The Secret Life of the American T-Shirt

Firm: Texas State University MFA Program | Client: Experimental Book Class | Designer: Trey Terrell

The Task

While taking the Experimental Book class in graduate school I focused on projects that I might not have the opportunity to explore in my daily work – really trying to push the limits of what a “book” is.

With this project I asked the question: is a book useful for something else once you are finished reading it?

The Solution

This project centered around the many jobs that go into producing a screen printed t-shirt – something I was very familiar with due the business I managed at the time.

It took the form of a five page book that was constructed from screen printing frames. The screens could be detached from the spine of the book and could be used to actually print a garment. The book would later be sent to other print shops so they could use it to produce their own shirts, and add to the collective story of the book.