This T-shirt brand makes millions being crass and funny
Taylor Swift, Memes merch, Floral art, and money opportunities for artists
First, I’m not a Swiftie, but I’m playing one for the sake of this update. Second, I’m not an attorney, and none of what I say going forward should be considered legal advice. Now let’s get that MONEY!
Not All Memes are Created Equal
It's fantastic and mystifying how something as simple as sharing witty, relatable content can attract millions of followers and kickstart a flood of revenue solely from meme photos of people doing dumb or silly things.
For instance, Shirts That Go Hard started in 2021 as a humble showcase of cool, funny t-shirt designs. Little did they know that their infectious humor and clever creations would quickly amass a massive following on Twitter.
Can you imagine the possibilities? With a dedicated community of followers, selling products becomes a breeze, and those $27 t-shirts can quickly add up to an eye-popping revenue stream.
But this isn’t about how they did it, but how you can mimic the concept. Still, before you dive headfirst into meme entrepreneurship, it's not as simple as slapping together a bunch of random jokes and expecting overnight success…
Riding Taylor’s Coattails to Riches
I read an article from The Hustle this week, and it’s fair to say that Taylor Swift is a cottage industry all to herself. Between ticket sales and merchandise, Swift stands to earn over $500 million from the 25 shows of her current U.S. tour.
Her fanbase, the Swifties®, are voracious in their appetite for everything Taylor and many are serving(using) the millions of fans who can’t afford the $1,000+ price tag for tickets.
At first glance, the designers making this pseudo-Swift merch are breaking copyright infringement laws and risking a hefty lawsuit, but intellectual property is tricky and nebulous, and there are ways to use the virality of someone like Taylor Swift safely.
If I wanted to make a Taylor Swift-inspired design, I would not use the obvious choice of lyrics, song titles, or album titles. That’s a guaranteed copyright strike. Also off limits is any likeness of Taylor, including photographs, illustrations, or A.I.-generated images.
IMPORTANT! Intellectual property theft is not something to mess around with, and if you’re toying with the idea of making clothing and merchandise based on a fandom you associate with, do. your. homework! Also, even if you’ve done your homework and pushed forward with the designs, you can still be sued.
An attorney friend once told me that in the U.S., anyone can sue anyone else for anything, regardless of reasoning or purpose. The case may get dropped for being frivolous or found not to have merit, but lawyers will use the process to scare people into submission because they may not be able to afford to fight the lawsuit in court.
Instead, I would start with something like an inside joke that only fans would understand. The objective would be to imply Taylor Swift in the merch without invoking the Swift legal team. That said, I don’t think Taylor is defending her brand quite as vigorously as she has in the past [1] [2] [3] [4].
Also, if you want to make Swift fan merch, you should bring the A-game with your design. If you’re going to represent a design that rides the edge of intellectual property, putting out a crappy design is a fast way to get a legal beat down because you’ve tampered with the I.P. and represented it poorly.
Finally, this isn’t just about Taylor. Going back even to the article above about viral memes, this strategy can be applied to any fanbase with a voracious appetite for anything related to that topic. Think Beyonce, K-Pop, popular anime, Ted Lasso, The Office, or The Kardashians (I openly invite you to make as much Kardashian merch as possible because we all should get paid back for the life that family has sucked out of us).
Whichever you choose, the most essential part is finding a merch idea that isn’t being served by the entity itself. This will set you apart from the masses and connect you more to the real fans. That said, don’t be so obscure that nobody gets the joke.
Tasty (AOTD): Emily Filler
Emily Filler is one of the first artists I followed when I joined Instagram in 2009. The simplicity and dedication to an idea over the years, modifying and adapting while staying true to her vision, is inspiring whenever I see her hit my feed.
Small Bites
Sphelele Gumede (@ellsphee) is one of my favorite digital artists, and he just dropped a video featuring his vector art process that needs to be seen by everyone.
Everyone month, Hyperallergic drops new grants and other opportunities for artists. These always come out a bit late for the month, but June has some good stuff in it still.
In probably the best news I’ve heard all month, YouTube lowers the bar to monetization…sorta.
Blogging is making a comeback and is an essential element for many companies. If you ever felt like going retro and starting your own blog, here are some tips from the pros.
Sidenote: Substack is a great platform to venture into blogging.
If you’re looking to start a new web project but don’t have a domain yet, Namecheap has $9 .com domains until June 30th*
In a first for social media apps, Twitter says you’ll soon be able to download your list of subscribers (not to be mistaken for followers) anytime you want… for a fee.
This might be the most disturbing thing I’ve heard about Instagram ever.
What lessons can a modern stoic teach us about beliefs around money? Ryan Holiday has 31.
Self-serving bias is the concept that humans will often default to their unsubstantiated beliefs despite known truths like, “galleries are the best route to success for artists” or “corporations have our best interests at heart.”
I recently cleaned this list using some specific criteria, and even more recently (like today), I was shown even better criteria from
— Thanks, Cole!
Dessert
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