[Photo Sparks] Branding and marketing: T-shirts for startups!

In the earlier 19 posts, we brought you creative photographs from an art fair, music festival, telecom expo, art museum, mobile showcase, math museum, social hackathon, bookstore, co-working space, sensorium, lantern festival, outdoor ads and computer museum. In this photo essay, we showcase T-shirts of startups. Make YourStory’s PhotoSparks your regular source of photographs that celebrate creativity and innovation!

Traditional and outdoor media are some channels for getting word out there about your startup – T-shirts are another effective and affordable way of ‘personal’ marketing, and also help rally your team around a fun uniform. Many companies feature a number of elements in their T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, caps, jackets, bags and stationery – company name, URL, Twitter handle, logo, motto, trick question, cartoon and even a sense of humour. It gets visibility for your company and helps start conversations. You can also distribute or sell the T-shirt to others and amplify the message. Service-businesses even use T-shirts as uniforms to convey a sense of professionalism.

Different messages on the front, back and sleeves of the T-shirt can reflect a dialogue, or multiple aspects of your brand. As this week’s photo gallery shows, T-shirts are being effectively used by startups, startup networks (Mobile Monday), startup conferences (TechSparks),co-working spaces (BeagleLoft) and the Startup Weekend movement. Emerging music bands also use T-shirts for getting the word out, such as Divine Raaga (from India) and Yakina (from Malaysia). T-shirts have been used to make cultural and political statements, and even play around with the names of popular products – such as the i-Pho T-shirt from Vietnam (pho is the popular Vietnamese noodle soup!).

So what does your T-shirt look like?  :-)

For more ideas on T-shirt marketing, check out the online posts by Cameron Herold, Mike Riches and Sujan Patel. In the coming editions of PhotoSparks, we will be showcasing cool business cards of startups! Got examples and pics to share? Email us at [email protected]!