Short phrases and text excerpts remain popular as design elements in apparel and other consumer products. As a result, licensors and licensees continue to feature notable quotes as a key component of their licensed merchandise ranges.
This characteristic not only holds true in “social expressions” products such as cards and mugs—where text has always been a critical element—but also in other categories, especially apparel and accessories. And the trend applies across property types:
- Entertainment. Apparel and other items tied to the film The Fault in Our Stars featured phrases such as “I fell in love with the way you sleep,” while H&M began offering exclusive Adventure Time t-shirts in 2014 that paired character art with unique slogans from the Cartoon Network series.
- Digital properties. The Wikileaks licensing effort, which WikiLicense launched last year, is focused on phrases that reflect the concept of free speech, along with images of founder Julian Assange.
- Music. Sunny Side Up, a consultancy founded in 2014, specializes in licensing song lyrics for use on merchandise, with publishers Imagem Music and Music Sales Group among its clients.
- Sports. The NBA licensed Peace Love World to create apparel that incorporates team names and logos and the positive thoughts (“Believe,” “I Am Love”) for which the clothing company is known. Peace Love World has done similar programs with individual sports teams and the likes of Coca-Cola and Pharrell Williams.
- Books. Freeze’s apparel tied to E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, represented by Knockout Licensing in the U.S., integrates catchphrases (“Keep Calm,” “Laters, Baby”) made famous by the book and the film based on it.
- Corporate. Red Robin Gourmet Burgers offers everything from aprons to clocks to iPhone cases on CaféPress, much of it sporting sayings (“I Inhaled,” “Too Cold to Hold”) used by the restaurant chain in its marketing efforts.
- Art. Artists and illustrators, particularly those with a strong social expressions business, often mix phrases and imagery. The Wisdom of Kids (represented by JELC), Happy Jackson (Bloom), So So Happy (eOne), and From Frank (Genius Brands/A Squared) are among many current examples.
This is not a new trend, of course. Song lyrics, catchphrases from films, comic strip gags, and phrases paired with art imagery have long been highlighted on merchandise. But the trend has been on an upswing over the past few years. Licensors are always trying to identify unique elements to make their properties stand out. And, as text-plus-graphics remains on-trend from a design perspective, highlighting snippets of speech makes sense.
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