The History Of The T-Shirt

The origin of the T-shirt dates back to the late 19^th century when the first manufactured T-shirt was invented between 1898 and 1913, when the US Navy began to issue them as what the Americans call undershirts, and what we call vests. The actual term T-shirt was first used in 1920 by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his novel This Side of Paradise.

He wrote as follows: “So early in September, Amory, provided with ‘six suits summer underwear, six suits winter underwear, one sweater or T-shirt, one jersey, one overcoat, winter, etc,’ set out for New England, the land of schools.”

However, that aside, the T-shirt was still worn largely as a vest until 1950 when Marlon Brando wore one when playing Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. This was followed in 1955 by James Dean doing the same in Rebel Without a Cause. The result of this was that the wearing of T-shirts as an outer garment as opposed to a vest suddenly went through the roof, and in the 1960’s we had Flower Power – “Let it all hang out, man” - and the birth of screen printing which helped to turn the T-shirt industry into what it is today. 

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Don’t Make These Mistakes When Having A Sign Made

If you need a sign made you will need to look for sign makers in Edinburgh, and there are a number of them. Now many different enterprises use signs: they are absolutely everywhere. In fact, it is a fairly safe bet that wherever you are at any given moment, apart from in your own home, there will be signs. You could be in the pub having a quiet drink, but there will be signs to the toilets, signs to the escape routes, signs about their prices, signs about the rugby on Saturday afternoon - and that’s just in the pub!

When you need a sign created, there are some pitfalls that you should avoid, not the least of which is failing to make your message clear. Seriously, this happens quite a lot, as any sign maker will tell you. This is especially the case outdoors where people who see your sign may only have to or three seconds to read it if they are travelling in a car. Your message needs to be brief and to the point and tell the viewer what you want them to do. Visit your store, turn left into the car park, book a holiday, or whatever.

Another very common mistake is using the wrong colouring. You see this all the time on websites where someone thinks that it is “smart” to use white lettering on a black background. That has been proven to be 7% harder to read than black on white. Your sign needs a light background and darker lettering. There is nothing wrong with using lots of colour around the sign, but the message needs to be easy to read.

Another mistake is using a font which is not easily legible. There are lots and lots of fonts, and some are really very pretty close up but almost unreadable from a distance. You need to choose the font that you use very carefully. Furthermore, don’t use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS! You may think it makes your message stand out, but it doesn’t. It is harder to read, especially from a distance, than using upper and lower case.