Sea Ghost by Brian Walline (thunderpeel) is my favorite shirt of the week. It's a spooky take on undersea exploration, where a deep sea diver fights valiantly against a phantom octopus. I like the frantic nature of the piece, where I feel like I can sense the diver's fear even though his face is masked by his helmet. The small touches of personality (like the ghost's anchor tattoo) also help boost the shirt to a higher level.
Gossamer by Robert Hardgrave (Farmer Bob) is the first of this week's Select shirts, using a circular framing to house a bunch of disparate visual elements. I have to say that while I enjoy his other art, this shirt is a miss for me. The reason is that the circle kills a lot of the inherent motion his other work has- I don't feel that my eye is drawn around the piece in the same way at all. In fact, the circle itself becomes more of a focal point that the interesting elements it is made of. I hope he tries his hand at shirt design again because I think his style would be a great fit for it, but this particular example is not for me.
Believe It by Julia Sonmi is another of this week's Select designs, a cool mishmash of historically-inspired concepts and modern illustration styles. It's also one of the most interesting shirts I've seen in awhile, as every inch of it is densely packed with quality (favorite bits for me are the cupped hands at the bottom and the antlered pyramids). But while I love the art, I think the placement choice makes it a difficult shirt to wear. Not everyone can pull off the collar-centric stuff (I know I definitely can't), but for those who can, this is a must-have.
True Love by Christopher Sleboda is this week's third Select (and wow, is that a lot of Select for one week). I don't really get the concept (laser tag? neon geometry?), which would be fine if I liked the look more. A quick glimpse of the artist's store confirms that I've liked his other shirt work, so my best guess on this one is that he tried to fit in too much (his other shirts are much more simplistic and concept-based). I wish I could be more positive, since I do like his print work a lot, but truthfully I'm not even digging most of the individual elements that make up this design (the faced banana is a nice exception).
Deforestation by Rick Crane (The Paper Crane) is one of the cooler conceptual designs Threadless has ever printed- it's a massive print, covering the entire shirt (front and back), that contrasts a healthy forest with a field full of stumps. Somehow, seeing this miniaturized on a shirt does a great job of driving home just how completely devastating deforestation can be to an area. I love the idea of using a pattern to make a statement like this, very smart work.
Saturday Morning Reruns by Jim Mitchell (jrmasm) takes classic cartoon roadrunner vs. coyote battles into reality, using a natural style to show the feuding animals. It's very well done and sits more nicely on the fabric than I anticipated, making this a pretty great shirt for nostalgia fans.
Incredible Circus by Chow Hon Lam (Flying Mouse) is another of the simple but hilarious designs that Threadless is known for. A trapeze act with an elephant and a monkey is pretty funny all on its own, magnified by the fact that the monkey is attempting to catch the flying elephant. The dashed line shading looks great, which makes this as great a shirt for adults as it is for kids.
Reprinting this week: A Birth Day by Jean-sébastien Deheeger (nes-k) and Shakespeare Hates Your Emo Poems by Ira Vogel (pieces of cheese)
This week's Prints: Heavy Metal Listening Party Print by Ed Pincombe, Poker Hand Values Print by Tan Nuyen and MP(3) Print by Matthew Fleming.
Threadless TV also has two new episodes up for viewing: Threadle manss Recapper and A visit to Blik.
Threadless prints new shirts every week, chosen from the designs submitted by and voted on by site members. Winners get $2000 cash and $500 in Threadless credit, with the possibility to earn more through Bestee awards, poster prints, and reprints.
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Tuesday, May 27
