What do you think is cool? Karmaloop and Lupe Fiasco want to know, and they're willing to pay handsomely to find out- to the tune of $500 cash and a $500 Karmaloop gift certificate. All you need to do is design a t-shirt that shows what you think cool is and enter it before March 3rd, 2008.
The winning shirt will be sold on Karmaloop with all proceeds benefiting WHY (World Hunger Year), Lupe Fiasco's favorite charity.
Thursday, January 31
Wednesday, January 30
Some concepts are just proven to make kickass shirts. Prime among them: dudes in animal costumes. This is used to great effect in Splatterbeasts by Luis F. Masallera (robokid), the latest contest winner at A Better Tomorrow. This is an awesomeness overload people: Prepare To Die!
A Better Tomorrow is the premiere site for German language t-shirt contests (but artists from all over the world are welcome to enter). Designers get 500 euros if their t-shirt or wallsticker entry wins. If you've got a streetwear style, ABT is the place to submit.
Scribtee, ShirtCity's design competition, has just announced three new contest winners. Watch Out For Your Own Desires by Edno Pereira Jr (Draco) is my favorite of the bunch, using a rotund cartoon fellow to illustrate the idea of being controlled by your dreams- the character's thoughts are causing rain, and rather than using the rain to his advantage, he just freefalls alongside it. Queen Aerosol by Iker Muro Uranga (Muro) and You Are What You Eat by Raquel Navas Sunde (minasund) round out this strong collection.
Scribtee is an on-going t-shirt design competition, with winners receiving $500 and a $50 gift certificate. If you have a design that will impress the Scribtee community, give them a shot!
Tuesday, January 29
Yoshi Andrian Amtha is far and away one of the most printed artists at Uneetee. He's responsible for cool designs like Music Plays in My Head, Where Is My Happy Face?, Where the Music Came Out, In Our Hands and Music Connects Us Through Space.
This week, all of Yoshi's designs are only $13. This is a very cool promotion, because this guy does a lot of quality work. I love that instead of having a typical sale, Uneetee decided to shine a spotlight on one of the artists who is responsible for their success.
Monday, January 28
Goliath by Jared Stumpenhorst is my favorite Threadless shirt of the week. The highly textural cyclops is a great contrast with the tiny, colorful blob creatures attacking him. What really sells this for me, though, is the amazing illustrative style- I like the little touches, such as the gnarled fingers and the little tuft on the monster's chin. The transparency of the blobs is another strength, as it gives a bit of a 3-D element to the scene.
This week's Select is Folk Rock And Roll by Wyeth Hansen. I think it's a great piece, using geometric forms to create the phrase "folk rock and roll." The composition looks almost like a neon arrangement of quilting to me, which is very in keeping with the folk rock theme.
After a long absence, Type Tees are back at Threadless with I High Five Strangers by Dan Maltzman (Maltzmania). I'm not a huge slogan proponent, but even so this shirt is... not good. I don't find the design particularly attractive, and the fact that there's a huge hand print on it just makes me think the wearer would be in for a lot of slapping and pushing. Even in the best-case scenario, do you really want to be stuck high fiving people all day?
I Wish I Were by Ian Leino is a great concept with top-tier execution. The hope on the devil's face is clear and appealing, with a nice texture to give the impression of hair where it is appropriate. It's also a perfect fit for the white shirt, and benefits greatly by some of the detail elements (such as the pitchfork and hoofprints).
Hummingbird And Snake by Jamerson Lima (ninhol.com) is, as a girl's shirt, really tremendous. So it's too bad that the men's version is on khaki, with a bastardized color palette that seems to have lost all of the charm of the original. Which is too bad, because the patterns are so fun- to me, it almost seems like the creatures are three-dimensional fabric creations.
Interloper From Beyond The Heavens by Brian Brasher (etherbrian) takes a played out t-shirt concept and makes it seem fresh. I never expected to like a Space Invaders shirt, but this one is genuinely clever. Imagine a mechanical marvel from the outer reaches of the universe, ominously descending towards earth. Then imagine it looks exactly like the aliens you spent your youth destroying in the arcades. That's just plain funny. Plus, I always wondered what those weird little pixel shapes were supposed to represent- were they aliens or spaceships?
Victor Terrintop by Nicholas Tassone (band-it) is my second favorite this week, as I love the cool color palette and the almost collaged feel of the piece. It has a lot of pattern and texture throughout, and the holes in the trees that allow you to peek at the man behind are very nicely done. I would deem this one of the more unique shirts that Threadless has printed.
Stupid Cupid by Budi Satria Kwan (radiomode) is the first of this week's reprints, and it is definitely timely. I've never really cared for it, though- too boxy, and just not funny enough to overcome that. It's also the kind of shirt that, to me, only works in the close up- there's nothing about it that stands out at farther distances.
The other reprint this week is a favorite of mine, The Madness of Mission 6 by Travis Pitts (travis76). It's a gorgeous piece, resembling the cover of the best seventies-era sci-fi you've never read. But if you look a little closer, it's more than that. See the helmet on that cosmonaut? And the particular colors of the ghost? Maybe those little pills ring a bell... Oh hell, it's a Pac Man shirt. The greatest pac man shirt of all time!
Overall, a pretty nice week of shirts- there are a few in there that I'm definitely itching to buy.
Sunday, January 27
Your Design By Humans coupon code for 15% off: DBH22. Enjoy, and if you have another code send it my way!
TREE by oliver is, for me, the most interesting shirt of the week. While DBH is pretty well known for their large prints, this really takes it to the next level. The tree fills up the entire expanse of the shirt, running right off the end of a sleeve and the collar. The brown on tan print looks fantastic, and the drawing is exquisite. It's a great addition to the DBH collection, and it makes me curious to see what other subjects would benefit from this kind of super-large printing.
MY LUNGS by aliadotony is a type of shirt that I don't usually go for (anatomy) that is done with such a high level of style that I can't help but like it. Drawings call out several major sources of pollution, such as smoking, factories, and tires. It's also very textural, with many elements having different patterns and embellishments that give the illusion of there being more colors than are actually used.
The Dark Side of the Fairy Tale by stumpyhorse is a cool, sketchy piece. The crows are really nicely done, as the illustration style makes them look perfectly dirty and disheveled. The hang up I have is that I'm a bit unsure of the woman's face- something about the lines on it seems a bit off to me. A close up would help me to decide, but there's not one offered- in fact, there's no image of the back print, either. This one might grow on me more when those images are offered, but until then I'm undecided.
The Migrant by Alexfish is far and away my biggest disappointment of the week. I think the drawing itself is pretty nice. The trouble is, it's impossible for me to tell how good the illustration is because I'm so distracted by the huge black mess behind it. For whatever reason, the artist placed some gigantic black halftone dots behind everything (maybe to simulate storm clouds?) and that's what my eyes are drawn to when I see it. It's not an attractive effect- to me, it actually looks like the entire shirt has been charred in some sort of fire.
The Tiger Rider is ryozilla's eight millionth print at DBH, and for good reason- virtually everything he submits is excellent. This is no exception, and the subject matter is perfectly suited to the printing technique of using two shiny foils. I love all the patterning that has been used here, it guides the eye around well. The brightness of those foils definitely gives this one a kind of other-worldly appeal.
Overall, a pretty great week of shirts. I like the added variety in style and printing technique that these shirts give to the collection. As usual, though, I'd love to see some more variation in shirt color- I like browns, black and white just as much as the next guy, but whatever happened to red? Another thing I haven't seen in a while is a shirt offered at the $15 price point- that has be questioning a bit how big a print has to be to qualify as a "jumbo print" which is the stated reason why so many of these are at a higher price. Still, it's good stuff.
Saturday, January 26
Alice Painting Caterpillar went on sale at Shirt.Woot last night after winning second place in the Graffiti derby.
Why is this news? Well, if you've been following the derby over the last few months, then you know that typically well-drawn art is at a bit of a disadvantage. Funny concepts and text usually rule the top spots, which makes this victory of pure drawing skill a fairly unique event (even the artist's past work often relied on humor).
To be printed, this shirt also overcame a late entry (voting begins Friday at noon, this piece wasn't entered until Sunday) and an unpopular shirt color (white shirts are often vilified by voters). The customers must have loved it too, because it sold out of 1500 shirts around 9:30 this morning (though starting tonight at midnight, it will again be available here).
Thursday, January 24
Shirt.Woot's newest derby theme is Dreams. As they put it, "Dreams. The visions and emotions we experience while asleep. The aspirations we hold for a better world. The things Billy Ocean commands us to get out of. Much has been said about the enigma of dreams, from Sigmund Freud to Martin Luther King, Jr. to Van Halen. Now it's your turn. Show us a shirt that explores, explains, embodies, or embiggens the concept of dreams."
That definitely sounds awesome. And, to stay true to the dream theme, all text has been outlawed this week.
The floodgate for submissions opens Friday at noon, with voting opening at the same time. Submissions must be made before Wednesday at noon, and voting closes on Thursday at noon. The three highest-ranking shirts (as determined by voters) will be sold next weekend, with their designers earning up to $500 for the first night's sales and $2 per shirt sold after that point.
While you're waiting for the voters to recognize your obvious shirt design genius, waste some time at the Derby supporting sites that have sprung up. ShirtDerbyStats is your one-stop-shop for vote total estimates and user comments on individual entries. Meanwhile, Best Losers is your best source of information on all the shirts that didn't win, complete with awards and tips on where to send your design next.
Wednesday, January 23
T-shirt design contests can be a tough gig- even the best illustration might not speak to the voters unless your submission presentation is just right. And one of the keys to hitting that sweet spot with the voters is to set up an image that accurately represents what your design will look like on a shirt.
There are two major ways to accomplish this: 1) Show the design on a photograph of an actual person, and 2) Use a t-shirt texture to show a close up of how your design will look on a shirt when printed.
Until recently, only really serious designers bothered to use a texture- it can be a hassle to create those, as you have to scan or photograph an actual shirt in just the right lighting conditions. But now Manos, a top Threadless designer, has benevolently provided the community with accurately colored t-shirt textures for all the colors that Threadless offers.
Expect to see a lot of improved t-shirt submission images in the near future as word of this gets out!
Tuesday, January 22
Teetonic and NHS Highland are teaming up for one of the most ambitious t-shirt design contests I've ever seen. The goal? To make an attractive, catchy and entertaining shirt about sensible drinking.
It's a tough order, for sure, but the designer that does it best will be handsomely rewarded, to the tune of an iPhone, a 100 pound voucher to Teetonic, and six shirts with your design.
Enter before February 17th for your chance to win.
Monday, January 21
We Are Just Pixels After All by Malo Tocquer (shkmalo) is my Threadless pick of the week. This design does one of my favorite things- it works differently from different viewing distances. From afar, a nice world map. But close up, and the map explodes into a series of unique pixel drawings. Very neat, and a great one color print. The choice of printing this as a huge side print kicks things up another notch.
ABCs by Aaron Hogg (hogboy) uses the style of a fifties-era children's book to tell a different kind of story- A and B tell of the good things in life, but C tells of danger. A giant dinosaur, with subtle texture and a pleasant grin, chomps happily on the boy, whose hat flutters uselessly to the ground. What makes this shirt really shine for me is the attention to detail- you can see the apple from A held in the background of B, where the boy chases the ball... right into the dinosaur's path.
Torso by Matthew Curry is this week's Select design. It's an artistic riff on the structure of the torso, with a cool color scheme and a neat, collaged look. Because of how many differently treated elements there are in the composition, it's a piece that allows you to discover something new every time you look. And it comes with a matching poster, which cracks me up (I've never quite grasped the concept of owning the same art in two formats).
I hate Darwin Kick by Ibrahim Dilek. I know that sounds awful, but there's just a lot here that doesn't work for me. I hate evolution silhouettes in general, as most sizable t-shirt places have multiple designs using them. And this is just not that clever- the idea of evolution silhouettes interacting has been done, as has the idea of the evolution line ending in violence. It's tired, and this isn't even a particularly well-done rendition- I have no idea what's going on with the kicked fellow's head, but something is definitely not right.
A Salt And Battery by Emery Greer (TollFree) is a pun shirt, as everyone can plainly see. It is not a particularly attractive shirt (it is a damn salt shaker and battery, so you can't expect much), so the value of this shirt lies entirely in how funny you find this pun. It is too bad, then, that this isn't that funny. Here is how a conversation about this shirt would go. "What's on your shirt?" "A salt and battery." "Oh." "You see, there's a pun..." "No, I get it." The end, I hope you have enjoyed this play.
Arctic Spa by Matthijs Smit (mtths) is a very funny idea, depicting the arctic spa where polar bears, penguins and eskimos go to chill in an ice cube tray. But while this is a funny idea, it's not a great shirt. The shape on the shirt is awkward, and overall it reads like an illustration intended for another medium and the repurposed on a shirt without any editing.
Penguins Are My Home by Michael Valadares Ferreira (Bisparulz) shows an eskimo who has literally built a home out of penguins. Surely the most adorable home in that frigid zip code, it also features an icicle antenna. The shading is excellent, making this piece stand ou even among the artist's other great work.
Freedom Call by Ana Paula Caldas is one of this week's reprints, and it's the kind of work that Threadless doesn't really print much these days. It uses vector objects (some of which, frankly, look like they're right out of a generic vector pack) to illustrate the concept of the woman being propelled upward. It's also the kind of work you can get at any number of shirt sites specializing in this type of vector work, so it's an odd reprint choice for me.
Advisors by Rula Ali (Topper Harley) is a reprint that makes more sense- it's the best rendition of the theme (an angel and a devil on each shoulder) I've ever seen, and it's the type of shirt that people associate with the Threadless brand. I enjoy the spareness of the illustration- a whole lot gets accomplished with just three colors.
Overall, a pretty typical week. A couple of good shirts and a few truly baffling choices (two penguin designs on light shirts in one week- and right at the tail end of winter?). Here's to hoping that some cool printing techniques start to roll out in the next few weeks...
Sunday, January 20
For a discount on your Design By Humans purchase, try DBH22. (And if you have a code of your own, post it in the comments.)
After the Rain Comes a Rainbow by -apy- is my favorite shirt of the week, because it is practically a master class in how to do a text shirt well. Start off with gorgeous hand-drawn letters, fill with intricate black and white drawings, and finish off with some color to guide the eye through the phrase. It makes for a great shirt, especially because of how huge it is printed.
Imaginaria Matre by Draco envisions the artistic muse as a saintly creature, with design tools forming a backdrop for her image. It's an idea that a lot of illustrators have played around with, but the crisp style, soft colors and excellent half-tone use set this apart from the pack.
BUILD by aman features a charming, hairy creature (with amused but blank eyes) who is in the process of ripping apart a city so that he can build a new one. I love this take on the monster concept- that a monster might be representative of change, and ultimately have a positive effect. I'm a bit torn on the inclusion of the word build on the shirt- I like that it evens out the shirt a bit (all the rest of the action takes place on the left, ending at almost the exact middle point of the shirt) but the word itself doesn't do much for me. A different phrase or a different text treatment might have made this already good shirt a little better.
Billy the Money Buffalo Goes to a Party by michaelacolette is my second favorite, mainly because I just can't get enough of this color palette. They're absolutely fresh, and perfectly suited to the absurdity of the concept. Billy himself is fascinating to look at, a patchwork of texture, color and text with just enough charm to make all the disparate elements cleave together. The second I saw this shirt, all I could think was "I must own you." It's that good.
Found Then Lost by corey9 is another favorite (yeah, I have a lot of those this week!), because I think the abstract shape used makes a perfect playground for the artist's retro-inspired style. It's a bit of a dada-esque mixture of texture and image, and it is easy to get lost in all those lines- because once you lose yourself in the image, it's even more fun! For me, the most interesting sections are the one featuring the bird (who seems to have gotten wedged into his area mid-flight, much to his confusion) and the area with the house (I love the unique house shape and the texture of the roof). It's all good stuff, though.
Overall, this is my favorite week of DBH shirts in a while! I'd wear them all, and there are three that are valiantly fighting for my credit card right now. They'll win out eventually, I'm sure, because these are some seriously kick ass shirts.
Saturday, January 19
The Cranium Loves Threadless contest had one of the most open-ended themes I've ever seen for one of these: Wow! And some people really capitalized on that freedom to create some unique and interesting shirts.
No More Grey Matter by paperball is a buffet of color and cartoon, with strange creatures transforming into other visual elements. At the very bottom of the design, almost lost in all the chaos, is the tiny brain that all these ideas sprung from.
Another favorite of mine is Smoking Kills by eskimokiss. The look of it is complex- a smoking hand pedals a unicycle, with the smokecloud manipulating a raincloud that overflows a bucket. The smokecloud and bucket overflow spell out the shirt's message. It's a funny image, and the unique color palette puts this squarely in the top tier of message shirts- though truthfully, I think it would work even better if worn ironically.
Creature Convention by secretly robots is so perfectly suited to this contest that I would be genuinely shocked if it didn't win. As a shirt with pictures of colorful, smiling monsters, it works pretty well. But this shirt is more than that- it also creates a message when folded, with the monsters spelling out Wow!, the competition's theme.
The upper echelons of this contest included some really fantastic work, though a lot of people struggled with the vague theme. There will almost definitely be a great winner, though I think a more concrete theme might have resulted in more successful shirt designs overall.
Friday, January 18
Ok, it's not exactly a t-shirt. But the same designs and illustrations that make t-shirt stand out can be translated into a truly unique and fun skateboard design.
Popdeck is a new competition site looking to bring the work of individual entrants to the skateboarding masses. They've currently got five specific contests running (Slam X Hype, High Snobiety, Cool Hunting, Sneaker Files, and Hype Beast), as well as a regular contest. Winners walk away with $200 and a free board.
This competition is judged and voted on in part by the community, so take a look around and let your opinion be heard. There are some cool entries in the mix, including JackMartin's Barber's Ride and polynothing's Sketchy.
Thanks to Joe of Fantastic Blognanza for the tip!
Thursday, January 17
How2 T-Shirts is a new brand, but they've already been building up a lot of buzz. I've seen them blogged about at sites like HiphipUK, The Daily Tee, and Tcritic. But there's one fact about How2 that all the reviews I've seen have glossed right over...
They have a t-shirt design competition! Every month, How2 provides the community with a few themes to illustrate (this month's choices are Be Happy, Feed Your Brain, Peel a Banana, Ride a Bike, Survive on a Desert Island and Be On Time- though designers can also opt to create their own theme). Then the submissions are scored by the community and the best are chosen to print. The prize is a hefty £250, with the added bonus that winners get their names printed right inside the shirt.
And for the non-designers among us- you can suggest a theme for a chance to win a free shirt!
Wednesday, January 16
Burnswell has selected the three winners for their Big Deal t-shirt design contest, and you know what that means: these shirts are very limited edition, and you only have until Friday to buy them. It's a pretty good selection, including They Give Us Light by jsheldon, my personal favorite Create by benharman (I'll be putting in an order right after I finish posting this) and Donut Self Esteem by vishneada. The customer comment award went to WanderingBert, who will be getting a free shirt (I'm hoping to see something of his print here soon as well).
Since Burnswell's contest recurs every two weeks, it is time to get your entry ready for the next contest. Winners receive up to $300!
You might have heard of InkADoodle- it was a t-shirt competition site, but since they only had three shirts printed, they didn't get a lot of attention. That all might be about to change, though, as they've acquired some new funding (that means more winners could be on the way) and have changed the contest's name to ThinkIt.
Along with the name change, they've announced three new contest winners. Bolts of Fire by Stinger is my favorite of the bunch, a cool side print with some vaguely menacing pointy green dudes. Imagination is a Strange Thing by Jib is an intricate one-color print, and New York Beau by Cruz has a color scheme that really pops on the brown shirt.
Now that ThinkIt is actively selecting winners, it's a good time to submit work to their t-shirt design contest. Payment is a lump sum of $600, with an opportunity to earn up to $2,000 for designs that sell well.
Tuesday, January 15
There's a new t-shirt blog, Tee User, which has a cool contest going on (you can win a $25 Threadless gift certificate just for subscribing to the blog). Also check out their feature Tee Battles, which puts similar shirts from different stores head to head in a fight for ultimate cotton survival.
Burnswell's current Big Deal Contest is on its last day, so vote now if you want to have a hand in determining the victors that will soon be offered for sale. Remember to post a comment on your favorites, as that enters you in a drawing for a free shirt if the design you comment on is the winner!
OK, confession time: I am a huge fan of the show Rob & Big. The size difference between those guys would have me laughing regardless of the other content, and I am a damn sucker for miniature horses as well so this show has pegged me perfectly.
So I'm pleased as punch that they've teamed up with one of my favorite t-shirt stores to create the Rob & Big Loves Threadless competition. In this contest, designers are charged with creating a shirt that explores the theme "Let Me Tell You About My Best Friend," certainly a theme that's ripe with potential.
Enter before February 15th, 2008 for your shot at the prize package, which includes (in addition to the customary $2,000 cash and $500 gift certificate) an XBox 360 Console with the Rock Band Bundle, a signed DC Board, Rob & Big DVDs, Wonder Showzen Limited Edition Lunchbox DVD package, and the oh so alluring promise of more prizes to come.
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