 

The one we ended up being successful in securing was the Bureau. We wanted to hold the exhibition in Blackburn as it was easy for everyone to get to and it seemed fitting that blackburn students showcase in a blackburn space. The Bureau was a pretty good space too as its a two minute walk from the town centre. 

Screenprinting

screen printing- it is a process that involves pushing ink through a stencil on a mesh screen to create an image you can repeat and replicate, it is most commonly used for producing designs on clothing, as the process allows you to get a factory finish from home.

copyright in tshirt design- The genral consensus is that your design is in the clear if your design has original graphics and slogans/ fonts. Fair use allows you to use any image you may like to as long as it's educational and/or non-profit.

Printing process

   The first step of the screen printing process is to take your design and print it onto acetate, then take a mesh screen and covering it in light-sensitive emulsion. The acetate stops your design from reacting with the light, leaving a gap in the mesh for the paint to go through and transfer your design onto whatever you want.

To get our paint we mixed acrylic and fabric to ensure it took to our tshirts. We didn't use fabric paint as they are for display purposes so it doesn't really matter. You prepared the screen by pushing a moderate amount of paint up the screen, holding it at a 45 degree angle to not get paint anywhere under the screen. 

Once that's done you lower the screen down onto the paper and use the squeegee to push paint with light pressure up and down the screen to ensure its passed through the mesh well enough. Then lift the screen gently to see the finished result. Luckily my test worked perfect first time, but now came the nerve racking part of printing onto the t-shirt.

You repeat the same process as on the paper, but with a little more passes to make sure it takes to the fabric. I'm very happy with the result of mine, it came out perfect, I didnt mind too much for it being spot on placement wise as I'm planning on modifying it anyway. Ian said to make another layer however for a different colour, so I'll highlight the parts where there's blood to add red onto the print.

My final design:

The reason why I chose this as my final design was because I liked that it embodied the style of a stencil, a method used by diy punks, aesthetically I liked it because of the gore but paired with a sarcastic phrases to make it more lighthearted and humorous. It's shocking enough to catch the attention but funny enough for the message to stick. I think that it was also a good idea to pick this design over my others as when researching vivienne westwood, she used alot of graphics for her shirts that stirred controversy through the shock value, like her destroy shirts that contained the nazi symbol to spread an anti nazism message. In that same way it would make sense to draw a line to my design by picking the most shock value image I created.

My themes and influences:

My theme is class issues and divide in th UK, more specifically in relation to recent issues that have arrised, like the cost of living, MPs tax dodging and strike action. I wanted to get across the idea through sarcasm because with the class war it always feels like the poor suffer whilst the rich laugh. The poor aren't taken seriously by the rich because of false narratives and a basic lack of understanding. My influences include:

* DIY punk- specifically their use of stencils to create designs as a cheap alternative to screen printing.

* Vivienne Westwood's early work- in terms of her use of shock imagery to catch attention.

Test print experimentation

I wanted to make a distressed tank top from my tshirt after printing, as punks tended to wear tanks they'd diyd and would wear them to shows till they would fall apart. This was the look I wanted to eminate within my shirt design, make as Punk as it could possibly be to further saturate the message. I cut the sleeves off and cropped it a bit to size it down. I sewed up the new sides,  leaving plenty of arm space. 

I cut the collar off to lower the neckline but the raw edge was bothering me as it was a little jagged

I took the offcut off the collar and sewed it to the neckline, it looked alot more finished and clean that way and added further distress to the shirt. I used some scissors that had multiple blades to make holes in the shirt to make it look worn. I tested them on this fabric before using them. 

In my final shirt I plan to add safety pins and more holes, I may also add an element of crust punk with embroidery thread like some of the holes were repaired. 

In practicing on my tester I figured when cropping the final shirt I would fold the original edge up, sew along it and cut the excess afterward so the original edge would still be on the shirt making it look slightly less jagged and more clean. I also cut exactly along the seem of the sleeve on my final shirt to give cleaner edges. Taking in the sides was the same as the tester but a tad easier because the shirt was alot smaller. I cut holes like the tester, using safety pins and a technique I saw that I'll put here that gave the holes more interest and distress:

I used embroidery thread on some of the holes and along the collar to make it look like the shirt had been repaired like I mentioned I would earlier on. I also stitched some spare fabric over the primark tag as I doubt the punks would approve of using a fast fashion product to make something in the very genre that stands against it (but what're you gonna do).

The final product in the exhibition:

Overall, I was happy with my end product, I had lots of fun relearning how to screen print, seeing mine and everyone else's designs come to life and getting to customise and alter it to make it extra unique (something I love doing anyway). The printing process would probably be my favourite and most successful part of the project, as it was a change of pace from what we normally do and it’s nice to see your work on unusual mediums sometimes. It was a slightly long and tedious process but very rewarding in the end. I think the only improvement that could’ve been made was lining up the two layers a bit better, as they're slightly off but it was tough to see through the screen well enough to get it perfect, so it doesn't bother me too much. That would be the only thing I think that didn’t necessarily go to plan, next time it might’ve payed to skip printing a layer of white ink through the same screen first as I think that’s what clouded the mesh slightly.  I found coming up with designs challenging as it's hard to come up with an image and slogan the match together to perfectly capture the message you want to convey, however I found that with peer feedback it really helped to give me that spark of inspiration I needed hearing thoughts from an outside source to best link my work to the style I researched as I had many ideas I drew out many ideas but they seemed to only touch the surface of the theme. I think setting myself the task of altering my shirt with sewing and distressing made for a challenging final piece (as I essentially gave myself extra steps), but I wanted a final piece that truly linked to my research and style/era choice. In terms of my style/era choice, I looked at Vivienne Westwood as she was the epitome and face of the 70s punk movement. Along with peer feedback, her work helped me to realise a design that was the perfect balance between shock and humour to best get my message across, as shock was something she did best. When it came to figuring out how I wanted my final piece to look, I put my design on a black and a white shirt to determine which I would like to print on in the end. I decided the white ink on black fabric looked the best as it made my design really pop. I used scrap material and my tester to play around with how I wanted to alter my shirt and distress it. I learnt to get a smaller shirt for my final print firstly, I also learnt I didn’t want to have a lowered neckline like on my tester and I wanted to have a clean edge on the bottom of the shirt, which I learnt from the tester I could fold the bottom up, sew it and cut the excess off. I wanted a design that communicated the class issues in the UK through the style of 70s punk. I believe I can say with confidence that my final piece communicates that perfectly, making commentary specifically on the cost of living, taxes, and minimum wages with the slogan “That’s gonna cost you an arm and a leg”. It’s a phrase used typically by the British to refer to something that’s going to cost a lot more (usually than you can afford) and it’s a phrase that took literally can lead to gross imagery of someone giving their literal arms or legs to pay for something. I thought that this phrase was perfect as the sarcasm captures the essence of the working-class attitude and the literal imagery fits perfectly with the shocking and edgy punk style. I responded to the theme personally as being a Northern working-class citizen myself, it’s sickening to watch people around me like friends and family barely be able to feed themselves and their families and barely stay above the water in terms of other necessities like their home, heating, gas and electric. All whilst the government does barely anything to help, only handing out money that won’t even touch the sides and most the time isn’t even granted to the people it’s made for.