I’ve written before about how important it is for you to be absolutely passionate about your brand. You also know how important it is to come across like a real person and not a faceless website. I want to show you an example of a brand that really gets it and is doing things right.

JWORK LIMITED, A lifestyle clothing brand from Columbus, Ohio has honestly been doing an amazing job being open and connected to their fans and prospective customers. All their team members have their Myspace, Facebook and Twitter accounts linked on their site and most of them blog as well.

The site is well-designed and contains everything you’d expect from an awesome brand site and more. Let me break down some of the awesome things I see here.

Photos

These folks understand the value of photography. Photos are still the primary method by which shirts are sold online, and having great photos is key to selling shirts.

JWORK’s photos are not only magazine quality, but they show people wearing their shirts in various situations, not just standing and facing the camera. They use models of different cliques, races, ages and both sexes to show universal appeal and make everyone feel like they can be wearing those shirts.

Blog

Like many solid tee shop websites, JWORK has a blog. While they don’t seem to post much about their shirt development process (some behind the scenes stuff or photos of shirts being printed might be cool), they post videos, photos of shoes, cars and other things they’re interested in. This is a window to who they are and helps develop a voice to people visiting the site.

Lookbook

A lookbook is sort of a visual brochure for your t-shirt brand, but should never be as boring as a brochure. A lookbook can be anywhere from a couple pages of photos and brand info to dozens of pages featuring press articles and sizing information.

JWORK’s lookbook is more than 30 pages of magazine quality material, showcasing all their active and prospective designs, plenty of photos and sizing information, and even their wholesale pricing structure and details. The brand biography is detailed but does not bog down much, letting the shirts speak for themselves.

Events

Another interesting thing is the events section. JWORK gets out in the community and gets themselves some local exposure by doing things like a charity carwash. By telling people on the website and inviting them out in person, they marry the online and offline experience and allow you to see their brand in a no-sales-pressure kind of way.

Video

What really gets me though, is JWORK TV, their video arm. Through JWORK TV, they show all kinds of behind the scenes stuff related to their t-shirt company. There’s a clip showing highlights from their latest model shoot, and a few videos detailing their recent trip to the Magic tradeshow.

It’s not highly-processed and tightly-edited promotional material either. It’s raw, shaky, handheld footage of their team doing everything from eating pizza in the hotel room (skippable) to walking the tradeshow floor at Magic (good stuff).

The Big Takeaway

The biggest thing is that all this stuff makes them so real, so human. You feel more connected to the brand because you can see and get a feel for the people behind it. In the videos, you can tell how excited they are to finally be on the tradeshow floor and you can experience the overwhelming atmosphere right alongside them.

Their tee designs are diverse and while most aren’t really my style, I imagine they sell well because of what’s behind them: great marketing and promotion and genuine passion for the brand. The passion of the JWORK team bleeds through everything they do. They take pride in their backstory and bios without bogging down or putting themselves on a pedastal. They know the value of creative model photography and show their shirts worn by people from all walks of life.

They get out and try to meet people in person, and they show you consistently that they’re just a bunch of real people that are honestly passionate about their shirts, and that makes people looking at them want to care too. As a case study of a brand showing unbridled passion for what they do and how they do it, check out JWORK LIMITED and JWORK TV.