As product consultants, our job at Sonic Promos is to advise and guide our clients' choices in branded materials. Much of the time, this entails recommending apparel styles, brands, colors and decoration techniques.

Our choice in product must be synonymous with the campaign's message and budget, but it's equally important that the product appeals to its target audience. If the item's recipient doesn't like the look, feel, or quality of the product, the branding impression loses value.

Pleasing everyone is especially tricky when it comes to apparel. People tend to like clothing for various reasons: the cut fits them well, the color flatters their complexion, the material feels nice against their skin, or the imprinted design appeals to them visually. Unfortunately, these preferences aren't always homogeneous across a target marketing group. Your intended audience probably contains a mix of ages, a mix of body types, and a mix of blondes/brunettes/redheads.

Despite these surface differences, there are generally features in clothing that most people can agree on.

Just for fun, I asked a few Sonic employees to send me pictures of their favorite T-shirts. Though we are a varied bunch in terms of appearance and style, you'll notice several similarities in our choice of tees.

Jamie



These are my favorite shirts for two reasons: 1) the soft fabric and 2) the vintage-style decoration. The blue Red Sox shirt uses a washed, soft-hand ink for its screen print, and the grey Red Sox shirt is decorated with a distressed appliqué. The Celtics shirt is also really soft, but I like the color more than anything. Green looks good on redheads. It brings out the "Irish" in me.

Seth


The Quactus shirt is for my brother Gabe's band. I think the logo is fun, and the colors look nice together. It also makes me think of my kids when I wear it. There's an adorable photo of them wearing the same shirt, taken about four years ago.

The Judge shirt is another favorite of mine because it's red, and I can wear it at Caps games. I get a lot of comments when I wear it... mostly people yelling "JUDGE!". I like to respond with, "I'll be the judge of that" or "This is my Judge Reinhold fan shirt" or "You can't judge a shirt by its color, or can you?"

Lindsay

I bought this shirt a few weeks ago, and if it's not on my body, it's in the wash. Of course I love the cute imprint, but it's the comfortable material that really won me over. This is the American Apparel Track T-shirt, and I've used this model several times for work projects. For some reason, I've never owned one of my own... until now. I also adore the faded blue grey color. In the same vain vein (heh) of Jamie's reasoning above, blue looks good with blonde hair. 

Eve


This shirt is one of my favorites because it's the first T-shirt I bought when I visited Austin before moving there. Being a New York girl, I thought it represented the city's vibe well. Now I know that the "Keep Austin Weird" shirts are much more appropriate!

Jen


I got this shirt at one of the last concerts I attended in El Paso before moving to the DC area, so I associate it with good memories. I also really like the material; it's very comfortable to wear.

Michael


This sweatshirt is one of my favorite pieces to wear. It was a gift from my lovely girlfriend, and it was made by a small apparel company in Cleveland, Ohio. It's very soft, and the neutral grey color goes well with brown, orange, blue and red (Browns and Indians).

I realize this little office poll isn't exactly statistically significant, but it does show you that people look for similar features in a T-shirt. Comfort seems to be a consistent theme in our responses, for example. Though standard heavyweight cotton tees are an economical choice, it might be worth it to invest in a better quality, brushed cotton or fine jersey tee for your next apparel campaign.

It is also important to note that we all personally identify with the branding/imprint. The boys are all proud to support their favorite sports teams, and Jen, Eve, Michael, and I all have fond memories of travels and time spent in our hometowns.

So, while selecting the style(s) and color(s) for your apparel campaign are important decisions, remember that your branding is often the trump card. Ultimately, the whole point is to promote your organization/band/team/company and to connect with your supporters. Work the power of brand equity. Your fans already like you... just give them something fun and comfortable to wear, and they will.

Where will you be on April 22nd? Helping your neighbors? Beautifying the community? Making a difference?

More than 10,000 Jewish teens around the world will be!

J-Serve, the International Day of Jewish Youth Service is scheduled for April 22nd this year.* Taken from the J-Serve website- "J-Serve provides teens with the opportunity to fulfill the Jewish values of gemilut chasidim, acts of loving kindness, tzedakah, just and charitable giving, and tikkum olam, the responsibility to repair the world. Across the globe, teens will join each other to make their community and the world a better place."

For several years now, Sonic Promos has been proud to be involved with this great event. Starting in 2008, Sonic took on the job of designing an event T-shirt and organizing a national order to unite community projects around the country. 

Each year, all shirts share the same front design...

... and information about national sponsors on the back.

Communities have the option to customize the shirt's upper and lower back with their city name(s) and local sponsors.











There are several advantages to group purchase programs-

1. High total quantity and a great price for all: As is true with all promotional products, the higher the quantity of items, the lower the piece price. Some parties might need a large order of 400 pieces while others require just 50. By grouping everyone together, they all benefit from a lower price. 

2. Branding consistency: Printing all materials in one location ensures that there will be no inconsistencies in artwork. Avoid color variations, size discrepancies, proportion distortions and other errors by centralizing production.

3. Centralized invoicing and customer service: This feature of group purchasing is especially advantageous when a central finance department foots the bill for purchases made by multiple branch offices. Would you rather receive invoices from 12 different suppliers in 12 different cities or a single invoice from a single vendor? Easy decision.

If your organization could benefit from group purchasing, contact us at info@sonicpromos.com to organize a program.

*Several communities conduct their community service activities on alternate dates.

I know I'm not the only one with spring fever.

Mild weather, blossoming trees, outdoor festivals, Cadbury Creme Eggs and softball/Frisbee/kickball leagues are just a few of the things I look forward to this time of year.

Spring sport leagues are extremely popular in the DC metropolitan area. Weekday evenings and weekend afternoons, you'll find the National Mall absolutely mobbed with coworkers and friends slinging bats and hucking Frisbees.

The competition is fierce, but there are two things that matter even more than your skills on the field. 

1. Your skills at happy hour.

2. Your T-shirt design.

Washington DC is known for its bright, young professionals. We're witty, we're punny, and we take our trivia nights VERY seriously. For this reason, sport leagues put a lot of time and thought into their team name and logo.

The pressure to be creative is on.

If your personal team doesn't have a graphic designer on its roster, our design team at Sonic Promos would love to help you create a great shirt.

Many thanks to our clients for allowing us to share their fun designs.

Pink tee by Melissa Amano at melissa.amano@gmail.com.

On Tuesday, Piper Weiss of Yahoo's Shine Staff wrote a blog post drawing attention to the unfortunate grammatical error printed on hundreds of thousands of Old Navy T-shirts.


Source: oldnavy.gap.com

Ouch.

As Weiss points out, the missing apostrophe is particularly damaging given the number and nature of the parties involved. Sure, the mistake reflects poorly on Old Navy, but what about the universities? An institute of higher learning whose students struggle with simple contractions? I'm sure they really appreciate the irony.

If there weren't egos and hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake, I'm sure the little error would be hilarious. Kind of like Cake Wrecks.
East Coast readers, I highly recommend skimming Wednesday's post for a good laugh!

The mistake is being investigated, but the reality is that no single person deserves the blame.

The lesson we can all learn from this- check and recheck your proofs. If an apostrophe can escape dozens of sets of eyes on a large-scale retail project, imagine the potential for error on smaller jobs.

Old Navy, if it's any consolation, at least your you're not the only one.


Source: wetseal.com

We're seeing a trend lately- our clients are all about vintage-style T-shirts. If you've ever committed to a DIY project to distress your kitchen cabinet doors or scuff up a pair of jeans, you'll appreciate the amount of effort that goes into making a new item look old. Read through our tips and suggestions below for a behind-the-scenes look at the process.

Interested in creating a custom vintage tee for your organization's next event? Contact us and we'll help you pull it all together.

1. Start with a good base. What would you say is the best part about a vintage T-shirt? In my opinion, it's the soft material. A true vintage tee achieves that feel with years of wear, but thankfully manufacturers have figured out how to get the same texture in a brand new shirt. I recommend American Apparel, Next Level and Eva tees for a soft, lightweight and lived-in feel.

Be selective too with your color selection. Avoid vibrant colors, as they scream "brand new". Neutral tones, heathers and color-washed hues will lend authenticity to your vintage tee.

2. Distress the art. Part of the vintage look is printing-related (we'll get to that next), and part has to do with the art itself. Just as you did with the T-shirt, choose subdued PMS colors for the art design. Next, get creative with the tools in your graphic design program. If using Adobe Illustrator, we recommend exploring your brush library and artistic texture options. Throw a splatter of ink on top of your design and lift it off. This will help you achieve a distressed design.

Don't forget other elements of retro appeal. If appropriate, consider using an outdated version of your organization's logo or a tagline from years past. Incorporate a date or year to recognize your company's history.

3. Break the rules of screen-printing. Typically, a good screen print is vibrant, sharp and delineated. The ink is evenly laid, usually on top of a white flash under base to prevent the color of the material from distorting the colors of the imprint. With vintage styling, you want the exact opposite effect- essentially you're looking for a "bad" screen print.

Screen printers use a variety of techniques to achieve an aged and worn look. For starters, they omit the flash under base to reduce the ink's vibrancy. Next, measures are taken to lessen the amount of ink that gets transferred to the shirt's surface. This can either be achieved by pushing the ink through a fine mesh screen, or by thinning the ink's consistency with a soft-based additive. Both techniques result in a smoother hand feel. Finally, if you're looking for a tone-on-tone design, printing with clear ink is an easy solution.

Since the creation of a vintage tee involves straying from standard procedure, you should expect some variation and inconsistencies in the end product. Just as it is with antique home décor, the beauty of a vintage t-shirt is that it's one of a kind.