# T-shirt designs



## gino (Jul 20, 2009)

Some guys go to Hong Kong to have their suits custom made. Others go to Japan for full-body tattoos. I’m a little more casual. When I go to Asia, I like to get custom-made T-shirts. I’m not a fan of large images, preferring simple text embroidered in Thai, Tagalog, French or Chinese.

I ordered a couple in advance of my next trip, which has been delayed so many times that a friend has started wearing them as nightgowns. I may not get them back. If you don’t read Thai, the shirt in the picture reads “Siam.” 

I’ll probably have a graphic artist do something a little nicer with the type for the attached ambigram. What better way to say I’m a starving ESL tutor desperate for private lessons?


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## KhwaamLap (Feb 29, 2008)

ginocox said:


> Some guys go to Hong Kong to have their suits custom made. Others go to Japan for full-body tattoos. I’m a little more casual. When I go to Asia, I like to get custom-made T-shirts. I’m not a fan of large images, preferring simple text embroidered in Thai, Tagalog, French or Chinese.
> 
> I ordered a couple in advance of my next trip, which has been delayed so many times that a friend has started wearing them as nightgowns. I may not get them back. If you don’t read Thai, the shirt in the picture reads “Siam.”
> 
> I’ll probably have a graphic artist do something a little nicer with the type for the attached ambigram. What better way to say I’m a starving ESL tutor desperate for private lessons?


Wuld be interesting to see how many Thai's would be able to read the ambigram. I have noticed, whilst teaching, but also with my mrs who lived in the UK for ten years and speaks fluent English, that they copy text exactly as it is written. If I inadvertently miss-write a letter such as a d where I haven't joined the bottom very well (like a backwards lower case 'h') then that is what appears in their books - even 20 year olds with 12 years of English under their belts. Thais tend to be very visual (which perhaps you'd expect more in East Asia where pictogram script is in use), but his also helps them to duplicate errors even when in it is in their understanding to correct it.

With the upside down 'E' I feel many will struggle - the "T" "L" may well be understood - but perhaps only when it is inverted.

What's your experience Gino?

PS: Pointless fact: Siam is still the official name of the country as it was never ratified when it was changed to Thailand - which is and was required by following the move to a constitutional monarchy. The world and the country have accepted it, so it is here to stay (at least for the foreseeable future at least).


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## gino (Jul 20, 2009)

*Not sure it matters much*

I’ve always had a certain appreciation for calligraphy. Somehow, the ability to transform the most mundane words into artistic expressions which convey mood and inflection through the choice of font, pitch, kerning and color seems fascinating. I’m a bit of a font nut. I probably have fifty Thai fonts on my computer and am constantly on the lookout for others. (If anybody happens to have JS Wanidaas, please let me know. I haven’t found it anywhere.) 

When I learned to write Thai, I refused to trace the little dashed outlines in elementary books. Instead, I studied a comparison chart of twenty different fonts and tried to understand the essence of each letter and often combined features from different fonts into my own interpretation. 

And yet, I have considerable trouble reading Thai in some of the more stylistically extreme fonts used in advertisements and DVD covers. My Thai is so poor, I can’t always tell whether a highly stylized character is supposed to be a vowel or a tone mark. But then I sometimes have the same difficulty with inexpensively printed books and small fonts. 

I find most Thai handwriting largely incomprehensible. If a native Thai writes out something for me, I transcribe it in my own hand and ask for confirmation that I’ve correctly interpreted each character. So I’m not the one to ask. 

But I don’t think it matters much. T-shirts are conversation starters. If you wear an unusual shirt and somebody is inclined to talk, they’ll ask what it means or make some comment. But I'll show the design to some Thais at the Cultural Center and see what they say.


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