About the official merch (T-shirt prints)

[Deerclops Mika]

Before I start talking about what I think needs to be changed in prints on T-shirts, I will warn you. I did very little print design, moreover, the company for which I designed prints stopped working before the T-shirts were released. So that's mostly my intuitive corrections. I may be wrong and I will gladly give you a different opinion.

First, why do I think that prints on T-shirts are important. Obviously the T-shirts themselves sell their prints. Sure, people might buy a T-shirt just because it's related to their favorite game, but most T-shirts are bought because of the print on them. Prints are the face of the T-shirt we sell and therefore we must treat them with care. Moreover, out of all the Klei merchandise, people are more likely to buy a T-shirt than a plush toy, since T-shirts are more practical and cheaper. What's more, T-shirts are easier to produce and the fact that they run out is unlikely. However, I will ask you to take a look at the prints that Klei already has:

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Don't you find them too boring? It's like something's missing, which is weird, since the franchise's 10th anniversary jersey includes a lot of details and creatures that are fun to look at. Most of the images on the prints were not originally designed for T-shirts. Klei just took an already existing png image and put it on a T-shirt. It seems to me that there are not enough texts. Sometimes text, even just Don't Starve, can be better than print. Firstly, the abundance of details makes the picture too dirty. As a rule, images with a lot of detail are more suitable for posters or desktop backgrounds, but not for t-shirts. T-shirts should be simple yet interesting. Text always draws attention to itself, especially when there is a moderate amount of it. When you look at a T-shirt with a lot of detail, you just think that there are a lot of colored pieces and you don’t think about what is drawn there. The text is always easier to separate from the usual picture, and human curiosity will involuntarily force a person to read what is written there, even if, as a result, there is nothing interesting there.

Insert the above text to any print on the T-shirt and it will immediately become interesting (this does not apply to the T-shirt with the Maxwell poster, we will return to it later)

For example, I just took Woody from the background files of the main menu of the game and inserted Woody's quote.The text immediately makes the print more interesting (I don't know who the guy in the picture is, he scares me a little)

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It is quite possible that Woody turned out to be especially suitable due to the fact that his pose is quite dynamic and it is very interesting to adjust the text to it.

It is even better when there is some kind of joke in the text. When a person reads the text on a T-shirt, he does not expect anything special. If the text is boring, then the person will not receive any emotions, since he did not expect anything. But if there is some kind of pun in the text, then this can unconsciously improve the mood of the reader and he will be pleased that he did not read the text on the T-shirt in vain, and also that the authors spent time creating the print. Here is my example, I will not say that it is very successful, but still:

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The best option for fans will probably be playful prints or quotes with references to one or another game moment. While browsing the store on the site, if a player sees some kind of reference to the gameplay or situation on the T-shirt, then he may like the T-shirt purely out of respect for the author or the content of the print. Considering the game's setting, it would not be difficult to come up with such T-shirts. In this sense, the art of Jeff Agala is perfect:

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One of the best prints would be Maxwell's poster print. However, it seems to me that Klei made a lot of mistakes. It looks like someone just stuck an A4 line on a T-shirt. I understand that the idea is that this is a poster of Maxwell, but with a post it is better to make posters (I would like to have a HD poster of Maxwell on the wall). These frames do not allow the picture to be freer. Maxwell and Charlie seem to be in a cramped room. The text becomes part of the image, which is why it will not be noticed. It is enough to remove the frames and Maxwell and Charlie will immediately be freer.

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Prints always need enough attention, because they can generate a good income + a T-shirt worn by a person can serve as an advertisement. I know it's not a very effective way to draw attention to the game, but if a person asks what kind of person with a funny haircut, they will get the answer that this is a character from Don't Starve. A good sense of humor on the print, an interesting style and unusual creatures, can lure a potentially new player, especially since a person who has a T-shirt will push to try the game, because the T-shirt most likely indicates that he is a fan of this game.

In any case, I may be wrong. It just seems to me that it's not always possible to just take a png image that was meant for something else and add it to a T-shirt. T-shirt prints can be much more interesting if you add more meaning to them.