T-Shirt Factory

The T–shirt may be the most ubiquitous, affordable, and popular item of clothing. Over the years it has served as a means to broadcast social, musical and political affiliations. Most recently, the T–shirt has become a creative tool for expressing inventive design.

The T–shirt designs in this book have been selected by Beams T, a hugely popular fashion retail chain and manufacturer in Japan devoted to T–shirts. Founded in 1986, Beams T regards the T–shirt as a canvas for new ideas in art and design and each year of their 20–year history, has invited artists from around the world to create designs for their T–shirts.

In this book, 350 of the best of these T–shirt designs are featured in full color.

Accompanying the book will be a CD ROM of flash animation which will allow readers to create their own t–shirts. There will be brand new work, created especially for this CD ROM, by 10 Japanese artists including Tsuyoshi Kusano, Tsuyoshi Hirooka, Kiyoshi Kuroda, Kenjiro Harigai, and Tomoki Kurokawa. The artwork included will be the actual size, enabling the reader to print their favorite artwork on their own t–shirts. The artists selected are some of the most renowned graphic designers/ illustrators in Japan and are regular collaborators of Beams T.

T–SHIRT FACTORY will include an index with a photo and bio of each author.