TASA Merch Designs - 2023
as media production specialist of northeastern's taiwanese american student association (TASA), in spring 2023, i proposed selling merch to the rest of our executive board.
it was our first year in which TASA was officially recognized as a student organization by the university, so we had never sold merch before. thus, it was my priority to create a bold, memorable, and unique design that would kick off a strong presence of our club on campus.
i stepped up to conceptualize and create the design, research our members' interest in different types of clothing and accessories, and plan the logistics of printing, ordering, and delivering.
The Idea
brainstorming with our e-board gave me key points on what should be featured in our design. we wanted to highlight certain aspects of taiwanese culture: food, life, geography.
then, i reached out to other cultural organizations on campus about their merch designs, and spoke to their general members about their very favorite pieces of merch from those orgs.
gathering together a collection of images of all these clothing print designs from previous loved designs, i found a general trend of themes and characteristics that tended to work well: illustrative elements, simple one-color designs that played with negative space, and being a large, rectangle-framed composition.
in addition, i knew i needed specific text elements within the design, as it was merch for our club, being: "TASA", "Taiwanese American Student Association", and "Northeastern University".
i came up with a few rough sketches, including these two:
after reaching out for feedback from the rest of our design team, the rest of our e-board, and peers from other cultural organizations, i chose a sketch, revised it, and finalized the design.
The Final Design
featured in the design are Taiwanese aboriginal textile patterns, recognizing the indigenous peoples of Taiwan and Formosan aboriginal culture.
as well, the gate illustrated is of Raohe Night Market, one of the oldest and busiest night markets in Taipei. the different parts of the composition are unified together with flying sky lanterns, typically released to celebrate the Chinese Lantern Festival, on the 15th day of Lunar New Year.
i wanted to showcase both traditional and modern aspects of Taiwanese culture coming together in this design, reflecting all that we celebrate within TASA.
i created this design using a mix of Procreate and Adobe Illustrator.
Merchandise
our final mock-ups:
the second part of designing merchandise is where the design would live:
what should we print it on? hoodies? t-shirts? sweatshirts?
what color should those be?
what color should the ink be?
what should we print it on? hoodies? t-shirts? sweatshirts?
what color should those be?
what color should the ink be?
i reached out to 10+ peers, asking for their thoughts and opinions about clothing and colors, spoke with 5+ other cultural organizations about their process of ordering and selling, and reached out to other designers with experience with printing designs on clothing / accessories.
my goals were to be immediately identifiable with the color and clothing - we had to choose a color that hadn't been used by other cultural organizations yet, but also choose something that our members would be excited about and would want to wear often in their daily lives.
after all of my research, i juggled with printing costs and our budget, supply chain issues causing a specific colored sweatshirt to be out of stock, and the quantity that we should order based on estimated demand.
finally, we were ready to order our first-ever merch. with the help of our design team, we showed off our brand new apparel, and began to sell!
The Result
the design was incredibly well received, and we ended up selling much of our merch not only to our members, but to other students who didn't attend our events, but knew about our organization!
in the end, we exceeded our estimates and were able to make a profit, which went to funding more of our events. we sold over 60+ items, and made a revenue of over $1300.
what i find the most impactful is no matter where i am: at our general meetings, walking around campus and hanging out at northeastern's asian-american center, or other cultural organization's events, it is often that i will spot someone wearing my sweatshirt, or carrying a TASA tote bag.
at the end of the semester, TASA was finally approved as an official student organization, one year after its founding in 2022. in celebration, we shared this photoshoot of our e-board wearing our merch with pride!
concept + photos + editing by me :)
our president and vice-president, daisy and sage
props to our secretary, ryan!
our media specialists, evonne and vicky
the program coordinator team - oscar, jason, and tiffany
