For starters, let’s talk a bit about threadless.com. It’s not just an online store that sells shirts and hoodies. It’s also an ongoing call for submission of t-shirt designs, which are then voted on by members of within the community within a 7-day period. Click HERE To get more information about Threadless.

Image via Wikipedia

The great thing about the site is that it lets artistically-disadvantaged people like yours truly participate through slogan submission. As the site puts it:

“First, muster all of your brainpower to think of the most original, most increadible slogan in the history of human thought. When you have it, simply type the slogan in the form below to submit it for scoring!”

From the serious to the totally hilarious, slogans 65 characters or less are accepted and posted up for voting by the community. In my case, I already have submitted several entries, although I’m not really expecting to a winning entry with the low and relatively few votes that I’m getting. Still, it’s fun to think up of slogans, especially funny twists of classic and all-time favorite quotes and sayings.

Right now, I get my inspiration from the following:

1. Sites that feature quotes, proverbs, and sayings

2. Movies and television series

3. Books (online or paper) – anything from history, mythology, romance, action, etc.

4. Current events – Magazines and newspapers

7. Jargon, mostly computer-related

8. Everyday encounters with people

I then try and see which of these I can:

1. Mix and match to come up with something funny

2. Twist - for those that have words with more than one meaning

3. Make puns – whenever, wherever I can find them

4. Take out some words to change the entire message

5. Play with words by misspelling or replacing one or more with their homonyms

Now, I might think up of something that I think would read like a really good slogan. I just submit that, the votes will take care of determining how popular my entry is. And the fact that there’s no limit to the number of submissions makes me not care if I get a lot of negative votes. I can hide the really terrible entries anyway.

There are some instances where someone beat me to the punch and submitted the same slogan (years) ahead of you. No worries, as long as I can still come up with coherent thoughts, I can still make a slogan. I’m just going to keep at it, since it’s a fun activity at the same time. Winning $500 for a submission would be icing on the cake.

Here are some other links that you might find interesting:

Free T-shirts Anyone? Six Places to Win Cool T-Shirts

Making a Statement: Personalized and Personally Made Choice T-shirts