The concept
WNBS is not fashion.
It is a concept.
A 2005 experiment in invisible design that is still running.
2005 → now
Twenty years ago, Igor Arih asked his agency colleagues a question: if you could be one thing, in one word, what would it be? He printed the answers on T-shirts. Black words on white shirts, Helvetica Regular, all caps. No logos. No decoration.
The shirts looked unfinished. That was the point.
A black word on a white shirt was creating little miracles in communication. There was practically no one at the party that would fail to notice me and my word that read BASTARD.
— Igor Arih, January 2009
Today the Word Bank holds thousands of words. More every month — anyone can suggest one. We've donated 10% of every order to five Slovenian and international charities since the beginning. We have never put a logo on a product.
The word, lived in.
→ Cultural intersections
01
Origin
The 2005 story, the founder's voice, the experiment that wouldn't end.
02
The ten rules
What gets into the Word Bank, and what doesn't. Verbatim. Unchanged since 2005.
03
No logo
Why we removed the brand from the brand. And why it works.
04
The words people picked
Cultural intersections. The names you know, the words they chose.