An Old Tshirt Blog

This Basics T-shirt practices what it preaches: brilliant simplicity. This is my favorite Veer T-shirt yet. And that’s saying a lot. Available for $22.

This Word T-shirt was designed at Veer using Adios Script, a typeface by Alejandro Paul. It’s similar in style to the Sans Serif T-shirt which is also put out by Veer, using Compendium…another of Alejandro Paul’s typographic wonders. The man knows how to do “swashy.” As pointed out on the product page, “Word” (as a colloquialism) is more street than “I concur,” and more concise than “I agree.” I use it often. The fact that it’s presented so ornately is rather humorous in the same way that this comic strip — which you can also get on a T-shirt — is humorous. Word.

Normally, I don’t like posting tees from the same place back-to-back. But as I said yesterday, Veer just came out with some new joints which I’m excited about. So rather than wait a few days to post this, I decided to share it with you now. The Comic Sans Love T-shirt works for me on a few different levels. Firstly, the giant heart printed on this tee is actually comprised of type. How could I not love that? Secondly, the type consists solely of Comic Sans – a font notorious among designers. That’s just plain badass. And lastly, (this ties in with my second point,) I appreciate the sentiment behind this T-shirt. Most people in the industry seem to hate Comic Sans, and its use usually illicits knee-jerk reactions within the design community. New designers (and non-designers) tend to overuse the font… which is likely where the widespread disdain stems from. That having been said, if the font wasn’t effective – and by definition, successful – then it wouldn’t still be around. But I digress. This tee is a tribute to the decidedly unpopular* font. I’ve always been a fan of the underdog (unless the underdog is a jerk, of course,) so even though I was never particularly fond of Comic Sans, I believe the typeface could use some love. You can get a closer look at the print, the font and the T-shirt by clicking here. And in case you missed it earlier in the post: this tee is put out by the design afficionados over at Veer.

*among designers.

Veer just came out with some new joints which I’m excited about. Their merch caters to designers and other creatives, so the non-design inclined out there may not have any idea what the tee in today’s post is referencing. Allow me to briefly explain. “FPO” stands for “for position only,” although there seems to be some disagreement among designers…as it’s also been said to stand for “for placement only.” That’s just two ways of saying the same thing, really. In any case, this tee will likely appeal to print designers more so than web designers, since print designers use FPO images out of necessity. The deliberate color choice mimics the box tool output in many designers’ favorite layout program. I like to think of this tee as a tribute – not just to the humble layout placeholder as stated on the product page – but to print designers everywhere. Check out this and other design-related tees on Veer.com.

Designer tees (by which I mean, T-shirts made specifically for designers… not just by designers…) hold a special place in my heart. This is one of those T-shirts. I believe it has greater appeal, though, and that you needn’t be a designer to appreciate it. You just have to know the difference between a serif font and a sans serif font. Designed with Alejandro Paul’s Compendium font, this tee is available on Veer’s website.