And Now For Something Completely Different
By Emily M. White

T-post t-shirts only makes as many t-shirts as there are subscribers.

T-post turns monthly news stories into visual representations on t-shirts.

A news magazine experiments with textile fashion and communication

The evolution of news communication has involved the use of cave paintings, word of mouth, the printed word, newspapers and pamphlets, radio and television, internet, and now from the company T-post, apparel.

In 2004, a group of friends in Sweden started a news magazine as a fun project amongst their social circle. Instead of printing subscriptions on paper, they turned monthly stories into visual representations on t-shirts, a format they saw as the perfect way to inspire conversation and experiment with modes of communication.

“We started conceiving ways to engage people in important topics, and our favorite garment, the t-shirt, seemed like an ideal medium for doing so,” says Peter Lundgren, editor-in-chief of T-post. “T-shirts inspire conversation, and when you add a story behind them, you get people thinking.”

The idea behind T-post is to use the attention and commitment that fashion acquires to communicate news, explains Lundgren. A T-post story usually consists of two or three different news stories and reflections that the editors have gathered after scouring global newspapers and blogs. The story is printed on the inside of a t-shirt with a visual representation on the front, created by a different artist each month.

“By putting the written story on the inside of the t-shirt just for the subscriber to read, the subscriber is really the one communicating the story, spreading it outside the T-post circle,” says Lundgren. “And since the article is not usually handy while wearing the t-shirt, it really becomes their interpretation of the story, which is even more interesting to hear about.”

As a business, what also makes T-post unique is the way the editors play with their supply/demand ratio. T-post only prints the exact amount of t-shirts as the number of subscribers for that month, so it is essentially impossible to get a shirt without a subscription, which makes their readers feel a part of an exclusive project.

Lundgren explains that the best stories for T-post are the ones that really engage people. “When I read a story that I just can’t stop thinking of and I want to grab someone off the street, simply to hear his or her opinion on it. Those are the kinds of stories I’m striving to put on our issues,” says Lundgren.

Visit www.t-post.se for more information.