MURKETING

48-Hour T-shirt No. 1: Time expires tomorrow morning.

You’ve read about it in Core77, PSFK, Design Observer, Coolhunting, and Coudal.

Get on board the 48-Hour T-shirt train.

Your opportunity to buy the first T in the series — see it here, or simply scroll down a bit — expires in 12 hours, at 10 a.m. Eastern.

The next T debuts Monday December 8. Sign up to be notified here.

Flickr Set of The Month

The Murketing Organization has been receiving some valuable assistance lately from Tom Hosford, of Washington & Lee University. Among other things, Tom has made possible something I’ve long wanted to add to the Flickr Interludes mix: A mini-portfolio and short Q&A, relating to a particular set discovered on Flickr that has some relationship to this site’s subject matter.

Example? A set of images that makes a Dave & Buster’s location, of all places, look carnivalesque and exciting and maybe even seductive. Or that’s what I think of the first Flickr Set of The Month: Dave and Busters. Over to you, Tom…

The Midway, originally uploaded by SA_Steve.

The Flickr Interludes displayed on this site are of a pretty all-inclusive nature: “Anything about consumer culture, defined as broadly as possible.” But you can go beyond just the photo, and look at “sets” of similar themes, which can often say a lot more. The photo is just one track; the set is the whole album.

So for the first Set of the Month, we decided to look at Flickr user SA_Steve, who shot every bright light and strange sign he saw inside the restaurant/video arcade Dave and Buster’s. What resulted was a great set, capturing a truly electric environment. — Tom Hosford

Jumpin’ Jackpot, originally uploaded by SA_Steve.

Q:  How did you ever get the idea to invade a Dave & Buster’s

A: I went on a team outing with my former employer to Dave & Buster’s; I of course had my camera since I carry it everywhere. I took some photos while we were playing games and such, after they left for various reasons, I figured it would be a great place to go wild shooting (and it helped I was out of money by that point.:))

Neon Fandango, originally uploaded by SA_Steve.

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48-Hour T-Shirt No. 1: “I Show How You Feel”

The first 48-Hour T-Shirt is now no longer available. That’s the design, above: Three colors (metalic silver ink, black, flourescent green) on a gray American Apparel 4.3-ounce fine cotton athletic fit T. A summary of the research inspiring the design, below, is also available in PDF form, here.

This phrase was quoted in a recent paper by scholars researching the subject of mimicry and its role in the day-to-day marketplace.

One study, for instance, found that a waitress received larger tips when she “mimicked” customers by repeating orders verbatim, than when she paraphrased their orders. According to the researchers, being subtly mimicked “creates feelings of rapport, affiliation, and closeness toward the mimicker.”

The research was summarized in the April 2008 issue of The Journal of Consumer Research, in an article titled “Of Chameleons and Consumption,” which noted that prior studies suggested “that mimicry serves as an important communication tool, communicating to the person being mimicked that ‘I show how you feel.’” This newer research specifically explored “the effect of mimicry on consumption,” and how it might be used in, for instance, sales techniques.

Design by Derek Black, MFA candidate in the graphic design department of Savannah College of Art and Design (www.redneckillustrator.com).

The T-shirt “I Show How You Feel” is was available until 10 a.m. (Eastern) Wednesday, for $18 plus shipping. Order below.

The aim of The 48-Hour T-shirt Project is to prod consumers to think more about our own behavior, about how we can be manipulated, and about how we manipulate ourselves. Yes, doing this by way of products may be seen as either ironic, clever, or hypocritical. That’s (part of) the point.

(Please note that The Murketing Organization (that is, me, Rob Walker) does not make one thin dime from The 48 Hour T Shirt Project. All (100%) of the profits go to the student designers involved. In fact, your order goes directly to the designer, not to me.)

This T is no longer available. But feel free to direct fan mail or inquiries about your order to: derek@firehousedesigns.net.

Sign up to be notified via email when the next design debuts on Monday, December 8, here.

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The 48-Hour T-Shirt Project is proudly sponsored by The Murketing Organization, and Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are.