Ann Arbor T-shirt Company Blog

Get your St. Paddy's Day Shirt!

Jerry Kozak — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:53:02 +0000

It's that magical time of the year, friends! The ice has begun to recede back to the (frozen?) hell from whence it came, Michiganders can be spotted wearing shorts and t-shirts in the 40 degree sunshine, and somewhere in the distance, we hear the approach of tin whistles, fiddles, and people drunk at noon.

The greatest duo in the calendar year, Spring has arrived carrying St. Patrick's Day in drunken tote.

With that in mind, you are going to need a t-shirt to wear for the occasion - definitely green, preferably Irish-themed.

Might we suggest a few of our own?

Don't like them? Let us make them custom for you - we don't have minimum orders, and can turn them around in a couple of days - you still have plenty of time!

Exodus Film's "Jinn" and The Firebreather

Ricky Winowiecki — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:29:14 +0000

Michigan's Own Exodus Film's is producing the upcoming movie, "Jinn". Featured in the movie is a modified 2010 Chevy Camaro called "The Firebreather". The Firebreather was on display at Autorama last weekend, where it caused quite a splash.

The Ann Arbor T-shirt Company was fortunate enough to be part of the experience, making shirts for the team that worked Autorama with the Firebreather.

Find out more about the movie at their imdb page. Look for Jinn to be in theaters late 2010

Meet a Client: Gillian and the 80s Birthday Barcrawl!

Jerry Kozak — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:11:07 +0000

One of the most common questions we get from prospective client is "do you guys do art?" This question is usually asked in hope and fear - hope that we'll say "yes we do!" and fear that we are going to charge an arm and a leg for it and end up delivering some crummy clip art we hobbled together. Well fear not! Not only are we happy to produce art for you, we rarely charge for it (and will always get your permission before doing so) and are just as concerned about how it looks as you are. We are proud of our work, and we don't like attaching our names to bad looking clothes!

Here is a quick example of a client who had an idea but needed help making it a reality:

In January of 2010, Gillian approached us about producing 30 shirts for her and her pal Erin's Birthday Bar Crawl.

The theme was "26 Candles," and being an 80's party, the shirts naturally had to have some neon flair. Gill had a general idea of what she wanted, but asked if we could help translate it into a radical print.

We took an afternoon to do some research, and after browsing a couple dozen 80s movie covers, magazine ads, and other pop culture relics, had the following recommendations:

The inverted face relief in neon pink on a black background - this seemed to be a required look for 80s pop tour posters
We found the font used for the move "16 Candles," which seemed to be an obvious choice

We ran the recommendations by Gill, got her approval, and had her and Erin send a picture to convert to art:

Once the art was approved, we agreed on a price, and had the shirts printed and in her hands within the week!

Gill said of her experience:

"I was very impressed with the Ann Arbor T-Shirt Company's service. I needed 30 t-shirts for a bar crawl and they were able to take my ideas and run with them. They were able to screen our photos onto the shirt and create a unique design. I needed to get the shirts in only a couple of days, and they rushed to get it all done. The price was unbeatable. I will recommend them to friends and family!‎"

Thank you, Gill! It was a pleasure working with you, and thanks for the pictures - it looks like you guys had a lot of fun. We sincerely appreciate your kind feedback and permission to pass it along!

Kelley Cohort Shirts @ Indiana University

Jerry Kozak — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:29:48 +0000

We were contacted by our friend at the Kelley School of Business at IU recently to produce a shirt for their section of the school's 1st year class.

They had two issues:

1. They knew they wanted their shirt to mirror the Manchester United jersey, but didn't have the art.

2. No one wanted to be responsible for collecting the money for the whole group / get stuck fronting it.

After a few emails, the art was squared away, and we worked out a deal wherein we would post the design on a private area of our website, allowing each student to visit the site and purchase via credit card. We then collected all of the orders, ran the order, and shipped it out to Bloomington - all for $16.00 each on American Apparel w/ four screens (the stripes on the backs of each shirt had to be added separate, increasing the cost).

The Kelley Krew was very happy with their order, and sent us this picture!

Madison is a Teenage Stripper

Jerry Kozak — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:05:15 +0000

One of the joys of doing no-minimum printing is that you get really unique ideas coming in through the door. That's because jobs that consist of five to ten shirts don't typically go through committee to approve them, it's usually just one person with $50 and a sense of humor.

Case in point:

Mike called us on Wednesday with a dilemma. He was making his bi-annual road trip to Madison, Wisconsin to see the Wolverines play the Badgers, and knew that his Badger friends would be waiting for him in their "Ann Arbor is a Whore" t-shirts*. Having put up with this for years, Mike wanted to get back at them, and came up with this -------->

We fell in love with the design, and offered to improve it a bit for him. Mike agreed, and after an afternoon of design, we sent him out the door with five shirts at $15.00 each. He wrote later to say that the shirts were a hit. Thank you, Mike, for defending our fair city's honor by dragging another's through the mud :)

*Ann Arbor sounds like a girl's name, and every other school in the Big Ten are a bunch of pigs.

Meet a Client: Nicole and the Power Ranger Parade

Ricky Winowiecki — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:42:12 +0000

Nicole approached us last Halloween with an interesting proposition: she and her friends wanted to go out as the Power Rangers, but couldn't get any costumes that weren't intended for seven year olds a decade ago.

The costume was going to be extremely expensive to screen print: each shirt was a different color print, there was a full color belt and phaser gun, and they were only purchasing five of them! If we were simply traditional screen printers, this would have run something like $60 per shirt.

Luckily, we also do digital printing! Digital printing allows for quick and easy set-up on small, highly customizable orders like this one, and there are no per color prices to boot. We were able to take the design, modify it for each color, and give them five truly unique shirts, all for $20 each.

All they had to do to complete the look was add some American Apparel sparkle tights and high heels, because that's what Power Rangers wore (you just aren't remembering it correctly).

Thanks again, Nicole (and friends)! We are glad you had fun, and thanks for the picture!