The joke has to land in one glance
A stranger reads a t-shirt for about a second. Anything that needs a second line, a footnote, or a smaller font to explain itself is gone before it lands. The shirts that work have a short line, set large, with the punch at the end.
This is also why designs with a lot of small text fail on a dark shirt: at any distance the letters close up into a block, and the joke becomes a rumour.
An in-joke beats a general gag
The strongest seller in any novelty catalogue is a design that says something about the wearer's life, not about the world. Coffee, dogs, cats, fishing, beer, the job they do: a shirt that names the thing they are already teased about reads as a gift rather than a novelty.
That is why the shelves here are organised by obsession rather than by joke style. A cat person will find a cat shirt funny in a way they will not find a generic pun funny.
Contrast and colour do the heavy lifting
A joke printed in low contrast is a joke nobody reads. Dark inks on black disappear; light inks on white wash out. The designs here are printed on black or navy precisely because that is where reds, creams and golds hold up at a distance.
Bold shape, few colours, large type. That is the whole rule, and it is why hand-drawn and block-print styles photograph better than photographic artwork on a shirt.
Will they actually wear it?
Ask whether the person would wear a plain t-shirt with that sentence on it. If the answer is no, the design is too loud, whatever the joke. The safe gift is the one that names their thing without shouting about it.
Soft cotton, unisex cut, S to 5XL, printed when ordered. If it is a gift and you are unsure of size, go up rather than down.
Questions
- Are these shirts unisex?
- Yes. One unisex cut from S to 5XL, measured flat. The size guide lists chest and length in centimetres and inches for every size.
- Which colours are the designs printed on?
- Black or navy. Both keep reds, creams and golds readable at a distance, which is what a joke shirt needs to work.
- Can I order one as a gift in time for Christmas?
- Order by Thursday 3 December. Production takes one to two working days, then transit, so the earlier in December the better.
- Do you print on anything other than t-shirts?
- The catalogue is t-shirts. Some designs also run on other product types where the print area allows, and the product page states what a given design is available on.
Where to look next
Every shelf these guides mention is linked in the panel beside this page, and the full catalogue is on all collections.