Dear Celebs And Influencers, Stop Putting Your Face On Your Merch
I want to support you, but I also want to buy something that's actually worth my money.
Everyone who is anyone has their own "merch" (merchandise) line. It's a way for fans to show who or what you like to spend your free time watching. It's yet another way to express yourself through your clothing and accessories.
Bands, actors, sports teams and YouTubers alike all have merch. Odyssey even has its own merch, so the possibility for designs are honestly endless, and it's a great way to show your affiliation in a fandom or group.
I'm down with people showing off a slogan or a logo on a comfy hoodie or a cute design on a PopSocket. As I said, it's a fun way to express yourself via your clothing. I understand why people buy from places like LaurDIY's merch collection. You support the people you love and get a cute new piece of clothing out of it.
But I draw the line when the design is simply someone's face screen printed onto a T-shirt.
I love Ariana Grande as much as the next gal. I think she's beautiful, but I don't really want to wear her face.
I feel like plopping a photo of your face onto a piece of clothing is taking the easy way out of merch design, especially when it's a photo that's already used elsewhere. Ariana's merch design is literally just her album cover. It's lacking creativity, which is sad to see from someone who is so iconic.
You're granted the opportunity to design something unique and representative of your fans when you design merch, but instead of taking the opportunity to make a new statement or emphasize something unique about your fanbase, you convert a preexisting statement from your music onto a shirt.
If you are going to make your merch just your face, at least make it interesting to look at.
Emma Chamberlain, though not necessarily someone I want to buy merch from, has, in my eyes, has mastered the art of putting her own face onto merch. She turns her face into a drawing or some sort of weird collage. This makes it a piece of clothing I would actually consider wearing if I wanted to wear Emma Chamberlain merch.
All this being said, if you want to wear a photo of Ariana Grande on your shirt, go for it. If you want to wear anyone's face on your clothes, go for it.
I'm just calling out to celebrities and influencers who are designing merch to be a little more creative when they're designing something that their followers will probably spend their hard earned, saved up weekly allowance on. They shouldn't take the easy way out and plop some reused and recycled photo from their album onto a plain T-shirt.
