Merch Ideas

Doorward

New Member
As Corey mentioned recently in one of his broadcasts, we have been sneaking up on the possibility of using a print-on-demand platform to offer a larger variety of merchandise to our community more immediately and easily than waiting for Corey to show up at regional moots lugging his suitcase of goods like a traveling salesman.
I have collected some ideas of what people would like to see on a t-shirt from folks inside the Signum working community but now I'd like to ask for suggestions from our larger community.
Please comment to this thread with your ideas for shirts designs you'd be willing to buy and wear.
Scroll through the suggestions and hit the like button on other people's posts.
Some of the designs will be pretty meaningful to our fans and obscure to anyone else but that makes them even more cool. I'm thinking here of 'Bob is a hobbit' as a perfect example.

Most of our starting designs will be text based.
However, if you are an artist and would like to create suitable artwork and allow us to use it we'd love to consider offering it in our shop. We aren't trying to take advantage of anyone but right now we cannot afford to pay for artwork. We also recognize that there are wonderful artists in our community who would like to donate their time and skills to Signum and Mythgard and this would be one way to do it. Print-on-demand platforms do not bring a huge amount of profit unless the sales are enormous. We do not anticipate that. We just want to offer fun and awesome merch to our folks to help build our community.
 
“Bob is a hobbit” would be great, as would “spiritual boulders” among many others. Do we know the technical parameters for submitting artwork, like image resolution and file format? And would we need to use some kind of rights release, like a Creative Commons license?
 
File parameters:
file size: 2400x3200 is recommended for shirts
file type: PNG

We will likely also offer mugs and other products. If a design cannot be easily adjusted by our folks we will contact the donating artist for adjustments to the graphic or just not offer it on various products. Final placement and size of the graphics will be determined by Signum.

Any licensing would be the responsibility of the artist. In the past when we have used artwork donated to our use we have simply received permission from the artist and that's it. If any artwork is covered by any licensing, we will respect the parameters of the license.
 
“Bob is a hobbit” would be great, as would “spiritual boulders” among many others. Do we know the technical parameters for submitting artwork, like image resolution and file format? And would we need to use some kind of rights release, like a Creative Commons license?

When you say "spiritual boulders" how do you envision that exactly? Just the text? Any other simple details to offer context from the inside joke?
 
I have lots of t-shirt-sized sayings. These are favorites.

A quote from the book:
"The treacherous are ever distrustful." - Gandalf

It's a very inside joke, and only vaguely Tolkien-oriented, having nothing to do specifically with tLotR, but I really like
"Ontology recapitulates philology."

I also like ragging on the Valar for their mis-management of Middle-Earth and of Elves and of Feanor in particular:
"Discretion is not the better part of the Valar."

In a more generic educational category:
"It's never too late to learn what "opsimath" means."

And just generic t-shirt material, at least sort of education- or fantasy-related:
"Beam me up again, Sam". -- Capt. Rick
"Hello. My name is Darth Vader. I am your father. Prepare to die." -- The Jedi Bride
"In the world of words the imagination is one of the forces of nature." -- Wallace Stevens
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." -- Plutarch
"The love we give away is the only love we keep." -- Elbert Hubbard
"If we can't be free, at least we can be cheap" -- Frank Zappa
"We have met the enemy, and he is us." -- Pogo
 
I have lots of t-shirt-sized sayings. These are favorites.

A quote from the book:
"The treacherous are ever distrustful." - Gandalf

It's a very inside joke, and only vaguely Tolkien-oriented, having nothing to do specifically with tLotR, but I really like
"Ontology recapitulates philology."

I also like ragging on the Valar for their mis-management of Middle-Earth and of Elves and of Feanor in particular:
"Discretion is not the better part of the Valar."

In a more generic educational category:
"It's never too late to learn what "opsimath" means."

And just generic t-shirt material, at least sort of education- or fantasy-related:
"Beam me up again, Sam". -- Capt. Rick
"Hello. My name is Darth Vader. I am your father. Prepare to die." -- The Jedi Bride
"In the world of words the imagination is one of the forces of nature." -- Wallace Stevens
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." -- Plutarch
"The love we give away is the only love we keep." -- Elbert Hubbard
"If we can't be free, at least we can be cheap" -- Frank Zappa
"We have met the enemy, and he is us." -- Pogo

Thanks for all of the suggestions!
 
Recently heard Prof. Olsen announcing "Exploring the Lord of the Ring", in a session of "Return of the Shadow".
"We can spend FORTY sessions on "The Fellowship of the Ring"!"
 
Recently heard Prof. Olsen announcing "Exploring the Lord of the Ring", in a session of "Return of the Shadow".
"We can spend FORTY sessions on "The Fellowship of the Ring"!"
That's hilarious!
Not exactly sure how it would for merchandise though...

Maybe

Exploring Lord of the Rings
We are not a hasty folk

I might work in the origin date January 3, 2017
It could have a cool graphic of an infinity symbol worked into the design
 
I think we need a quote from Intelligent Fox "‘Hobbits!’ he thought. ‘Well, what next?"
An idea for an image which someone creative could use as inspiration is a fox reading from the Book of Hours (MMW), Den Haag: Ms. 10 F 50, fol. 6r (It can be found on wikipedia. Fuchs.margin (MMW10F50 f6r) detail.jpg)
 
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