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New Apparel Styles

We’ve made some big changes in the past few weeks to our default color bundles. For 10+ years we’ve sold almost exclusively lightweight tees. First from American Apparel, then Next Level. We did offer a heavyweight tee from Gildan (first the 2000, then the 5000), but the intention

Pre-Order Campaign Deadlines

Hello! If you love a good screenprinted shirt (like we do) and want to offer a pre-order campaign on Cotton Bureau for the holidays, well, this is it. This is the holidays. Your last day to submit the campaign is Monday, November 25. That’s 10 days from today. All

Blog Back Catalog Restored

Finally, a minor housekeeping note, if you’ve been around since the beginning (👋), you’ve seen us go through a handful of long-form writing platforms and locations over the last 10+ years. While we’ve never stopped typing, a lot of those posts became hard or impossible to find. We’

Hand-Picked Links — November 11, 2024

We’re in the eye of the storm, folks. Appreciate this week or two before the holidays come crashing down. Here’s our ~weekly contribution to a nicer and healthier internet sharing ecosystem. Alphabet in Motion Our good friend Kelli Anderson is back with another impossible book, this time on

Feature Friday #021 — Fell

A married design team? Could it actually work? Meet Jorrien and Tiera Peterson, the awesome husband-wife team behind Fell. Turns out, it works *and* you can still homeschool your kids while spending 3 months abroad in Switzerland. Check out their favorite US parks, work process, and more below. And don&

Hand-Picked Links — October 21, 2024

Hey, just so you know, we’re going to be hanging out in Brooklyn Thursday and Friday this week at Creative Works East. Come say hi at the pop up market (we won’t be selling anything, but lots of other people are), or grab a ticket. It’s not

Hand-Picked Links — October 7, 2024

Welcome to Cotton Bureau’s hand-picked links for the week of October 7, 2024. Today we’re sharing three small businesses that could use your support, plus one giant business that really does not. Sourhouse + Hurricane Helene Recovery Our friends Erik and Jenny at Sourhouse, makers of the Goldie sourdough

Hand-Picked Links — September 30, 2024

We’ve got a great Kickstarter, a cool charity, an ice cream recco, tips on designing for dark mode, and some fun facts about Austin, Texas for you today. Plus, it’s your last chance to get something in our hands for Submission Impossible.  The Falcon Mechanical Pencil Currently available

Relay for St. Jude

Every year our friends at Relay FM raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital during the month of September. Since 2019 their efforts have resulted in over $3m being donated. This year they’ve already set a new record and are closing in on $1m. If you’d

Hand-Picked Links — September 16, 2024

We picked a pack of pickled pages for you today. Bon appétit. Art But Make It Sports The last good account on Twitter (non-Die, Workwear! division). Incredible work from one man. Follow the Account Relay FM / St. Jude Every year Relay FM spends all of September (Childhood Cancer Awareness Month)

Say cheese! iPhone 16 cases are here.

With support for the new Camera Control, Cotton Bureau phone cases are ready for their close up. Every phone case on Cotton Bureau has been updated with support for iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, and iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max. That includes our clear cases, slim cases,

Cotton Bureau: Submission Impossible

We are *so close* to 100,000 unique products on Cotton Bureau (96,397 and counting), but we need your help to make it all the way. Here’s what we’re going to do. From now until the end of September, all new approved products earn you a chance

Hand-Picked Links — August 26, 2024

We’re back after a hot summer hiatus. Did you miss us? Creative Works East It’s not too late to buy tickets for Creative Works East. Some of our best friends will be speaking including Jessica Hische, Kelli Anderson, Meg Lewis, Noah Jacobus, and Rogie King. (It doesn’t

Feature Friday #020 — Bryanne Skolaski

Hey hey, it's Feature Friday! Today we chat with Brie Skolaski about noisy snacks, relaxed farm friends, and a career full of problem solving. Check Brie out on Twitter after perusing her Cotton Bureau Collection here. Hi Brie! Welcome to our designer interview series. You're the

Feature Friday #019 — Mario Zucca

Illustrator of athletes, self-made thousandaire, and most importantly, long-time CB designer, Mario Zucca joins the program. We talk about Pittsburgh being the best city in the world and how the industry is changing. Check out his impressive work at mariozucca.com and his CB collection here. Usually we start off

Hand-Picked Links — July 1, 2024

Talking video games, national parks, smart writing, and happy birthdays today. Factorio: Space Age The folks at Wube Software made possibly my favorite PC game ever with the original Factorio (which you can and should buy right now if you haven’t already). They also write what may be the

Cotton Bureau is 11 Years Old!

We’re a little late to the party this year, but we’re not going to apologize because we have three huge announcements that are more than worth the wait. Free Shipping On Everything To celebrate our 11th birthday, we’re offering completely free shipping for everything on the entire

Get back to where we once belonged.

For the first few years of Cotton Bureau, the only way to get a shirt printed was with a two week screen printed pre-order campaign. That changed in 2015 when we dipped our toes in the on demand pool with direct-to-garment kids tees, and it really changed in 2018 when

Hand-Picked Links — June 10, 2024

Cotton Bureau’s Hand-Picked Links is back with a post-WWDC look at our favorite links from the past week, which just happen to be mostly videos. Ugmonk Discbound Heirloom Journal Almost out of stock — and really pushing your luck for Father’s Day — these olive leather journals with refillable paper

Hand-Picked Links — June 3, 2024

Cotton Bureau’s Hand-Picked Links took some time off for Memorial Day, but we’re back now with five more of our favorite stories, videos, apps, and toys. Lego Great Deku Tree Available in September for $299. Still cheaper than a sealed, first run Legend of Zelda cartridge for NES.

Hand-Picked Links — May 20, 2024

A few of our favorite food ‘grams, indie creators, and videos from last week. Valley Circle Pizza Our friend Dan Rubenstein — better known for college football podcast The Solid Verbal — happens to be an obsessed pizza chef. If you like to drool while you work, keep an eye on his

Feature Friday #018 — Yaron Schoen

Feature Friday #018 is here! Today we’re chatting with product designer extraordinaire and all around good dude Yaron Schoen. Check out Yaron’s website, and shop his collection on Cotton Bureau.   Yaron! It’s so good to catch up. I’m trying to remember when we met, was it

Hand-Picked Links — May 13, 2024

A few of our favorite links, long-reads, Kickstarters, and short videos from last week. DoughBed by Sourhouse If you’re serious about bread, you need to control temperature and humidity. Luckily our friends Erik and Jenny just launched a gorgeous glass-and-cork proofer to ensure the perfect mix of both on

Feature Friday #017 — Brianna Eng

Feature Friday #017 is here! Checkout Brianna's IG, Website, and full Cotton Bureau collection here. Read on to hear about all things art, bad roommates, and a guide to surviving Walmart after-hours.  Hiyah! I'm so excited to catch up with you. How's the art

Hand-Picked Links — May 6, 2024

A few of our favorite links from last week, plus a short video on the history of an iconic Apple sound. NWSL Stadium Guide Longtime friend of Cotton Bureau Matt Haughey recently vowed to start trying more weird stuff. His first project? Writing an unofficial guidebook to every National Women’

Feature Friday #016 — Ben Stafford

Collage master, CB alum, and new high school teacher Ben Stafford joins the program this week. His second stint in the interview chair explores how the younger generation uses AI, where his inspiration comes from, and what *hasn't* changed in the past 10 years. You find more of

Hand-Picked Links — April 29, 2024

A few of our favorite links from last week, plus one funny horse video that somehow we’re seeing just now. J.B. Mauney, Bull Rider Plates and screws in his shoulder, hand, and pelvis; a collapsed lung and a distended liver; broken eye-socket and jaw, shattered teeth; torn UCL,

Hand-Picked Links — April 22, 2024

Hey, hey. Welcome to week four of Cotton Bureau’s hand-picked links. Hope you don’t mind if we set the rest of this post in Papyrus. Smack for Heinz Chicago dogs are phenomenal whether you’re in Chicago or working from home, but as proud Pittsburghers, we firmly support

Drinks are on us.

Our catalog of on demand products is growing. Today we would like to officially announce support for a range of insulated drinkware including a 20oz tumbler (brushed steel, black powder coated, white powder coated), a 20oz white powder-coated skinny bottle with a screw-on cap, a 16oz clear acrylic cup with

Better international shipping.

A quick note for our friends abroad, we just added a new service level that we strongly recommend you use. The new default shipping option for international orders is about as close to a perfect blend of quick, reliable, and cheap as we’re going to get. To most places

Hand-Picked Links — Apr. 15, 2024

Welcome to Cotton Bureau’s hand-picked links, tax edition. Time to blow that refund. KNOB Keyboard Shipping in Q3, who doesn’t want a modular keyboard with two knobs, a tiny screen, magnetic risers, and electric orange accent keys? Designed by Ben Fryc, built by Work Louder. Pre-Order Now Mario

Hand-Picked Links — Apr. 8, 2024

Welcome to week two (total solar eclipse version 🌑🌞) of Cotton Bureau’s hand-picked links. We’re pulling some of our favorite internet finds each week to share with you. Russ Cook Runs YouTube is a weird place where the content of every video must contradict the title, like some Alice

Hand-Picked Links — Apr. 1, 2024

Welcome to the first edition of Cotton Bureau’s hand-picked links. We’re pulling some of our favorite internet finds each week to share with you. Brand New Fascinating story from Armin Vit on the third major revision of the Brand New identity. New logo, new colors, new typefaces… same

Feature Friday #015 — Matt Hamm

A CB OG joins us for Feature Friday #015. He's founder and co-owner of the Supereight Stuidio, a rock star in the making, and a crack Star Wars designer (always a CB fave). You can read more about his awesome work and see a full collection of products

New creator dashboard.

Behold the new creator dashboard. It’s simple, obvious, and functional. Like any other feature, we started off by asking ourselves what problem(s) we were trying to solve. In this case, there was a shared bundle of needs waiting for a unified solution. 1. The minute you have more

Feature Friday #014 — Gerren Lamson

Feature Friday #014 is here, and it’s a throwback interview with our old friend Gerren Lamson. The best place to keep up with Gerren’s incredible output is his website. Shop his full catalog at Nosmal or his Cotton Bureau collection here. Dude, I can’t believe it’s

Feature Friday #013 — Josh Gibson

Oh hello again! Here we go with Feature Friday #013! Today we get to hear about Josh Gibson, travel extraordinaire. You can find Josh on Instagram, his website or shop his Cotton Bureau collection here. Hey Josh! How's life? Any recent trips you want to share? Life is

On demand totes.

First up for the new year, our fourth unique on demand product: totes. When the big blizzard looms and you need to haul cans of chicken noodle soup, there’s nothing better than a high quality cotton canvas bag. Same sturdy OAD totes we’ve used for years, now available

New On Demand Hat Color: Forest.

It might be cold and snowy outside, but Cotton Bureau hats are evergreen. No, literally, we now have three hats in a new forest color. Joining black, charcoal, natural, white, navy, royal, light blue, and red, we’re pleased to make the unstructured dad hat, premium wool-blended snapback, and mesh-paneled

Feature Friday #012 — Maria Tina Beddia

Well hey there, here we are with Feature Friday #012! Today is all about Maria Tina Beddia. You can catch up with Maria on her website and Instagram or track her down at Maria's Bread Sandwiches. Hiya! We're going to do this interview a little bit

Feature Friday #011 — Todd Radom

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Feature Friday #011, our first in 2024, featuring friend of the site Todd Radom. Check out Todd’s incredible work over the years on his website. You can keep up with him on Twitter and Instagram. You might also like his tribute to Cuban baseball on

Brand new year.

Happy New Year. Let’s have a quick chat about what Cotton Bureau was able to accomplish (or not accomplish) in 2023 and where we hope to go in 2024. The Audit. 💼 On March 28, 2023 Cotton Bureau received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service advising us that our

The Official 2023 Cotton Bureau Holiday Gift Guide.

Welcome to the 2023 Cotton Bureau Holiday Gift Guide! While Cotton Bureau is a great place to start or finish your shopping, we would love to highlight some of the incredible designers, artists, and communities that we have had the pleasure of working with over the years. If you are

Give Back Friday is Back!

Raise your hand if you remember our last Give Back Friday. Anybody? Kind of hard to believe it’s already been five years since we most recently donated to classrooms across the country. But today school is back in session. Just like last time, we’re funding projects through Donors

Long sleeves for long days.

Just in time for winter weather we’ve got cozy looooong sleeve shirts live on the site. You don’t have to do anything (other than let people know). All products on the site using black, navy, charcoal, grey, white, or maroon color bundles have been automatically updated to include

Self-serve embroidery is here.

Earlier this year (April to be precise) we officially announced our third on demand product category: embroidered hats. That announcement included a fairly important caveat. At the time, the on demand embroidery program was extremely limited. Every new on demand hat needed to be sampled and photographed before it was

Feature Friday #010 — Chiara Mensa

Heyo! So excited to get a chance to chat with you. How's everything going? I just took a peek at your instagram and noticed the stamps you've been making? So cool. How'd you get into that? Hey Beth, It's so lovely to

Feature Friday #009 — Josh '@yoyoha' Hara

Hey Josh. Gotta say, I have a ton of questions for you so I'm pretty excited about his one. It seems like your journey to social media superstar status was kickstarted by your coffee cup sketches. It's been a minute since we've seen one

Feature Friday #008 — Sheri Roloff

Hey there, and welcome to Feature Friday #008, our series highlighting some of the incredible people on Cotton Bureau. You can find Sheri on Instagram and around the web. You can also shop her collection on Cotton Bureau. Hiiii, how's it going? Are you still located in Milwaukee?

Feature Friday #007 — Justin Van Genderen

It's another designer interview! Welcome to Feature Friday #007, our series highlighting some of the incredible people on Cotton Bureau. This week we have space design extraordinaire Justin Van Genderen. You can find him on Instagram and around the web. You can also shop his collection on Cotton

YouTube Shopping integration.

If there’s one story I have found repeating itself again and again over the last decade plus running a small business, it’s the value of persistence and patience. Too many times to count, someone I first spoke with years prior finds that the time is right for us

Feature Friday #006 — Andrew Griswold

Hey there, and welcome to Feature Friday #006, our series highlighting some of the incredible people on Cotton Bureau. You can find Andrew on Instagram and around the web. You can also shop his collection on Cotton Bureau. Hey, Andrew, you’ve got a ton of designs on Cotton Bureau

Feature Friday #005 — Christopher Michon

Hey there, and welcome to Feature Friday #005, our series highlighting some of the incredible people on Cotton Bureau. You can find Christopher on Instagram and around the web. You can also shop his collection on Cotton Bureau. What’s up! It’s been almost six years since we last

Feature Friday #004 — Tim Van Damme

Hey there, and welcome to Feature Friday #004, our series highlighting some of the incredible people on Cotton Bureau. You can find Tim on Instagram and around the web. If you’re looking to pick up Tim’s new Design hat or his classic Heart of Pixels tee, you can

Feature Friday #003 — Amanda Weedmark

Hey there, and welcome to Feature Friday #003, our series highlighting some of the incredible people on Cotton Bureau. You can find Amanda on Instagram, her website, or check out her entire Cotton Bureau portfolio. Hey Amanda! How's it going? Looks like you're coming up on

Cotton Bureau referral codes are here.

For years people have been asking you, “Where did you get that amazing t-shirt?” and you’ve been telling them, “Cotton Bureau. It’s where I get all my shirts.” purely from the goodness of your heart because you love your friends and you love Cotton Bureau even though there’

Feature Friday #002 — Steve Habersang

Hello, and welcome to Feature Friday #002, our new series highlighting some of the incredible people on Cotton Bureau. You can follow Steve on Instagram to keep up with all his work, or check out his entire Cotton Bureau portfolio. Hiii, how are you!? Looks like you've been

Feature Friday #001 — Virginia Poltrack

Hey, everyone. Welcome to a new series we’re starting highlighting some of the incredible people on Cotton Bureau. Virginia created our wonderful 10th birthday celebration tee (available only until Wednesday, June 21) and is a fantastic designer and illustrator. We previously interviewed Virginia all the way back in 2014

Cotton Bureau turns 10.

There’s a strangeness to sitting down to write an email celebrating 10 years of Cotton Bureau. It’s difficult, or maybe impossible, to express the gratitude you feel towards the people who have been a part of the last decade of your life… employees, customers, partners, investors, collaborators, family,

Updated mockup rendering.

Every time you visit the Cotton Bureau home page or a product page or pretty much any page on the website, what you are actually looking at when you see a t-shirt is a carefully rendered mockup. The artwork (the design file you gave us) is layered over (and sometimes

It’s National Parks week on Cotton Bureau.

It’s National Parks Week, and there’s no better way to celebrate than with a new tee from the Cotton Bureau NPS collection. Whether your favorite park is Acadia, Shenandoah, Yosemite, or Zion, we’ve got a shirt for you. By the way, we’re offering free shipping this

Hats for your heads.

We’ve been making hats almost as long as we’ve been making t-shirts, though on a much smaller scale. For just as long, we’ve been asking ourselves, “why can’t we sell hats on demand? People seem to like ‘em.” Well, now we can. We are very pleased

Coming soon.

Sometimes you work hard all month, and… you have nothing to show for it. You can’t talk about the new on demand product that is almost ready, or the other new on demand product that is coming soon. You definitely can’t talk about the highly classified on demand

New and improved sales reports.

Want to see real time stats for your product sales? Pop over to your account, view a product, and click through to the new “Sales Stats” page. Sales can be viewed by month, day, and most recent. Aggregated sales are also filterable by product attributes like color and size. Take

New profile link options.

As the Twitter implosion continues unabated, we took a moment to revisit Cotton Bureau profiles and the support we offer for outbound links. Until today, your only options were Twitter, Instagram, and a generic link field to be used at your discretion. We’ve significantly extended that now to include

Looking back, and forward.

Unless you spent 2022 hiding under a rock (we wouldn’t blame you), you might have heard we started offering premium phone cases. The cases are tough (confirmed through more than a few drops in our personal testing), the printing is sharp, and the price is right. It’s our

Holiday high five is back.

Not long ago (okay, it was 2018), we had the brilliant idea to randomly give away matching prizes to customers and creators. Well, we’re doing it again. We’re hereby announcing the First Annual Holiday High Five, 2022 Edition. Starting now, ending Friday, Dec. 16 at 8 PM ET

Site updates.

Account Balance All accounts on Cotton Bureau now having a running balance (“to be paid”) which is settled monthly (typically the 15th). You can see yours right now in your payment history tab. (Not the most obvious place, we know. Maybe it will get rearranged in the future.) In the

Last chance to win an iPhone 14 Pro.

Our extended phone case kickoff is coming to an end this Monday (Dec. 5). If you’ve already added a few phone case designs to the site, thank you! Every new phone case product counts as an entry for the giveaway up to the maximum of 10 entries. The winner

Ho, ho, ho-lidays.

There are rumors that retail stores have begun playing Christmas music and selling all manner of year-end paraphernalia. We give no credence to these rumors, but they must be acknowledged. Naturally, Cotton Bureau is deep into planning and executing our own brilliant plan to take over the world promote your

Discounts, discounts, discounts.

Friends & Family Discount The friends and family discount is back! OG Cotton Bureaucrats will remember the friends and family discount code tucked deep inside their accounts, reserved for only the nearest and dearest in your life. As of a few weeks ago, that code (the same one) is back,

Win a FREE iPhone 14 Pro.

This is not a drill. A phone case is only as good as the phone it’s… encasing, so we want you to have nothing but the best. We are giving away a brand-new iPhone 14 Pro to one Cotton Bureau designer. Starting right now and ending 11:59 PM

Store sorting, searching, filtering, and more.

Once upon a time, the only thing you could buy on Cotton Bureau was a t-shirt. Like literally a t-shirt. One t-shirt. If you were the person selling this t-shirt, you would grab the link and send it to your people. You would say something like, “Here is my t-shirt!

Phone cases are LIVE!

Not gonna lie, we are beyond excited to announce that support for phone cases is now officially available to all sellers. These cases are absolutely phenomenal. From the tough cases with built-in magnets for charging to the slim and clear cases, we think there’s something for everyone. We can’

Phone cases are (almost) here.

Wow, thank you all so much. We were overwhelmed by the response to last month’s email teasing a new! and exciting! product from Cotton Bureau. As many of you now know, Product X is phone cases. Specifically, a healthy range of beautiful yet durable cases available for iPhones 12

[Product X] is coming.

Cotton Bureau is known for one thing: incredibly soft and long-lasting t-shirts. Sure, if you look hard enough you can find other products on the site, like fancy pens, adult onesies, BBQ passports, silly socks — plus mugs, prints, stickers, magnets, and more. But all of those other products have something

Welcome to the Back Room.

Not quite one month ago (June 12), we quietly celebrated a frankly astonishing nine years of Cotton Bureau. We’ve seen presidents come and go. We’ve worked from one office, then a new office, then from home, and now sometimes from home and sometimes from yet another office. We

Saying Goodbye to Blank

TLDR: we have stopped production of new Blank t-shirts. Unprinted Blank teeshave been reduced to $16 (normally $32) until they’re all gone. Cotton Bureau graphic tees will still be available on Blank as long as we have stock. There’s a lot more to the story, so don’t

Introducing Cotton Bureau Plus

Cotton Bureau was founded as a platform for the best individual designers and illustrators to sell their work on t-shirts, but looking back, we always found ourselves teaming up with communities and personalities a little (or a lot) out of our league. From our early work with the charity Still

ALL THE TEES 2018 Starts Now!

Hello Cotton Bureau friends, The holidays are HERE! And as always, we’re celebrating the only way we know how — by giving YOU all the gifts! Remember our High-Five giveaway for our 5th birthday back in June? Well, imagine that, only BIGGER. From right now through December 10, we’ll

High-fives for big prizes—our biggest birthday giveaway ever starts now!

Cotton Bureau is officially five years old! Hard to believe, right? They grow up so fast. Truth be told, we’ve never been big on birthdays though, so this year we’re making it a birthWEEK! C’mon we’re 5, not dead. Of course we’re gonna go big,

UPDATE: Top Pun Tournament Bracket is Here!

WE HAVE A BRACKET! The field is set! CB’s first ever Top Pun Tournament tips today. Four quadrants, 5 rounds, and 32 of the punniest tees our designers could come up with all come down to one winner on April 5th. Buckle up, there’s gonna be a lot

The Blank Slate Sale (or, Why You Can’t Buy Cotton Bureau Designs on Blank Yet)

We’re about to do something you probably don’t expect: all current stock of Blank shirts is on clearance for $14 (normally $28) with free US shipping from now through February 28 or until it’s all gone, whichever comes first. If you backed Blank on Kickstarter and love

Rewards are out the door!

The CB team has been busy packing up your Blank rewards (and 20,000 other tees from this year’s #ALLTHETEES). As of today, I’m happy to say that all of your tees are out the door and on their way to you, with one exception. Unfortunately, I discovered

Recap: Give Back Friday 2017

This holiday season is a little happier thanks to all of you. A few weeks ago y’all teamed up with us to raise $4,194 for Donor’s Choose causes. Nice work, fam! Just to add a little perspective, your generosity helped eight classrooms and 890 students get the

Give Back Friday 2017: Raise ALL THE MONEY with ALL THE TEES

It’s the holidays, so we’re temporarily raising prices. Nope, we didn’t stutter, we’re raising prices. We’ve got a good reason, and it’s not that we all need a week in Hawaii. This Friday, November 17, is Give Back Friday. Here’s the lowdown. On

Meet our factory

It’s hard to believe it’s already been over a month since our Kickstarterwrapped. Hopefully you claimed your shirt at the time. If you haven’t, it’s not too late. You can still pre-order Blank in all sizes and colors on Cotton Bureau. Now, let’s get to

Work at Cotton Bureau, maybe.

Well, here we are. It’s that time of year, and we need your help. For real. If you’ve ever worn a shirt or seen one irl, we could use you on the Cotton Bureau team as a fulfillment specialist this holiday season. We’ve grown a lot in

Casting call!

We need models. Okay, what we really mean is that we need people… like the kind who wear our tees, or better yet, the kind who are excited about our new Blank tees. Are you a human between sizes XS and 5X and not too shy in front of a

Just Blank it

You heard us… Just Blank it. That means we want you to tell your timeline, favorite forum, and family about our Kickstarter. We know we’ve asked you before, but this time it’s different. Here’s how: Let’s make today the largest share day of our campaign. We

BONUS TIME: Get us to $100k and we’ll add another color 🤔

We’ll just cut to the chase here. We are a few thousand dollars away from reaching our 100% cotton olive stretch goal at $96k. We have 3 hours left to do it. If we reach it, we’ll cut the $12k minimum for our next stretch goal. That’s

Thank you, thank you, thank you! We did it!

Elvis has left the Kickstarter! The Blank campaign is over and 197% funded! Y’all brought the noise and helped us finish strong at almost $95k! And we mean that. Your tweeting, posting, and sharing accounted for a significant chunk of our funding success. Alright, where are the tissues? We

That’s a wrap!

Last night, we put our Blank Kickstarter to bed at the very reasonable time of 8PM. It has been an amazing 28 days, and we’re blown away by the tremendous support we’ve received. Thank you for making our dream of good fitting, ethically made, size inclusive shirts a

Behind the Scenes, Kickstarter Bloopers

It’s all in the details

Hey everyone, Michelle here. I know we’ve been yapping on about our Kickstarter for the last few weeks (can you blame us?), but I want to fill you in on what I’ve been working on with the team since we put our test samples out back in July.

Behind the Scenes, Factory Footage

Behind the Scenes, Nailed It

Behind the Scenes, Let’s Make Some Shirts

Behind the Scenes, Why Blank

Behind the Scenes, We Hear You, and We’re Sorry

Achievement unlocked!

Our Blank Kickstarter is over $72,000 and you know what that means: tri-blend red is official! Your support and enthusiasm continues to amaze us. So now you’re probably wondering what your reward is for getting us over the hump. Well, besides unlocking a rad new tee color, we’

Behind the Scenes, Finding the Perfect T-shirt Size

Behind the Scenes, Customer Outtakes

Behind the Scenes, Customer Complaints

One week down, more stretch goals to go!

Happy anniversary! We know we’ve only been together for a week and we’ve got a long way to go, but we’re gonna celebrate anyway. You’ve probably heard that we already reached our funding goal and our first stretch goal. Not bad for the first seven days,

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Colors

Our supporters called in the whole fleet and we’re proud to welcome tri-blend navy tees to the Blank family. Nice job on that stretch goal, everyone! But we’re not just going to rest on our laurels, lounging away in our sweet navy tees. We’re going to set

Fully funded in 27 hours — Now let’s talk stretch goals!

A little more than 24 hours in and we are fully funded, thanks to all of you! Here’s what that means: 1. Blank is a reality! It’s actually happening, people! Get excited. 2. Our backers are (still) amazing. We were pretty confident we’d meet our goal, but

We’re almost there!

Point Blank: you guys are amazing! Less than eight hours in and we’re over 75% funded! We’ve raised $36,000+ since launching at 10:00 ET this morning. That’s a lot of t-shirts! Again, you’ve overwhelmed us with your support. And, again, we can’t say

All systems go

Today’s the day you’ve been waiting for (well, today and the next 27 days) … our Blank Kickstarter has launched! Our project to design and produce better fitting t-shirts for women and men is finally a reality. You want in? All we need from you is $48,000. Relax,

Prepare for launch

We have a confession to make: We love our women’s t-shirts. Alright that’s a little inaccurate, let’s be more specific: We love our new women’s t-shirts. Sound familiar? That’s probably because you remember where we were six months ago… you know, back when you told

Happy Blank Day

It’s our birthday and we’ll talk about Blank if we want to! That’s right, Cotton Bureau turnsfour years old today and we’re celebrating by focusing on our newest project—and by giving away a bunch of 20% off coupons and $400 Amazon gift cards (more about

The samples are coming, the samples are coming!

Last week we asked you guys to help us celebrate turning the big 0-4…and you didn’t disappoint. Over 3,000 people signed up to become Blank testers! We’re overwhelmed by your interest and support. Here’s what happens now: * We’ve spent this week poring over the

Started from the bottom, now we’re…somewhere in the middle.

Back in mid-February, we lifted the lid on Blank, our mission to make better t-shirts for women (and men). Then, well, we disappeared for a few months. Frankly, we’ve been a little busy this year: packing and shipping almost 100,000 shirts (more than all of last year), moving

Honest Sales

Our approach to sales at Cotton Bureau is simple: find people who want what we have, or, at least, need what we have and just don’t know it yet. That’s worked out well so far, but if we’re being honest—and, you know, that is the theme—

Better t-shirts for women (and men too). Say hello to Blank by Cotton Bureau.

We have a confession to make: our women’s t-shirts suck. Alright, maybe that’s a little inaccurate, let’s be more specific: our women’s t-shirt sizing sucks. It always has, and if you’ve ever bought a women’s t-shirt from us and it was way too small,

Where we stand.

The past four days have been extraordinary, both for the United States of America and for us as a company. Designers are using Cotton Bureau as a platform for t-shirts spreading messages of love and charity — and messages of protest and defiance. We’ve sold far more shirts since this

Give Back Friday 2016

It's that time of year again, where brands (coughcough like us) try to sell as much stuff as humanly possible before the holidays are over. But last year, we decided that we wanted to use the weaponized force of consumer behavior for some good, and borrowing a few

We're hiring a designer!

Hi there, friends. We're hiring a designer. This is a full-time, salaried position on the mighty Cotton Bureau squad. We're not actually sure what to call this position specifically, because, well, our industry isn't quite sure what to call it either. Web designer. Interface

A Good Endeavor

I’m not sure how to tell this story other than candidly and from the beginning. Cotton Bureau was conceived all the way back in 2011 as an extension of United Pixelworkers, a place our friends (designers and businesses alike) could sell high-quality, well-designed t-shirts on a pre-order basis just

Democracy Design Challenge

Cotton Bureau has been around for more than three years, and believe it or not, in all that time, we've never give you a theme for design submissions. That ends today, because this month's design challenge is...DEMOCRACY. It's go time here in America.

We’re Turning 3!

We’re turning 3, and we want you to have all the presents! Read on to learn more.

Freshly Laundered 038 / Matt Hamm

British designer and illustrator Matt Hamm hit a thread with his Deathstar Interior Lighting shirt design - it’s one of our top 20 all-time best sellers. Pretty impressive considering it’s been on the site less than nine months. We sat down for a quick interview on the man

Freshly Laundered 037 / Bridget Reed

Philadelphia based Designer Bridget Reed hasn’t been in the design business long, but she’s already faced her fair share of hurdles and learned some good lessons along the way. Read on to learn more about her trials and tribulations, and how she’s overcome. CB: Give us a

Cotton Bureau 2.0

N.B. design has been modified since publication. Make new home pages, but keep the old; one is silver, the other, gold, is, to the best of my knowledge, how the saying goes. Last week we soft-launched the new Cotton Bureau home page. It (finally) has touch navigation for product

Getting Our Story Straight

Cotton Bureau as it exists today didn’t arise in a vacuum, nor did it emerge from our shared consciousness in a fully realized state. Its quirks and idiosyncrasies, beauties and strengths, warts and blemishes are a textbook case of the intertwingled roles of nature and nurture. Much of the

Start Somewhere

Please bear with me. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything substantial, anything that presumes to represent the company I co-founded. I am therefore falling back on the old crutch of writers everywhere: writing about the process of writing. I wish there was another way. We (Jay

Introducing “Cotton Bureau At Large”, Or “At Large”, For Short

In the fine tradition of, uhm, Bill Simmons, we’d like to share the origin story of At Large. Naming is both more and less important than you think it is. For us, without a name, we have a hard time moving forward. It isn’t real until it’s

The March Madness Sale

Celebrate March Madness with Cotton Bureau. Get 10% off this order and a coupon for 10% off your next order when you use the code “MARCHMADNESS” at checkout.

Give Back Friday Update

This past November we wanted to do something to give back to local communities in an impactful way. After researching charities to make sure that the donations we would provide would make a real difference, we settled on working with Donors Choose and Give Back Friday was born. Thanks to

Win-try Giveaway

The East Coast is about to be dumped upon by Snowstorm Jonas, so we thought we'd do something fun to convince you to enjoy the snow (or sun depending upon your location). This weekend we want you to get outside. Throw on a CB tee or sweatshirt, head

Freshly Laundered 036 / Josh Lewis

We took a few moments to catch up with graphic designer and illustrator, Josh Lewis recently. After getting a chance to meet him in person at Creative Works, we knew he’d be a fun interview. Read on to learn how he turned a personal project into something much more.

Freshly Laundered 035 / Lain Lee

San Francisco based designer Lain Lee lives and breathes his personal motto “Design with passion, deliver with purpose.” We had a chance to catch up before 2015 ended and get his thoughts on what that means and how he puts those words into action every day. Read on to learn

We're Giving Away The Droid You're Looking For.

Buy a shirt, win a robot toy.

Give Back Friday

Black Friday is coming next week (and we have some dark, dark things planned), but in the meantime, we decided to brighten things up a bit this holiday season with a new thing we're calling Give Back Friday. What the heck is Give Back Friday? Here's

Introducing Cotton Bureau Kids

Introducing Cotton Bureau Kids! After months of research and preparation, and years of fielding requests from customers and designers alike, we’re finally ready to launch kids apparel. We're not kidding! As we speak, there are 50+ (and counting) new and classic designs ready for your little ones.

Freshly Laundered 034 / Chudo Loo

Product Designer Chudo Loo has been in the industry for over 15 years, coming of age just as the first dot com bubble burst. Learn how his interest in anime and manga turned into a deep appreciation and love for art, which fueled his decision to make a career out

Freshly Laundered 033 / Beth Sicheneder

This week we spoke to Beth Sicheneder, a junior designer based in Minneapolis. While she’s only just started along her career path, she already has some great advice we can all take to heart (especially for us introverts.) Read on. CB: Tell us a little about yourself - how

We're Making The Switch

Back in late June we asked you all to help us determine whether or not we should switch away from American Apparel tees for our shirt blanks. Thanks to the more than 500 of you who ordered over 650 tees to test drive, the results are finally in: we will

Freshly Laundered 032 / Martha Rich

Philadelphia based artist Martha Rich got started in the art world after a desk job turned her into someone she didn’t like so much. Learn how she transitioned into being a full-time artist and how she stays excited by work now by checking out our full interview below the

Freshly Laundered 031 / Gerren Lamson

Our most recent interview catches up with Gerren Lamson. As the Head of Design & Community at Creative Market, he gets a chance to make sure that the work he does makes an impact, not just on the business, but on the greater community as well. Read on to see

WMC Fest Giveaway

Update: our winner is Michael Smith We’re going to Cleveland next weekend and we want you to go too! Yep, that’s right, we’re giving away one set of sold out three day passes for the entire weekend of WMC Fest. WMC is being held Friday through Sunday,

We're Hiring a Design Coordinator!

UPDATE: Thanks to everybody who threw their hat(s) in the ring for this opening. The response was honestly overwhelming. We not only found one new Design Coordinator...we found two! More soon once they've been properly brainwashed. If you’ve ever posted a design on Cotton Bureau,

#buysmall, Think Big

Last Wednesday was Amazon.com’s 20th anniversary, which they celebrated with a membership-drive-slash-Black-Friday-in-July event known as Prime Day. We respect Amazon and how far they’ve come—how many other 20-year-old websites can you think of?—but (and this is just, like, our opinion) we happen to think that

#buysmall

How many of you know about this Amazon Prime Day situation? Pardon us if you do, but for those who don’t, Amazon is trying to invent their own Black Friday-in-July by dropping prices all over the place. Wanna help us mess it up (and support some awesome small/independent

Death of a Slack Room

All things must end. Cotton Bureau Slack rides into the sunset Friday.

Freshly Laundered 030 / Jen Mussari

Jen Mussari is a lettering artist, designer, and illustrator who currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. We asked the coolest gal around to chat with us about her background and how she made the transition to full-time creative work. Read on for the full interview. CB: Give us some

Tag, You're It

To be honest, things have gotten a little unwieldy around here. There are a hundred shirts for sale on the site at any given time (not to mention thousands more that have gone to the Wall of Fame), and we're long past the point where browsing through them

Freshly Laundered 029 / Phil Coffman

Phil Coffman is a designer living and working out of the well-known design capital of the south, Austin, TX. He founded and built Method & Craft, an industry “behind the scenes” blog beloved by many and in the last year, transitioned into a new role at PCPartPicker. Read on to

Freshly Laundered 028 / Beto Petiches

Beto Petiches is an illustrator, animator, and graphic designer from Mexico City. Despite spending most of the past four years working on a singular project, he has still found time to doodle some great tees for us! Read on to learn how he turned a life of doodling into a

Testing...testing. Wanna help us test some tees?

TL;DR We're considering a Cotton Bureau-wide switch from American Apparel tees to Next Level tees, so we're selling a CB Test Pattern tee at cost—$12–14—to get as many of them in your hands as possible so we can test them at scale.

Freshly Laundered 027 / Brent Schoepf

Designer, photographer, and musician Brent Schoepf hails from the land of lakes, Minnesota. Despite the bitter winters he finds plenty to keep him busy. Read on to see how this jack of all trades balances his roster of creative endeavours. CB: You’re a graphic designer by day, a wedding

Coming Soon to a City Near You

Cotton Bureau is embarking on a mini-speaking tour this summer/fall, and we might just be rolling through a city near you. Weapons of Mass Creation, Aug. 7–9 First up, Weapons of Mass Creation in nearby Cleveland, Ohio! Jay and I will be walking you through our weird and

Freshly Laundered 026 / Mackey Guenther

Mackey Guenther is a student, designer, and developer hailing from the great PNW, Seattle to be exact. While Mackey is our youngest designer, he’s also one of our most prolific. Over the past two years (literally, he was one of the designers on the site on the very first

Cotton Bureau Turns 2

Cotton Bureau has officially entered the Terrible Twos! But unlike a normal two-year-old, we're not going to throw a tantrum and demand ice cream...instead, we're giving away fun gifts! Here's the deal: anyone who buys a shirt today (midnight to midnight Eastern Time)

Freshly Laundered 025 / Bob Ewing

Graphic designer and letterer, Bob Ewing works and plays in Indianapolis. He recently launched a new side project, INCH X INCH with friend and fellow designer, Drew Hill. We chatted with Bob last month about side projects, how he got his start, and what it means to belong to a

Freshly Laundered 024 / Katie Campbell

Katie Campbell lives and works in beautiful Savannah, Georgia. As a Senior Designer at SCAD who does freelance t-shirt design and illustration on the side, she wears a lot of hats in her professional life. Read on to see how she balances both gigs. CB: In your day job you’

Freshly Laundered 018 / Neven Mrgan

Neven Mrgan has created such memorable games as Blackbar, The Incident, and Space Age. Based in Portland, Oregon he works as a designer at Panic Inc and enjoys cooking creative dishes for his family come dinner time. Read on to see how he balances work, family, and designing games we

Freshly Laundered 023 / Matt Braun

Senior Designer Matt Braun lives and works just down the street from us here in Pittsburgh. As part of the team at Bearded he designs award winning websites for clients near and far. Here we’ve interviewed him about his love of Type and his work in relation to that.

So You Want to Make Even More T-Shirts

Selling t-shirts online has never been easier. We’re here to help you do it at scale.

Freshly Laundered 022 / Matt McDaniel

UX Designer Matt McDaniel works and plays in Austin, TX. We spent a little time chatting with him about UX design and the Tron soundtrack. Read on. CB: Give us the Matt McDaniel backstory - how’d you get interested in being a designer in the first place? MMcD: Well…

Freshly Laundered 021 / Stewart Scott-Curran

Scottish transplant Stewart Scott-Curran is a designer & CreativeMornings organizer living in San Francisco. We chatted with him about the differences he’s found about work culture in America, accepting criticism, and championing the people and things he loves. Read on to get the scoop! CB: How did you get

Freshly Laundered 020 / Lisa Llanes

Todays interview is a quick chat with New York resident and designer Lisa Llanes. If you read to the end, you’ll even get the scoop on the best ramen in NYC - perfect for your next trip to the big apple! CB: You went to college for Public Relations,

Freshly Laundered 019 / Alana Lyons

Designer and illustrator, Alana Lyons moved from Pittsburgh, PA to Austin, TX almost a year ago. We caught up with her to learn about how she’s liking ATX so far, and how she’s keeping busy now that she’s all settled in. Read on to learn more about

Freshly Laundered 017 / Noah Jacobus

Noah Jacobus is a graphic designer located in Lexington, KY. He spends his days as Brand Manager for Southland Christian Church and his nights making beautiful themes for slackhq (we’re currently using Alto Lux). Read on to find out which designer Noah would most like to have over for

Freshly Laundered 016 / Jenny Tiffany

Jenny Tiffany is a freelance illustrator and designer living and working in Portland, OR. Her design style is whimsical, retro, minimalist, and happy. You can’t look at her work without smiling. Read on to learn more about Jenny and her inspirations away from the computer. CB: You have a

Freshly Laundered 015 / Ben Stafford

Ben Stafford is a graphic designer living and working in Columbus, Ohio. We spoke with him to get the scoop on what it’s like to work with your spouse, from home, with a small child underfoot. Read on to learn more about Ben and the designers he’d like

Freshly Laundered 014 / Jory Raphael

Our fourteenth interviewee (and first for 2015) is Jory Raphael. Jory is the co-founder of Notabli, a designer, illustrator, awesome Dad, and pretty funny guy. You may know him from such things as his line of vector icons, Symbolicons, his artwork for 5by5.tv, or perhaps one of our best

Better Than Cheap

What if I told you, there was something better than cheap t-shirts? What if I told you, that’s what we have at Cotton Bureau?

What’s New?

A lot changes in a few months, it turns out. Let’s run through it all, shall we?

Freshly Laundered 013 / Wade Ryan

Lucky number 13, Wade Ryan, is a designer living and working in Dallas, Texas. When he’s not busy designing sports trading cards at his day job, he’s out exploring the scene and sharpening his skills with a little side work. Read on to learn more about Wade. CB:

Freshly Laundered 012 / Jamey Erickson

Our latest interview is with designer Jamey Erickson, from Minneapolis. We got the low down on his background and hobbies, from working with bands, to running his own agency, then folding that agency, to taking pictures of the moon from his backyard and teaching little kids to love science. Read

Freshly Laundered 011 / Mikey Burton

Mikey Burton is a self-described “designy illustrator” based in Chicago. After ten years in the biz he’s found a great sense of his own personal style. To find out about his newest blog, Barrel Body and how he got to where he is now, read on. CB: Why/where’

Freshly Laundered 010 / Adé Hogue

Adé Hogue (pronounced ah-dae) is a young Chicago based graphic designer. While his time in the design world has been short, he’s had no problem coming up with ideas for how to get his creative ideas out into the world. Click through to learn more about this up-and-coming designer.

Freshly Laundered 009 / Simon Walker

Simon Walker is a freelance designer and custom typographer based in Austin, Texas. He’s donated the proceeds from both of the hand-lettered tees he’s done on Cotton Bureau to a friend battling cancer. Nice and talented, read on to learn more about the man behind the Super Furry

Freshly Laundered 008 / Mundania Horvath

Our latest interviewee is a Pittsburgh local and CB pal, Mundania Horvath. Dane is very active in the local design/maker community, runs a popular local blog, and supports various events year round. Read on for more about her background and her ever evolving artistic endeavours. CB: When we were

Freshly Laundered 007 / Virginia Poltrack

Illustrator extraordinaire Virginia Poltrack is lucky number seven in our interview series. Her Mollusca Cephalopoda tee is one of our all-time best sellers and probably not just because she’s exceedingly nice. Click through to learn more about her love for illustration and her experiences with Google Glass. CB: How’

Freshly Laundered 006 / Judson Collier

When designer and letterer Judson Collier launched his Fake It Till You Make It tee this past June, he did it in a way we’d never seen before. We had to get the scoop behind the idea for his dedicated site and his “celebrity endorsements”. Click through to get

Freshly Laundered 005 / Josh LaFayette

We recently caught up with Boston-based designer and illustrator Josh LaFayette in order to get the skinny on his background, the transition to going freelance, and how a positive outlook in all aspects of your life is essential. Click through for the entire interview and a roundup of some of

Designer Profiles

Say hello to designer profiles.

Freshly Laundered 004 / Cameron Sandage

Designer Cameron Sandage recently moved from Portland, OR to Austin, TX to join the team at IBM Design. Over the past seven months he’s had five shirts for sale on our site, two of them successfully going to print. Cam is never one to shy away from ambition, which

Freshly Laundered 003 / Christopher Michon

Christopher Michon is a graphic designer, dad, and husband living just north of Boston. Back in May we convinced him to do a t-shirt with us and his Hot Dog tee went to press just in time for Memorial Day weekend. We checked in with him recently to hear about

Mystery Tees

Get a cheap Cotton Bureau shirt in absolutely perfect condition.

Discounts Are Here!

Learn all about the magic of discounts.

Freshly Laundered 002 / Robyn Kanner

Robyn Kanner is a designer based out of Portland, Maine. Her first tee with us, Dozen, is one of our all-time best sellers (and available again for purchase as of this moment). We checked in with her last week to see what was new. CB: Tell us how you got

Doldrums

When Cotton Bureau launched last summer, an immediate wave of attention washed over us; the swells that followed in its wake obscured a critical reality of commerce: the summer slump.

Freshly Laundered 001 / Ryan Hamrick

Since Cotton Bureau opened our doors a little over a year ago, letterer and designer (and our good friend) Ryan Hamrick has quickly become one of our most prolific designers. In the past twelve months he’s had six different tees for sale on the site, with five of them

Selling Out

I heard a story one time (a quite old story) about a man and a woman playing a little game of something like truth-or-dare at a dinner party. The man, allegedly and, in all likelihood, inappropriately identified as Winston Churchill, poses the following hypothetical to the woman, “Madam, would you

Happy Birthday to Us

On June 12, 2013—one year ago today—we launched Cotton Bureau.

Survey Results

The survey results are in. Before we talk about them, however, we need to warn you that this post is going to be long and scattered. It’s fascinating to read the feedback you all were kind enough to provide. We want to answer as many of your questions as

How are we doing?

First, a sincere thank-you to everyone who spent a few seconds this morning answering our quick poll on Three Cents. While that was fun, it whet our appetite for more. If you have a few minutes, we would be ever so grateful if you would fill out our new, slightly

A. Always.

Two years ago, long before Cotton Bureau existed, we reached out to someone about a possible job for our now defunct client services company. It would have been a very high profile job, and we had good reason to believe we had a shot. The owner (someone with whom we

Site Refresh

A few weeks ago we intro’ed a fresh coat of paint on the Cotton Bureau home page. Here’s what you need to know: Hero Cards Remember that mangy, old hero area we had? Said something like, “Say hello to Cotton Bureau. The curated, crowd-funded t-shirt community for designers.

Meet Cotton Bureau

For too long, we’ve been nameless, faceless bureaucrats. It’s time to say hello to the team. First up, meet Jay. Jay’s in charge of colors, shapes, and letters. Oh, and if you want to get your shirt onto Cotton Bureau, Jay’s the one you need to

12 Gets You Printed. 25 Gets You Paid.

If we had it our way, every shirt on Cotton Bureau would make it to print. The reality is, selling 25 shirts in two weeks is a pretty steep climb for most designers, and only about 40% of shirts make it. Though that number is greater than we expected when

True Shopping Cart

Last month we updated the Cotton Bureau checkout experience. Here's what you need to know: Buy Multiple Items See a shirt you like? Add it to the cart. Notice another shirt you just can’t live without? Put it in the cart too. What’s the big deal,

How to Sell 25 Shirts in Two Weeks

Text: UPDATE 4/15/2014: Now designers only need to sell 12 shirts to make it to print. However, you still need to sell 25 shirts to get your share of the profit. Carry on. Congratulations! Your shirt has been accepted by the highly selective cadre of judges, suits, and

The Official Cotton Bureau T-Shirt Mockup Template

Want to mock up a t-shirt idea? Need to know which colors we offer? Download our free Cotton Bureau T-Shirt Mockup Template PSD. Here's how it works: * Download the file and open it up in your favorite Photoshop-like program. * Open your Layers palette (seems obvious, but hey, you

Designers, Designers, Designers

Look, we know where our bread is buttered. Without designers, there is no Cotton Bureau. With that in mind, we have two very important announcements to make: 1. We can (finally) accept international design submissions. 2. Designer accounts are a real thing. International Way back in 2013 we launched Cotton