Alright, here we go! Time to design and vote. As a reminder: this stage is about creating and selecting the best ideas/executions to later convert into Cotton Bureau campaigns which is when you will be able to pre-order the t-shirts.

In case this doesn’t make sense, here is the introduction post.

1. Getting started

Download the Cotton Bureau mock-up template (157Mb).

Unfortunately the silhouette of the t-shirt is a little clunky but the PSD file has layers for all the t-shirt colors and textures available, so you will definitely want to use it.

2. General Guidelines

• Overall, stick to ideas that are related to Brand New be it in recurring themes, specific insider references, and/or more general notions related to logo, identity, and branding.
• General design, creativity, typography ideas are also welcome but are less representative of the goal of the Co-op Shop.
• Keep it fun, clean, and inclusive by not being unnecessarily mean and/or overly sarcastic.
• We reserve the right to remove anything we deem offensive or insensitive.
• No logo parodies will be accepted as it’s likely they will attract legal action and we have no interest in fielding cease and desist letters.
• Different executions of the same idea presented coincidentally from two or more people are okay — it’s good to have options and the ones with the most upvotes will get moved into campaigns.
• If you have an idea but no time (or interest) to design it, share it and label it as a “free” idea for anyone to interpret.
• If you see an idea that you think could be executed differently, ask for permission to present your own execution — this is a gray area, so use common sense and decency!

3. Design Guidelines

• Limit to 2 ink colors.
• Printable area is 11 inches wide by 14 inches tall on the front and/or the back.
• You can use the front, the back, or both.

4. Posting Guidelines

On quantity

• You can post multiple ideas… say, 5.
• Don’t be overwhelming by posting 15 or 20.
• Don’t post minimal variations of the same idea (e.g., same layout and sentence but in 10 different fonts or color combinations).
• Self-edit before posting.

On format

• You are encouraged to stick with the Cotton Bureau template to present your ideas.
• It’s okay if you want to present it in your preferred t-shirt mock-up template.

On upload protocol

• Upload a single t-shirt per comment so that the voting applies to only one design at a time.
• Use the Disqus picture-upload feature to upload your design.

5. Voting Guidelines

• Upvote if you would honestly consider buying the t-shirt.
• You can downvote if you like but, for whatever reason, Disqus has removed the option to publicly see downvotes. Not that they would play a big role anyway as the idea is to move forward with whatever gets upvoted the most.

6. Deadline

• Wednesday November 7 to submit.
• Friday November 9 to vote. (You can upvote any time starting now, but we’ll stop tallying on Nov. 9.)

After November 9 we will work as fast as possible with the most popular t-shirts to move them into Cotton Bureau campaigns and try to launch them before Thanksgiving so that, ideally, the first batch of t-shirts are ready to be received for the Holiday season.

We’ll see how all this works out and make changes if necessary for Volume 2. Keep in mind that the sooner you upload your ideas the more votes it’s likely to gather.