Over the years of attending shows and purchasing merchandise from my favorite artists, I have noticed a strong trend change from shirt designs in the 90's and early 2000's to present day. Many band's today are following a trend where their T-shirts feature bright, neon colors and extremely large, and sometimes obnoxious designs. Typical silkscreen colors are sometimes replaced with metallic gold or silver inks, which cost a lot more to produce and a lot more towards the consumers. Sometimes "block" typography is used, placing the artist's name and perhaps a song lyrics in a block taking up the entire font side of a T-shirt.
Some artists are not even promoting their name/brand but instead, coming up with catchy/trendy phrases that can be associated with the band. Perhaps the cost to hire a designer is rising so much that strictly the use of fonts in a simple format has become commonplace.
Looking back on when band's used to produce a simple black and white shirt through their own silk screens, merch design has certainly come a long way. Looking at some shirt designs from The Offspring, a punk-rock band that has been around since the 80's, it is interesting to see their simplicity and basic color use for their designs.
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