Instructions
- The T-shirt (with blank pixels) is currently not available for purchase, but a new run will be available in Summer 2007. If you would like to register your interest, please email tshirt [ at ] haque [ dot ] co [ dot ] uk. It was originally available from the T-1 World Cup Website.
このT-シャツ（塗りつぶしていない）を買うためには、T-1 World Cupのウェブサイトに行ってください。 - Use the interface above (requires Macromedia Flash) to prototype your design. Have a country to support? Design a t-shirt to show it! Alternatively, if, like me, you don't support any particular country try designing something different...
上のインターフェースを使って、貴方のプロトタイプのデザインを作ってください。サポートしたい国はありますか？T-シャツにデザインして、それを見せましょう！もし私のように、応援したい国が決められないというのであれば、なにか他のデザインをするのもいいでしょう。 - Click on pixels to turn them on or off; hold down [space bar] to draw continuously across the pixels (if you're tired of clicking). If you're stuck for ideas see some examples in the gallery. (By the way, if you keep this window open and browse the gallery in its pop-up window, when you click on any design in the gallery it will load in the interface at the top of this page).
ピクセルをクリックすると、ピクセルの色が黒くなります。もう一度クリックすると元に戻ります。スベースバーを押しながらカーソルを動かすと、そのまま続けてピクセルの色が変わります。 もしアイデアにつまったら、”gallery”にある例を見てください。（ポップアップで新しいウィンドウが開きます、そこにある例をクリックすると、古いウィンドウの方にロードされます。） - Click "reset" to start again.
"reset／消去"を押すと最初からやり直しができます。 - Click "invert" to turn on-pixels "off" and off-pixels "on".
"invert／反転"を押すとピクセルが反転します。 - Click "save" to add your design to the gallery.
"save／保存"を押すとギャラリーに保存されます。 - When you are happy with your design, print it out (control-click the interface, select "Print...") and copy it to your t-shirt: use a permanent black pen to colour in all the pixels that you have "switched off".
納得の行くデザインができあがったら、プリントアウト（コントロール＋クリック）して見比べながら黒の油性ペンで塗りつぶすと失敗しにくいですよ。 - You can also try using red and blue pens: they will mix with the colours of the pixels on your t-shirt in different ways (e.g. if you use red on top of the blue pixels you will get purplish pixels).
赤や青のペンで塗っても良し。（青のピクセルに赤のペンで塗ると、紫っぽくなりますが） - Depending on the type of pen you use, it may wash off after a few times in the laundry. Call this a feature not a bug: unlimited rewrites!
使うペンによりますが、数回洗うと塗ったところは色落ちする事があります。災い転じて福となすということで何度でも書き直す事が出来ます！
Concept and background
I was asked to design a t-shirt for my country.
This presented me with two problems because, first, I am not a good designer and, second, I don't have a country to support.
So I decided to design a t-shirt that encourages the wearers of the t-shirt to design what goes on the t-shirt and also allows them to decide which country to support (or perhaps *not* to support). This is an approach that I have always been interested in: how to design systems that are open enough to allow for other people's designs yet specific enough to provide an intriguing starting point (it's always difficult to design on a completely blank canvas).
So the point of this t-shirt is that YOU, the wearer, have to design it before you wear it. You can draw directly on to the pixel array to create your own designs....
The t-shirt is printed with rubber foam ink: the print consists of rows of hexagonal pixels. You can colour them in with a BLACK felt tip permanent ink pen. In this way you can construct your own design. If you use RED or BLUE ink pens on these pixels you will create different effects. Because the t-shirt fabric colour is black it doesn't matter if you go out of the lines or if your pen is too fat: it won't show up. As long as you colour in a whole pixel it will look neat and tidy, just like a professionally designed and printed t-shirt. The rubber foam print is great for this because your pen ink will really soak in.
I also made a web interface so you can prototype your design before committing it to your t-shirt. Click the pixels and draw what you like. Be rude. Be political. Be romantic. Be psychedelic. Be yourself.
If you are stuck for ideas you will find designs that other people have made; on the other hand if you like your design and would like other people to see it (and maybe use it too) then you can add it to the gallery.
The tag is also configurable by the wearer. You can fill in the blank segments on the tag with a black pen to complete the phrase "this t-shirt designed by: --------". Instead of putting the tag at the neck I have put it on the inside right at the bottom; I hate it when t-shirts have tags at the neck because they itch so much that finally I have to rip them off; and of course when I do that I rip the whole t-shirt by accident!
The t-shirt can even be worn by couples. Normally you don't want to wear the same t-shirt as your partner, even if you really like it, because you look as though you are twins dressed by your overbearing mother. Now you can each configure your t-shirt exactly the way you want it, so you can wear a t-shirt which is almost the same but not quite....
Remember, some permanent pens have ink that is less permanent than others, and you might find that your pixels start appearing again after a few runs through the laundry. This is a "feature" not a "bug": you may discover that you have unlimited rewrites!
P.S. If you would like to know why I chose that shape of pixel and that arrangement of pixels, the short answer is that I had a dream about graffiti on digital walls that slide past each other...
For more information about these t-shirts, please visit the Configurable T-shirt page at the T-1 World Cup Website.