“Print is Dead” T-Shirt Puts Roses on 50 Years of Relix
Along with some print industry commentary and history
People seek connection. Dead Relix, a zine first printed in 1974, aimed to connect Grateful Dead fans and build the tape trading community. It evolved beyond Dancing Bears and Steal Your Face into a smart, entertaining magazine that I’ve subscribed to intermittently over the past quarter of a century. The daily newsletter hits my inbox, and I find stories to read. My relationship with Relix is based on love of music, content, and publishing.
The magazine’s progressive approach—with the writing, yes, but more so in the messaging—is a big reason why it resonates and remains relevant. To mark 50 years in print, and in collaboration with progressive Nashville-based clothing manufacturer imogene + willie, the “Print is Dead” tee represents an honest and ironic nod to the publication’s past. The quality material, the DEAD shading, the roses, the distressed look. No Relix branding, and you can feel how cozy it is just by the photo. It’s a sweet shirt.
But print is dead, literally speaking? I don’t think so.
Connecting people is a core, beautiful aspect of print. From business documents to books to full-bleed posters to blueprints, output can communicate virtually any message. Print possesses the power of persuasion, and it often succeeds simply by putting a brochure or a piece of direct mail in your hands. Are you familiar with digital embellishments or the breadth of finishing options? The space has seen a wealth of progressive doers throughout time, even if it can’t be denied that things are flat to declining.
I’ve worked in print for two decades at Keypoint Intelligence, a market research firm and product test lab. The Great Recession happened just a few years into my tenure—like the auto industry, it was scary for print. Mobile devices and the cloud had naysayers with pitchforks proclaiming, once again, that the paperless office was within sight, but print proved, once again, to be resilient. And while life seemed fine at the end of the 2010s…
Print took it on the chin like a one-two combo from Mike Tyson when Covid hit. In-person, hybrid, and remote, those became your menu options. In red states and rural sections of the country, the pandemic didn’t have the page-volume impact compared to blue states and metropolitan areas, where return-to-work mandates are now a dime a dozen, but you know what? Even though print had to ride in the backseat, progressive, out-of-the-box thinking accelerated. The focus turned to stuff without a plug. Dealers already in IT were ahead of the game. Expanding service offerings to increase recurring revenue was a difference maker to those with the foresight.
It's called the diversification within print, and Relix is all too familiar with the concept.
Aside from the major editorial makeover to cover music outside the jamband circuit, the company built a merchandising arm and had a record label. They held seven presentations of the Jammy Awards. Moving online helped modernize their operations and enabled an omnichannel business strategy. Deeper exploration into the history is worth your time, but the heart and soul of Relix is still, and will always be, the hardcopy issue. That means print, and even if scanning is the ultimate function today, the effect print can have on us is everlasting. Palpable.
While I’ve never written about textile and apparel printing in a blog or a report, it’s a part of the industry—fast fashion, too—that has intrigued me a lot since March 2020. I’m a graphic tee guy through and through, and, as you might expect, many in the drawer have a band logo or album cover on them. Printing on fabric just seems more du jour than printing a deck of slides. The whole idea is exciting and fascinating, right? And, when executed as elegantly and tastefully as with the “Print is Dead” shirt and its grateful design, you can make a real statement and show that you’re alive.
Buy your limited edition “Print is Dead” t-shirt here!
All images courtesy of imogene + willie.