apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I think you do need "Apartment Therapy" & logo on the front. We all get it, but new or "non" readers won't, and you want to reel them in, no? I don't think most people would take the time to look at the opporist side of the t-shirt, and woudl write off the visual as interesting without making/learning the connection to AT.

ugh -- that's "opposite" not opporist

Why isn't there a door between NYC/SF/Kitchen and, well, everything else?

Aside from the fact that the unbroken middle line is part of the "pill" design, could it be a metaphor for ... oh, i dunno, that to NYC/SF'ers
1) Chicago is just a "flyover" city,
2) LA is so... LA, and
3) nursuries and media rooms, like, don't fit in our little SF/NYC pads?

Or, you could, you know, just add a door.

Apartment Therapy...you need to decide what you want to accomplish with your tshirt. Do you want to make money selling this design to existing readers, or use the tshirt as a marketing tool to attract new ones? I dont think you can do both with this pill design.

Casual observers on the street will never see your name with this design or comprehend what it's about at a glance. Regular AT readers who already know and understand the site will get the concept and perhaps like the design.

But a stranger would have to spend way too long studying another stranger's chest to ever take away a message from this shirt.

lalala
err, like, I don't, like, think the floor plan is supposed to like, literal, man. I think, like y'know, you might be reading too much into it!

Mazzah and Peetah
Darlings, indeed one has to agree with you entirely that the name and logo should indeed appear on the reverse of the shirt! After all, one would think perhaps a larger logo on the reverse would draw more attention to the company than just the smaller one on the front and perhaps would create more intrigue as to the graphic on the front!...darlings

SJV is right: the graphic is trying to do too much, and that means that the t-shirt is not doing enough as an attention-getter OR as a fun design. That AT has branches for various cities is obvious to anyone who gets to the site. Don't you just want to get people to the site? The basic point of the t could be: It's about apartments, in some way that you won't understand until you check it out.

Plus, the AT logo is so neat that it needs more prominence. But please, not on the back. That's so "Jefferson High School, Class of 2000."

i get the pill, like therapy from your doctor, but this is apartment therapy so the pill has a floor plan like an apartment. This is too much, for someone to take in on one tee shirt.
what if the pill looked more like a pill and new york, san francisco, los angeles, etc were listed on the back and the pill with apartment therapy.com was on the front?
the way it looks now means nothing to those who don't know apartment therapy, as someone mentioned in an open thread yesterday, you'd have to know the secret handshake to get it.

I agree with SJV.

I also think that the shirt needs to look hip so that people actually want to put it on when they reach into their closets. I don't think most people want to wear magazine ads on thier chests. People want (I mean I want) an attractive design. If it happens to say AT and show the AT web address then that is fine too.

I'm still not sure why its a pill.

I think "apartment therapy" needs to be near the pill for it to make sense to those not already in the know.

Also, perhaps I am being ridiculous, but it bothers me that the LA room looks so cramped compared to the others, like the huge SF! :)

For some reason it bugs me that the placement of the city names doesn't match their geographic location. Why is San Francisco on the right of NY? LA above Chicago? Stop the madness.

I think that the pill should be on the back and Apartment Therapy on the front. Has to do with passerbys staring at my chest for long periods of time. Most women won't take the time to stare at the chest of another woman to try to make out the text. Some men will, but that makes me uncomfortable all the same. I think the graphic on the back would be better, people also don't feel as uncomfortable reading your tee if they know you can't see them reading it. IMHO, anyway.

I think that the design and the name should both be on the front.

Love it! Keep everything on the front.

quite honestly i'd wear this shirt over any of the existing AT shirts currently on offer. name on either side works: on the back--the graphic is interesting enough to stand on its own; and on the front--it does keep the AT name attached to the concept of the graphic.

based on commentary, it's probably too conceptual for the folks who want to see a more literal translation (like doors??? correct location of cities???).

I think the AT should be in orange. Front or back. I know that ups the cost, but that would make is stand out.

I like the concept of pill=therapy, but at the same time, is there a way to make a stronger connection to the aesthectics of AT? AT is so much more than using a pill to "theraperize," as my DH describes what I'm doing to our apartment.

I like the design, but at the same time, do feel like this isn't as much about our connection to AT as it is about advertising AT. Not sure how to change that, hate to be negative and not offer a suggestion, and I'd probably buy it anyway...but just not feeling as psyched about it as the previous version.

Oh, and yes, decor8 Holly, totally agree with you on putting the pill on the back...I don't like people staring at my chest.

Yeah, I noticed that NY and SF were in the kitchen, where everyone tends to cluster at parties and the others seemed banished to the other side of the pill. That was the first impression I got of the shirt. I like the pill/cure idea, but like people have been saying, you have already know about the 8-week cure for it to make sense to you.

What I still don't get is why ApartmentTherapy is being symbolized by a pill. If we're going to run with the therapy metaphor, AT is clearly "talk therapy" paired with cognitive and behavioral change -- not drug treatment. The new pill strikes me as clever, but strongly contradictory to your central message.

wende I thought the same thing when I saw it. I've wondered since the beginning why no one attempted a rorschach test design to play on the therapy. :^)

Yeah, therapy isn't about prescription medication. The pill's not a great icon to use.

I believe in another thread someone submitted a design incorporating la Corbusier's classic recliner. That's more of an icon to therapy (and design) than a pill. It has the duality you are looking for in a concept.

However I would'nt use a photograph of the chair, I'd get an illustrator to do a hip, simplified line drawing of it.

BTW, when I first heard of apartmenttherapy.com, the name alone was enough to spark curiousity to make me check out the site. So don't discount the utter simplicity of just typesetting the web site name in a classic sans serif font like Avante Garde.

Maybe you should shy away from the black t-shirt too. They fade too quickly. Go for some colour.

And if you think that type on a shirt is just too plain or too minimalist, what about a contemporary wallpaper pattern on a shirt? What about a Zebrawood pattern shirt?

Too many ideas!

pedro, great ideas i agree color instead of black for a tee shirt.
i just thought reading the posts questioning the pill illustration, since therapy is in the mind or head, how about a simple line drawing of a head in profile? it could be empty or have all the information insde it.

Gotta love design by committee! This is exactly the reason I left the corporate world and only work for myself. Too many chefs in on this one. Everyone thinks they are a designer these days...which explains why there is so much crap out there. Ideas get lost and watered down when everyone gets to put in their 2 cents.

Many of the people who "think they're designers" either *are* designers or have worked in other marketing roles.

One critical difference between art and marketing is that art can be ambiguous and obscure, but marketing has to get out there to sell specific things. This logo is clever and creative, but does it convey to non-regulars the message that there's a site called AT that deals with making a more supportive home?

Here's why I think it doesn't:

1. Only regular readers will "get" why the rooms are labeled what they're labeled. To a non-regular, the labels mean nothing, and they imply that only NY, SF, Chicago, and LA are covered. So it's an in-joke, rather than effective marketing.

2. Getting that far requires scrutinizing strangers' nipples. The design would work on a poster, but it's too small and detailed for a t-shirt.

3. The design has to be redone every time a new site is added... or it's a 2007-only design, which means it doesn't build brand equity.

4. Branding with a pill is off-message for the cognitive/behavioral therapy focus of the site.

A design can be cool and creative and provocative and visually appealing without being an effective marketing tool. Marketing on a t-shirt calls for one striking (and comprehensible from a distance) image that people can easily remember without a lot of cogitation -- and that is integrally associated with the purpose of the site.

i dont think apt therapy whould be written like a signature below the graphic. perhaps on the back of the shirt on the top right shoulder blade. that would be cool and trendy like AT.

i wish the labels on the room had something to do with georgraphic location.

I don't particularly like the plan, but that's an architect speaking, not a graphic designer. Once you draw a plan you invite criticism of it.

"based on commentary, it's probably too conceptual for the folks who want to see a more literal translation (like doors??? correct location of cities???)."

oh puhlese. "It's probably too conceptual" Speaking of pills....

I don't like the linking of medication to therapy.

To me, the pill is to therapy as an interior decorator is to DIY home decoration, more a helper of some sort. I feel that AT readers do most of their own decorating, from concept to purchase.

Uh, What happened to the glowing squiggly?

My favorite.

Yes this is cool for a magazine ad where people have the time to sit and study it, but the coolness of this design is going to get lost as you watch it walk by on someone passing and think it's the lower deck of a boat.

As a designer, I know everyone is a critic, but I agree that AT should grasp the opportunity to market themselves as well as make an attractive shirt to wear.

If you think the pill is a good concept, just do it. But as a graphic designer, I think there are too many lines to understand it is actually a pill. I rather want to see a nice studio or one bedroom on the design. This design can be simplified more. Also I don't understand why black t-shirts. I don't see any black image on your site. Needs color. May be you can put the logo inside of the pill with different color, like your blue.

you guys are way too picky. especially about the size of the rooms and their "suggesting" that one city is necessarily better than the other. and for those of you complaining that apartmenttherapy should be onthe front - IT IS. the only thing i could think that would advertise more is to also put the logo on the back in a similar yet different and still eyecatching way.