What Is a Graphic Tee Shirt?

Tee shirts have been around for years. They are known for being comfortable, inexpensive, and primarily not fashionable. Many of them are made of soft materials to further boost their comfort. One quality that is common among all the tee shirts is that they are stretchy. However, with the coming of graphic tee shirts, the once bland clothing is becoming a fashion accessory.

Fashion comes and goes—and some make a comeback—making it difficult to trace their origin. Graphic tee shirts have been around for many years. However, its popularity grew tremendously between the late 1990s and early 2000s. Thanks to technological advances, designers can now adorn tee shirts with breathtaking graphic designs.

Terms Used to Describe Tee Shirts

When it comes to tee shirt description, some of the terms used emphasize design rather than fitting or style. Graphic t-shirts refer to short sleeve, long sleeve, or even sleeveless t-shirts with some form of image embellishment. These images are usually at the front. However, there are a few exceptional cases when the images appear at the back of the T-shirt or spill over to the sides. You will find a vast collection of exceptional trending tee shirts with designs at the front and back when you visit Into The AM. Apart from graphic t-shirts, there are other terms that are used to describe T-shirts include:

• Vintage: Refer to both style and fit. Used to describe tees that bring back the memories of the 80s
• Athletic: Describes fit rather than style. They are used to describe tees that hug the body in a way similar to what you will see on athletes
• Novelty: This is a sub-niche of graphic tee shirts. They describe T-shirts with obnoxious, humorous, or witty texts printers on them
• Pocket: Lays emphasis on style. You’ll probably be able to guess the kind of style they promote from the name.
• Deep-v neck, v-neck, crewneck: These are all terms used to describe the neck design of the T-shirt. The emphasis here is on style rather than fit.

What Types of Images Are Found on Graphic Tee Shirts?

The first thing that you will notice when you visit Into The AM shirt page is the diversity of designs of the different shirts. The scene may be the same when you visit other online stores. This can leave you wondering what design should or should not be on graphic tee shirts. Well, any image on a T-shirt qualifies it as a graphic tee. It can range from company logos to licensed characters, or random abstract art. The only rule is that the image should be enticing.

Out of the numerous possible designs, graphic tee shirts with company logos and characters are the most popular—especially among children, teens, and young adults. With the emergence of technologies like computer imaging software and iron-on transfer paper, it has become increasingly easy for people to create their designs. However, Into The AM has a huge collection of designs based on abstract arts which can easily make your stand out of the crowd. These include animal and galaxy prints made of the highest quality.

The Various Purposes of Tee Shirts

Of the entire types of printing, screen printing is the easiest and fastest. It is not surprising that it is the most common type of graphic tee shirts available on the market. It is perfect for people that want to blend in. However, if you want a different styling that stands out, hand printing offered by Into The AM or embroidery should be your pick. Below are the various purposes of graphic tee shirts.

Tourism

Tourists always love to go back with a souvenir that will remind them of their epic journey. In most cases, they are screen printed with graphics from some of the places they visited. At other times, it might be words that are linked to cultures or a particular country. Pictures speak a thousand words. Rocking tourist T-shirts allows you to show off the places you have been to in addition to other tourist essentials like tank tops, crop tops, swimwear, rompers, and leggings that you see at Disney World.

Art

Exceptional contemporary artists sometimes take their prowess to an enviable height by using T-shirts as their canvas. Takashi Murakami and Keith Haring are among the famous artists that have released amazing T-shirt arts. Today, abstract arts are becoming the face of art graphic tee shirts. Into The AM has a whole lot of these best seller tee shirts with pictures strictly from the imagination of the artist rather than pictures based on existing objects that are way more interesting than your typical pair of denim skinny jeans, sweatshirts, hoodies, or tight bodysuits that artist-lovers tend to wear. 

Military

The printing of unit insignia dates on shirts for military personnel dates back to the Second World War. Today, it has more elaborate use. When a military unit completes a course, they are often rewarded with a printed T-shirt souvenir bearing the insignia of their military unit. In the military world where uniform type and rank command respect, graphic tee shirts are simply priceless.

Merchandise

Branding is everything in business. It is the reason why a customer will be ready to pay twice or three times for an Apple phone. The journey towards creating a brand involves lots of advertising. You need to be in the faces of people all the time. There is no better way to achieve this than printing your brand image or logo on a T-shirt. You will easily find T-shirts bearing images of popular characters, musicians, or bands being sold commercially.

Concerts

Concert T-shirts are a popular part of pop culture. Just think about those legendary Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd t-shirts! Band tees are usually printed with a silk-screened image, name, or logo of the musical performer. They often contain texts highlighting the venue and other important information about the concert on the rear. The most popular color of concert shirts is black. In a few cases, rather than being sold, they are given to fans as gifts or appreciation for attending the concert.

Conclusion

Graphic tee shirts will likely come with instructions on how to take care of the fabric to avoid losing the prints. Some labels may instruct you on how to wash the garment to avoid cracking of the image. This is more prominent among cheap prints. However, high-quality prints from Into The AM may not require any special washing instructions besides normal wash and dry. So go ahead and dress them down with some joggers or mom jeans or dress them up with cardigans and blazers. They even work as sportswear! Overall, graphic t-shirts are definitely a better alternative to plain old t-shirts, button-downs, or blouses. 

Sources:

1. https://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-graphic-tees.htm
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_T-shirt
3. https://www.intotheam.com/collections/clearance-t-shirt