What Blank Label lets its customers do is no surprise. It simply allows people to make a blank label into, well, their own label. The company does not use surprising new products to appeal to the customers, but instead, it cleverly targets our unconscious desire to create something.

Created by Fan Bi and Danny Wong, Blank Label allows people to customize their shirts online at retail price. The custom-made shirts are made to order and shipped directly to the customers. Businesses like the Blank Label are nothing new. There are many other “custom-make-your-products” online stores, which as Mr. Wong states, “bridges the gap between the customer and the manufacturer.” Nowadays, you can customize your chocolate, purses, jewelry, and even granola with just a click of your mouse. Sure, this is one fun shopping method that keeps your creative juices going. The only glitch in these types of stores might be that the customized products are a bit more expensive than the mass-produced goods that are already designed for you.

But if these online brands and stores are still in business, it must mean that people are still willing to use a little more money to buy customized products. Then these products must offer something worth the extra money that the customer needs to pay. What do these products offer that convinces people to use the extra money?

The customized products are not simply material objects through which the customers can show off their individuality. The feature of customized goods that is worth the money is actually the opportunity for people to become a creator. When you buy a product that has already been designed, you are only at the receiving end of the shopping chain. But, by customizing the products to your own taste and then buying the finished products, you have control over the beginning and the end of the chain. The finished product does not necessarily show your creativity, but it shows that you can use your creativity; it is the proof that you can make something new in this world that is pleasing to your eyes.

The world is full of constant changes and creations. Even if the creation is trivial, by being one of the people who cause a certain creation to happen, one feels an active involvement in the society. Stores that allow you to customize your products show that you do not have to be a stationary part of the world in the position of a consumer. There are choices to be made, the choices that make you into a designer, an inventor, and a creator. By becoming a creator, you have control over your world, because the object that you have created becomes a piece of your world. Even if the piece is merely a shirt, being able to create parts of your world, that is in itself a part of a bigger world, gives your existence an extra sense of meaning and importance.

Source

Putting Customers in Charge of Design, The New York Times