A recent trend in indie apparel is the use of collages as a design motif for t shirt designs.

This tactic is similar to the appropriation movement in art, where artists took photographs from advertisement and rearranged them so that the original message was misconstrued. Though the appropriation movement made bold statements, the collages that appear on clothing is simply for aesthetic.  It is this aesthetic through a mixture of photographs that creates a creative t shirt design that is unique from other products.  An artist who makes custom artwork that use colleges is Ken Marshall Motley. Though his works are still relatively unknown his creations that incorporate photography as well as illustrations are an edgy concoction of our media.

It is with the interesting imagery that collages create that larger clothing companies are also utilizing them in their apparel. Companies such as Nike have created shirts that have photo collages as well as DesignGive which recently created “The Africa Now” shirt.  This t shirt is more associated with the appropriation art movement because it makes a statement through the content that appears on the collage.  The designer specifically created a collage of illustrations that depicted issues that are happening in Africa.  Through this collage work the designer created a shirt that would be profitable and would also make a statement about the resent conditions of Africa.  These t shirts along with other products being sold with collage work are proof that the esthetic along with the imagery being used can make an excellent design motif for clothing.