Rather than address this on the front page, I'd like to raise the issue of Wrong Shirt Color here on the forums.
I believe there have been some questionable decisions made as to the choice of shirt color for certain designs. Thankfully it's not a frequent error, but it happens often enough to be a concern. Whilst you cannot please everyone all the time, there are two issues which I believe are generally true.
1. White and Cream T-Shirts are the most unpopular and the most likely to raise negative feedback and deter purchase.
2. Although having a different color for the male and female shirts seems like a nice idea, in practice it can serve to deter potential customers as well as making them angry.
As a Teefury customer I want to know that on the occasions when you have a design from a theme/show/genre that I like, it should also be on a suitable color shirt.
As a Teefury Artist, I want to know my sales won't be taking a sizable hit due to poor choice of shirt color. (Luckily you chose the right one for my future design, yay!)
I invite others who have an opinion on this matter to give their feedback here, rather than on the front page. If you have issue with the color choices being made please speak up and hopefully the matter will be addressed. Equally, if you disagree then let us know.
It would also be useful to know what your 'I would NEVER buy in that color' preferences are.
Incidentally, I would never buy White or Cream shirts.
I believe there have been some questionable decisions made as to the choice of shirt color for certain designs. Thankfully it's not a frequent error, but it happens often enough to be a concern. Whilst you cannot please everyone all the time, there are two issues which I believe are generally true.
1. White and Cream T-Shirts are the most unpopular and the most likely to raise negative feedback and deter purchase.
2. Although having a different color for the male and female shirts seems like a nice idea, in practice it can serve to deter potential customers as well as making them angry.
As a Teefury customer I want to know that on the occasions when you have a design from a theme/show/genre that I like, it should also be on a suitable color shirt.
As a Teefury Artist, I want to know my sales won't be taking a sizable hit due to poor choice of shirt color. (Luckily you chose the right one for my future design, yay!)
I invite others who have an opinion on this matter to give their feedback here, rather than on the front page. If you have issue with the color choices being made please speak up and hopefully the matter will be addressed. Equally, if you disagree then let us know.
It would also be useful to know what your 'I would NEVER buy in that color' preferences are.
Incidentally, I would never buy White or Cream shirts.
"Long Live Charlie Pace" was printed on white but still managed to get pancakes (aka popular item) but if we had it to do over, we would have designed it for a different color shirt to be sure. We clearly lost many sales as evidenced in the comments we received. It wasn't that TeeFury said "lets put this on white and make fewer sales." When I designed it, it was with a white "through color." Live and learn! We have 5 more selected since that time, none designed for a white shirt.
But here is where the business end come in. I don't know this for sure, but having been a business owner (in CD design and printing) there are always supplier issues that stretch beyond your control. TeeFury MUST print and ship on time. We have had a design held back due to a "shortage of black blanks" that has nothing to do with TeeFury, but rather, their suppliers. If they have a queue set up to be printed and know they wont have the "popular" colors available for every design in the queue, they may be forced to use a color that might not be their 1st choice just to keep production on schedule.
As for the different colors for the men and women, it also comes down to what is available to them. Many colors simply aren't available for both genders.
"Never buy" color list are pointless. I've seen members complain about tee's color choice and the design still went super popular. If you make something in black people will say they have too many black tees, if you make it in white they'll complain about stains.
you can't please everyone and it's unreasonable to expect a site the sells to the masses to cater to your specific tastes.
Just accept that designs are presented in the way the artist intended.
Also, some colors of shirts, like cream and light yellow have a tendancy to not appeal to male buyers.
I sell some of my shirts on redbubble ... still I limit the colour choices to whatever makes the design look good., sometimes that's just 2 or 3 choices. why? because I don't want my designs to look bad, duh. meaning:it's usually the artists choice which colour the design goes on ... because they know what they're doing.
anyway ... I haven't seen too many odd colour choices so far, only more people complaining because they saw others complaining. there is no solution to that "problem". the shirts aren't printed for one specific person, but for everyone. so there's bound to be someone who doesn' t like it
It's nice to think that your design will sell on merit and the color choice you made. The reality is somewhat different.
The idea here is to gauge how people feel about shirt color and sure, there will be some differences.
Some people will never buy certain colors no matter how good the design is. And some colors are more prone to this than others. It's true you can't please everyone, but ideally you want to reach the most potential customers.
After all, some niches and fandoms only turn up once in a blue moon. You'd be doing the fans a disservice if you presented the design in an offbeat, unpopular color.
For example, take a peek at this idea Boldly Go (refresh your browser if the image doesn't load on that page). That shirt actually looks good on White but almost everyone chose Grey.
I'd be naive to think people will buy my work on its merit alone if it happens to be on a shirt color they detest. I wish to avoid that mistake as much as possible.
The reality is sales
one of TF top selling design ever was on a red tee
the yellow Bluth family crest tee sold like hot cakes and I've seen several cream and white tees go onto super pancake status
of course it's a good idea to be wary of your color choices but in the end the people complaining are often in the vocal minority.
20-complaints vs 800 in sales
The whole stain/dirt argument brought up against lighter tees doesn't really resonate with me all that much. Darker colored tees are just as likely to get messed up, and frankly I think that's even worse because you could be walking around with stained clothing and not even realize it! Ignorance is bliss for some people, but not for me.
If I get a pizza stain or something on a lighter colored tee, I just use Shout or something on the stain and it'll look good as new once it's washed. No big deal, nothing lost. And regardless of whatever color it may happen to be, if a tee really gets mucked up beyond repair, I can just use it as nice tee to work out or skate around in. =)
This assumes that the people that didn't like the color bothered to post. That they didn't just look at the color, sigh and move on.
For the front page at least, I normally observe the motto: If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it.
Based on the facts, not conjecture, White and Cream draw the most complaints in the comments. They are the colors that you'd have to check, double check and then check again to justify using for the shirt.
"Vocal minority" is another way of saying, I'm ignoring potential customers out of artistic hubris. That's about the politest way I can manage to say something not nice without not saying it. I respect your opinion and your work, but on this I disagree. :)
"This assumes that the people that didn't like the color bothered to post"
^^no I'm going with what is and not what might be. X number of people commented negatively on the color verses the XXXXX people that bought the tee...surveys says they're in the minority. FACT!
People complained about the increased frequency of LOST shirts last year (and Dr. Who this year) but they all sold incredibly well so they continued to be printed. The sales number far outweighed the minor complaints. Heck this is how politics works!
believe you me my intent is not to ignore anyone but it's inescapable.Trying to please every member in the comments section with an opinion is an exercise in frustration and futility.
when I create a piece I go with my best instincts in regard to text, color, positioning..etc. If I see fit that a design be featured on a white tee then so be it. If I'm unsure then by all means I'll look for opinions among the community.(WIP threads)
sounds like you want to restrict artists to the colors you personally prefer but no one person stands at the center of the TeeFury universe. I've been disappointing with tee colors myself but I choose accept the artist's choice and move on.
I can't always have things my way. :/
Cream works great for certain designs, especially ones with earth tones, like you said. Some of my favorite examples of this from the site are:
Theatre of the Rebellion
Stare-Down Contest
And Oz Wars
These are three shirts I would have purchased, regardless of the color, because the color works for them. I couldn't imagine having them in any other shade. I could talk about today's shirt more, but I won't. I'll keep my mouth shut. :)
And for the other people (not beware 1984) getting defensive about this, Chuffy was simply prompting a discussion on the topic of shirt colors, not condemning any of them. There's a some who complain that the forum is only WIP threads lately. Welp. This one's not.
Though, I have posted before that I think neon/ bright colored tees are a turn off. I prefer the faded colors or darker tinted colors. I LOVE cream shirts. But, as I said before, if a great design works on a bright colored shirt, I'll go for it.
And as for the different colors for different genders... Yeah, that's kind of silly. I understand the whole steal blue for men and the powder blue for girls if the color doesn't come in the girls, but the other shirt the other day, the one that came in blue for girls and green for guys? It was kind of unnecessary. It's like forcing the gender to stick to that color? I dunno... I think it brings unnecessary complaints.
This is a shirt color availability thing. Not every color is available for both genders. Steel Blue and Green are both examples of colors that, for whatever reason, the blank t-shirt company only makes in men's sizes.
We do our best to make the best choices we can with the options we have available, to make as many people as possible happy :)
what i have learned from this so far is:
A) Experience tells me white shirts will sell very well as long as the design merits it.
B) Every color will generate people who will not buy the design... it's basically a wash.
C) who smurfing cares! make cool designs that will get selected for print!