Design a NEW Festival Apparel Line

A recent design project for The Armchair Adventure Festival Ltd, started off as a small apparel design gig but quickly turned into a fascinating and challenging job.

Merchandise is becoming big business, whether you're an influencer, a recognised brand or an event or festival who's looking to extend your brand reach.

Meet Matt and Reece, the energy and the brains behind one of the UK's fastest growing Adventure Festivals, dubbed 'The Armchair Adventure Festival'.

OK, so why is merch so important? Well, other than simply being an additional income stream, branded merch especially apparel, is a great way for fans, followers and enthusiast to express who they are, what they're into and show you some love. Of course there's the other thing...friends, family and fans become walking billboards for your growing brand.

I've designed branded merch for brands around the world and there are a few key consideration to making sure the merch sells.

1. Don't put dates into the design. It's dates the product.

2. Choose garments that people will actually want to wear.

3. Don't go cheap on the apparel. A hoody or T that sits in the drawer after they've bought it doesn't do your brand any good.

4. Design slogan and graphics that appeal to a broad spectrum and express an easily relatable message.

   
   

Those are just a few of the considerations I use. My initial concepts were focused around a message that promoted unplugging from the digital world and getting getting out into the real world. "Unplug and Explore" was the slogan. You can see a few of the designs I came up with below.

I liked the designs and concepts, even Matt and Reece liked them, but...but they weren't right! Sure, they expressed the right sentiment but neither the wording or the imagery really expressed who Matt and Reece are, and more crucially it didn't share the quirky wonderful and individualistic flavour of the Armchair Adventure Festival.

After a chat with Matt and Reece we agreed that the artwork should feel more hand drawn, a little less slick, it should be simplified and we needed to include a few element of the brand itself. So, I sat down and drew an armchair and then digitised that for the new branding. Along with the new slogan "Leave The Armchair and Start The Adventure" we had a winning recipe.

Next we needed to select what apparel this new brand was actually going to go on. I've printed thousands of t-shirts over the years, and I have a pretty good idea of the kind of T-shirts that sells. So we chose a quality brand with great fabric and we chose just two colours. If you provide to much choice people 'don't chose' and you lose the sale. We then did the same for the hoody's.

What I wanted to do for Matt and Reece with hit a home run. Which is my way of saying I wanted them to sell every bit of merch they'd ordered. To help make that happen I made sure the the four colours of the four separate pieces of apparel, were complementary to each other. Meaning that any of the t-shirts would great with either of the coloured hoodies. Not only does this look better when the the garments are laid out for sale, but it also makes it easier for the client to buy two items (a T-shirt and hoody) because they can see immediately they they look great together.

It's sound obvious I know, but so often this simple stuff is overlooked.

In case you're wondering, Matt and Reece sold out on the afternoon of the second day! This was the first time in the Festivals history this had happened.

Here's a few images of the newly branded apparel along with a stickers that was also launched at this years festival. happy scrolling.

As always, thanks for stoping buy to check out my work.

If you'd like more information or would like to work with me, please don't hesitate to drop me an email, I'd love to chat and learn more. Reach me at simonthomas@2ridetheworld.com