more about the project

research on…

The project ‘greetings from … ‘ is an initiative from Juul Lit. It started as her graduation project at the art academy AKV. St. Joost. as a critique on the current mass produced souvenirshirts. After a broad visual and theoretical investigation, she concluded that the souvenir shirt in its current form is not a good souvenir at all. A souvenir has the most important functions that it is a showpiece and that it should serve as a reminder. The French word souvenir therefore literally means memory.

What is wrong with the current, mass-produced souvenir shirt is that there are often certain sights on it that you have not visited at all and that you therefore have no memory of. It’s not like everyone does the same things on a holiday or remembers the same things off a place. Memories are something very personal, so a mass produced t-shirt could never make this happen for so many different journeys of so many different people.

design method

So Juul created a design method for a souvenir shirt that meets your destinations. She invented a design methodology where the souvenirshirt wil be raised into a personal reminder and showpiece. This is how:

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You take a route on your vacation. This route is personal but the feeling cohering to this route is even more personal. We live in a time where everything is recorded, stored and kept up to date. Why should we not use this to create an unique souvenir? When you order a shirt you insert the locations you’ve visited.

For example you went to Amsterdam for a day; you arrived at the Central Station, went to the Rijksmuseum, ate a hotdog at the Dam afterwards and at last took a walk at the Vondelpark. This route you have traveled that day will be converted into a line sculpture which will be the design of your shirt.

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Besides that you can sent her your favorite holiday picture which will be converted personally and by hand into an illustration. The combination of the line sculpture and the image will create a unique showpiece of your holiday.

When you get your t-shirt right again a few years later and look at it you’re thoughts are immediately at the hotdog stand on the Dam where you had the tastiest hotdog you’ve ever ate and where your girlfriend got food poisoning. Just because of your co-designed souvenirshirt!

Photography by Sabine van de Korput en Juul Lit