compete-tee-tion

Camera Obscura by WarholBot is my favorite shirt of the week. The concept of taking such an illustrative approach to camera equipment is fun, and the gradient somehow puts me in mind of watching a picture develop. The styling is very nice, with a multitude of hard-drawn textures and details (fish eye lenses especially) that inject a fresh burst of imagination into the cameras. Really neat shirt.



HEAR ME OUT by killer_meowmeow is definitely one of DBH's better CMYK-themed shirts- but some of what keeps me from loving it is that it feels like there have been SO MANY CMYK shirts. Anyway, that aside, it's a very cool-looking shirt. The emotion of the scream is conveyed well, and I like the way the stripes flow right below the layers of the facial features. The holes that the stripes travel into are a great touch- I see them as connected portals, with one scream triggering another.

Suspicious Shirt by jublin is another shirt I'm very fond of- maybe I just like shirts with huge X's? There's some really nice characterization on the suspicious folks, I love how they all look related, but different- like they're part of a really tough police lineup. The ink coloring them made me think of smudged, inky fingerprints, which adds a cool twist as well. I might have to buy this one.



The Red Dream by casajordi is not a favorite of mine. The white and red segments feel too separate to me, so I never quite see the design as a cohesive whole. Maybe less color contrast between the white and red would have made this more to my liking, especially if there was some transparency to the white. As it stands, the white keeps me from properly appreciating the collage happening in the red portion, which is by far the stronger artwork in my opinion.

The Hat I Found by KrisK is a bunch of zebra-like drawn lines with a gradient. It's wearable, but nothing about it grabs me- the problem with doing such simplistic, concept-free work is that there's not much for the audience to relate to or react to. I mean, for what it is, it's pretty nice. But what it is is a collection of lines that most could replicate, if they wanted to. The $24 price tag kind of jumped out at me as well- it doesn't seem like a very good deal compared to the depth of the other shirt designs that DBH offers at the same price.

Design By Humans is an on-going t-shirt design contest that prints new shirts every weekday. Prints are chosen from the shirts submitted by and voted on by DBH members. Shirt of the Day winners receive $500 cash and $250 DBH credit. Shirt of the Week winners get $1000 cash. Shirt of the Month gets $1500 cash and $250 credit. Winners also have an opportunity to earn residuals through the Rockstar Awards Program.

Labels: design by humans

It's been awhile since I checked in with Frenchloser, and I was somewhat disappointed to see that since my last visit they have discontinued their shirt design contest.

Still, it's not a total loss- Frenchloser continues to print some really amazing shirts, including Whippet Whippet Good and Remains & Bones, which are pictured above. They're also still open to artwork from new artists, as shown by the submission invitation on their FAQ page.

Labels: frenchloser

Here's one for all the skate and surf inspired designers out there. Notion Clothing is looking to the community for a new shirt design, with a winner to be selected by a panel of judges.

Enter before September 30th for your chance to win $200 and $100 worth of Notion products.

Labels: notion

A Better Tomorrow's newest winner is Vanitas by Thew. I dig the metal style, and how the girl's grinning skull is revealed. The barbed wire snake adds a great touch, really contributing to the feeling of attractive doom. The colors were well-chosen, especially the splash of red that brings the eye around the composition. It's not a shirt I would personally wear, but I appreciate the style and care that went into it.

A Better Tomorrow chooses winners from the shirt designs submitted and voted on by site users. Although the site is in German, designers from all over the world can enter and win. Winners earn 500 euros when printed.

Labels: a better tomorrow

Kidrobot is celebrating the release of their Dunny series 5 with a shirt design contest. Interestingly, they're allowing for both digitally entered submissions and those made the old-fashioned way.

Enter before September 12th, 2008 for your chance to win a $500 Kidrobot gift certificate, 5 of the winning shirts, and a complete set of Dunny Series 5.

Labels: kidrobot

Threadless's Back to School Sale has kicked into high gear- now many shirts have been marked down from the already low price of $12 to just $9 per shirt. Among these shirts are the two pictured above, The Unseen/Unheard and The Great Outdoors.

For a complete list of the $9 shirts, click here.

Labels: sale, threadless

Shirt.Woot's newest Derby centers around a theme that is, unfortunately, very much a part of most people's lives: Work. Here's what they have to say about it:

Hey, where are you right now? If you're at work, you're surrounded by inspiration for this week's theme. It's work, Morrissey's least favorite four-letter word, every bit as inevitable as death and taxes and sometimes even more humiliating. From the thrill of payday to the agony of mandatory meetings, from clock-in to clock out, from the deepest sewer to the highest skyscraper, work has a billion stories to tell. Find a good one and make a shirt out of it.

Text is allowed this week, but only if accompanied by graphics. In other words, no slogan-only shirts. But text can be a major element of your design.

Labels: derby, shirt.woot

Threadless's Back to School Sale continues! Here are the reviews of the shirts I didn't post on Monday...



Braaains! by Ray Frenden is the other major standout this week, with an appealing all-over print of zombies. It's great subject matter for this kind of treatment because it conveys the vastness of a hoard of zombies so well. The specific faces used are zombified versions of Threadless fans- Frenden requested that interested posters send in their photos, which makes this a bit of a site-wide collaboration. All in all a cool, unique shirt- though the color palette they chose is what stopped me from buying. Yellow and teal for zombies? I think the original green on green was more attractive.



It's So Simple by Carson Campbell (platinum) is surprisingly complex for a shirt proclaiming its own simplicity. The complex patterns of doodled lines also form subtle letters, mirroring the meaning of the simple cursive script. The print is perfectly sized- large enough to cover the shirt, but still be readable. It's nice, classic-looking one color work.

SOS by Jeff Staple is the Select this week. I like the idea of the shirt, as the gradient-like cliffs give a cool ambiance of mystery- it seems peaceful, but the dark clouds and SOS haze hint at something sinister. What really kills the shirt for me is the printing- I'm baffled as to why anyone would print this as a rectangle of color instead of a full front print. I think this is lacking a lot of the impact it might have had otherwise.



Two Detectives, One Crime Scene, One Thief by Esther Aarts (gumbolimbo) is a gimmick shirt at heart, but also a damn good-looking one. The detective scene itself is pretty t-shirt-worthy, but the hidden robber (printed on the inside of the shirt) is the real attention-getter. It's definitely a funny joke, and the drawing is at the same quality level- check out the details like the stitching in the trench coats and the textures. Cool work, and something even non-gimmick fans will respond to.

Easy Steps by Pascal Rivet (Le Squale) is a pure joke shirt. It gets right to the meat of the joke without any fancy graphics to distract, using an informational approach to the subject matter. Breakdancing is definitely a complex-looking undertaking, so the joke is easy to understand and laugh at. While the graphics don't add much, they're solid. Not a bad shirt at $12, but pretty similar to the type of thing one might pick up at Busted and other traditional shirt sites.



Grandpa Cassette by Zack Finfrock (Splashed Ink) is an interesting nostalgia shirt in that I was almost convinced I'd seen it before. The joke is pretty familiar, as it has been done with every technology shift- the old format is portrayed as elderly and the new format is indifferent and youthful. The illustration is really nice and all, but the joke is so stale I can't get past it. Yes, cassette tapes are old... so? It's just not that funny. Adding to the issue is the use of the iPod- it's already an aging technology, to the point where models with a completely new appearance get released almost every year. In other words, this shirt might already be close to its expiration date.

Remembering Last Night by James Gulliver Hancock has a great style- it almost looks like a photograph of a three dimensional owl. It's a really fun collection of illustration and texture, one of the few recent prints to be much more about art than ideas. Great colors as well, it really conveys a woodsy night time feeling.



Three Little Pigs: Mechanized Assault by Ian Leino is absolutely hilarious and original, combining two sources of nostalgia into one cohesive concept. The three little pigs are fighting back, perched atop mechs of sticks, straw and brick. Defense was a losing strategy, this time the wolf has to face their offense. It's well-executed, and the language switch makes it look like an artifact from another dimension or something, just alien enough to capture the imagination.

Russian Newborn by Blake Suarez (orangehead) is, to me anyway, a new take on the Russian nesting doll concept. The reason I hesitate a bit is that it seems like such an obvious idea- I've seen nesting doll sets where the center was a baby, so it's not much of a leap. At any rate, the design is clean and fairly well-constructed (a few structural issues like the bed's missing wheel trip me out a bit), and pretty amusing. Not a stand out, maybe, but not a bad shirt either.

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.

Labels: sale, threadless

Uneetee's newest winner is In Love (My Burning Heart) by Amoy. It's a halftoned depiction of the organs of the torso, with the heart glowing with heat. The halftones are, for me, a huge deal breaker- I'm not fond of the way they usually look printed, as I find it to be cheap and messy looking. Given the sheer number of guts-related shirts available already, this one isn't bringing anything new to the table. While the colors are nice, nothing else here is worth a second look.

Uneetee chooses winners from the designs submitted by and voted on by site members. Winners receive $1500, with the chance to earn more through reprints.

Labels: uneetee

Threadless's Back to School Sale has begun! Head on over for $12 tees and discounts on other products as well. Act quickly, as popular designs often sell out fast.



Vampire! by Olly Moss (Woss) isn't just the coolest shirt of the week, it's also one of the coolest shirts I've ever seen. The key to its greatness is in the marriage of concept and effect- this vampire appears to burn in the daylight thanks to UV inks, and at night his eyes and fangs glow. Funny, attractive, and entirely unlike any shirt I've seen before.



Roughin' It by Brock Davis (Laser Bread) is a charmingly drawn characterization of nature as a pack of thugs. The wilderness is gorgeous and fully out to get you. Part of what makes this a cool piece to me is the fact that no animals are featured as threats- this is purely the landscape. I'm also digging the soft, distressed colors, which bring to mind sun damage.

Failed Launch by Manos Lakoutsis is one of the coolest space-themed shirts I've seen, using a more technical approach to the subject matter. Through a network of flight panels, a huge astronaut is highlighted in the linework. It's also printed as a zip-up hoody, which looks pretty great (though I wish it were printed larger, as the rectangle is a bit off-putting).



Keeping It Simple by Sam Schuna (olie!) showcases the darker side of the golden age of animation, with some of those goofy faces now conveying hate and malice instead of cheer. It's similar to the print Finding Technicolor that was featured at Woot, but with the creatures reacting out of fear when they see color. It's well-done, but kind of a niche concept- since I already own Finding Technicolor, I'm not too excited for this one.

SPRSTR by Aaron Hogg (hogboy) features a stained glass window of Jesus showing off his b-boy skills. After all, some of those gravity-defying moves sure look pretty miraculous. The colors do a great job of looking as translucent and gleaming as the real thing, and the print is perfectly sized.



Un Censored by Ross Zietz (arzie13) is to me, frankly, kind of a disaster of a shirt. The concept is barely there (sometimes, blurry things are more clear from far away! sometimes, you can still see what's being censored!). I assume the point is supposed to be that most censored things don't need censorship (all the words are pretty tame) but that doesn't make the shirt attractive. Plus, the words are pretty obvious even from close up.

Perennials & Innards by Kneil Melicano (roadkill3d) explores some of the structures similar to guts and flowers. It's a cool, colorful and otherworldly piece, but the strangeness of the theme probably makes it only suitable for a niche market. Overall, I think I'd prefer it as a print rather than a shirt- something about wearing guts seems a bit gross.



Sinister Dexter by Joe Carr (ISABOA) is an intricate drawing of good vs evil, taking its inspiration from the middle ages. The main strength of the piece is in the sheer amount of detail, which covers every element of the composition in texture. My only issue with this design is the very rectangular shape- I feel it sits on the shirt a bit oddly, and makes the design look slapped on the shirt instead of created specifically for it.

Octadecapus by David Creighton-Pester (WanderingBert) is another of this week's designs inspired by classic animation, using that influence to make a unique octopus with gloved tentacles. The simplicity is fun and wearable, but I do miss the amount of wraparound that was in the original design submission.

Because of the sheer number of shirts printed, I'll be splitting the reviews into two groups. Expect the remainder to be reviewed before Wednesday.

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.

Labels: sale, threadless

Coleoptera by akoelle got my nod as the best shirt of the week for its uniqueness and its concept- while bugs can be kind of creepy, they're also undeniably fascinating to look at because they seem so alien. The size variation (culminating with a bug that seems poised to skitter right off the shirt) and monotone color brought to mind both scientific illustrations and old horror movies, which is a fun mix. I admit that the bug thing is a little too weird for me to really want to wear, but I think it still makes for a great shirt.



Skunk Ape by xjoshuabelangerx is a big ape face, boasting big fangs and mischievous eyes. It's a great illustration. That said, I honestly don't see the appeal of it as a shirt- the repeating lines seem to ruin the integrity of the illustration to me, and in general wearing a shirt that has a face larger than my own seems like an odd choice to me. I'm also pretty sure this is the second huge ape face print in the last month, which is a little insane. I love animals, but some variety at least would be nice.

JAPANISMO by ryozilla is another of DBH's Asian-inspired prints, using layering to look more unique. For me, the layering is a bit of a miss- while there are some areas where it looks quite cool (in particular around the geisha's eye), for the most part I found myself wishing it weren't so heavy and distracting. I feel it might have been a stronger piece if the amount of layering was more varied, leaving some portions of the illustration crisp and empty.



Grenada by thiagob is a collage-y take on a grenade. Like a lot of DBH prints, it feels too large to me, I think something a bit smaller would let viewers see the shape of the grenade better without it wrapping around the body quite so much. There's a time and a place for a huge print of course, but this doesn't feel right to me here. My other issue with this shirt is that while it is a cool image, it feels really empty and overdone to me because this same style has printed so much on DBH. That freshness that excites me about a new shirt is sadly absent from this one, making it a shirt a might wear but not one I'd buy.

SUIT UP? by K-19 is kind of a typical riff on how wearing a suit for your job is so soul killing or whatever. The whole design reads in a really expected way- skull suit guy, building photo, boring font, watercolor splash... it feels like I've seen it, just maybe not in this particular arrangement. The composition of elements is just as boring as the elements themselves to me, with the suited figure cutting the shirt almost exactly in half. It's not something that makes me want to take a second look.

Design By Humans is an on-going t-shirt design contest that prints new shirts every weekday. Prints are chosen from the shirts submitted by and voted on by DBH members. Shirt of the Day winners receive $500 cash and $250 DBH credit. Shirt of the Week winners get $1000 cash. Shirt of the Month gets $1500 cash and $250 credit. Winners also have an opportunity to earn residuals through the Rockstar Awards Program.

Labels: design by humans

Brand Camp University teaches people about how to brand themselves. But while they're branding themselves, maybe they'll be willing to promote the brand that gave them those tools. That's why Brand Camp University is creating an official t-shirt, and looking to the internet community to design it.

Enter before September 1st, 2008 for your chance to win the prize of a $100 check, free admission to 2008 Brand Camp University-Detroit, and a free shirt with your design. Check their site for a full list of prizes and entry requirements.

Labels: brand camp university

Woot's newest derby centers on the beloved institution of Dessert. Here's the description of what they're looking for:

Why, yes, we will be having dessert today. And every day. Be it cake or cookie, pudding or pie, dessert puts an exclamation mark at the end of any meal. When we ponder the question of dessert, an army of confections beckons, the sweet aromas grabbing us by the nose like in an old cartoon, enticing us away from any thoughts of weight-watching and into a world of sugary indulgence. Show us a shirt so delicious we'll eat it.

No text this week. Not some text, not incidental text, not cleverly-disguised text: no text.

Labels: derby, shirt.woot

Wooshka's most recent winner is now available for pre-order at the discounted price of $13. La Dolce Vita by a.mar.illo is a coolly violent piece, finding beauty in the sliced figure and emphasizing it with rain-like droplets (it's too elegant to really read as blood). Along with the text, which means The Good Life, the image becomes kind of haunting. The sharp drips on the shoulder are what really sells it for me, though, as the roughness makes it feel like an animal clawed there.

Wooshka has a lot of options to offer designers. Shirt color is unlimited, as Wooshka dyes all their own shirts. There's also no limit on print area: wraparound or full-pattern designs are not only allowed, they're encouraged. If your design is chosen, you'll get $500 (and 200 street crew credits, the equivalent of $200).

Labels: preorder, wooshka

Uneetee's latest winner is Lusus Naturae by Budi Satria Kwan, a cool Asian-inspired design. In it, small man-made machine are pitted against statuesque cranes, and in this Godzilla-like scenario all bets are off on who to root for. The cranes feel natural and seem, at best, maybe a bit annoyed to be the focus of the machines' attentions. Meanwhile, the machines are looping around the birds with long lengths of rope and have every intention of bringing them down. It's a great scene, and the color scheme does a great job of reinforcing the Asian influence. Another great touch is the pattern of the waves (or are those clouds)? I'd count this among Uneetee's best prints so far.

Uneetee chooses winners from the designs submitted by and voted on by site members. Winners receive $1500, with the chance to earn more through reprints.

Labels: uneetee

T Minus by Brian Walline (thunderpeel) is the most eye-catching shirt this week at Threadless, both for its bold orange color and for the fact that it looks more like a DBH offering than a typical Threadless print. The huge scale of the sunburst looks fantastic, and along with the dark lines of the arrows it approximates the stripes of a tiger nicely. I'm also a big fan of the amount of motion conveyed, it really feels like a still frame of an action cartoon.



As Day Is Swallowed Up By Night by David Creighton-Pester (WanderingBert) is the winner of the Moby Loves Threadless contest, which had a theme of Last Night. The concept it self is clever (day being attacked by night), but I think the real power of the design is in the details. The use of elements from each sky to form their characters is fun, especially the moon as night's sole eye. The use of rough textures supports the personality of the creatures and helps to make this composition stand out in the crowd. Definitely a worthy competition winner.

Fancy Attitude by The Artist's Guide is this week's Select. While the shirt itself is pretty good looking, I have to say that I'm more excited about the zine that comes with the shirt than I am about the shirt itself. It's a nice enough shirt design, with a colorful and loose cartooned style. But nothing about it stands out as unique or interesting to me. I feel as though I've seen all these elements before, and that there is nothing particularly powerful about this specific arrangement of them. I'd wear it, but I'm not moved to purchase it.



Get It To Go by Adam Benjamin White is another favorite of mine, centering on that longstanding mystery of fast food containers- what is the Other button for? The style is straight out of eighties comic books, complete with halftone dots and expressive type treatments. The gross-out imagery is so excessive I think most will have a visceral reaction to it, which of course only adds to the humor of the strange tentacled drink contrasted with its crisp and clean brethren. For the wide appeal and unique graphics, I think this is going to be a Threadless classic.

Ghost On The Machine by Brock Davis (Laser Bread) relies on glow in the dark ink for its humor, but not to the point of being crippled by it. In the daylight, there's no joke at all, just a copy machine. It's a well-drawn copy machine, though, so while it's a bit of a baffling choice of an outfit it isn't unattractive. In the dark, the joke of a ghost using the copier for office hijinks is revealed. For me, the reason it works is because of the way the use of glow mirrors the reality- copiers are boring most of the time, but maybe when no one is looking...

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.

Labels: loves threadless, moby, threadless

Dark Fox by Fat-Mouse is my favorite shirt of the week because I enjoy the way the thin lines evoke texture and shading on the shirt. It's a big print that works well because of how it uses the shirt color instead of fighting against it, which creates a beautiful image that isn't overwhelming. Those empty eyes intrigue me, and insert a level of mystery to the piece.



The Assassin's Birthday by wotto is the kind of piece that DBH doesn't tend to print much, as it's strength is in its humor. The character of the assassin is very well done, and I like the way his patchwork nature makes him look like a veteran of many sword fights in the past. His expression shows his eagerness to slice into a new enemy- an unassuming cake. Great use of both sides of the shirt, as it creates some suspense in wondering what prey the assassin is stalking.

Synchronizing Phase by dhectwenty is another exploration of colors and birds in flight, both things DBH has a lot of in their collection. It's certainly a solid piece, but because I feel like I've seen so much work in this vein it doesn't excite me. Birds, CMYK, tree silhouettes and skulls... they appeal to a lot of people, yes, but they're also cliches of shirt design. For me, they weren't made to feel fresh enough in this design.



Lonely Traveler by Kmeleon is another favorite of mine this week, showcasing a gorgeous line drawing of a strange beaked and antlered creature. A woodsy landscape plays out on the surfaces of his knapsack and swirling waters crash around his feet- imaginative and fun for the eye to explore. The real strength of the composition is in the insane amount of detail. Intricate patterns and linework create a real feast for the eyes, which I think would make this a design that reveals new details every time you look at it.

I Love Hitchcock by Oiseau is a bit of a disappointing shirt for me. The DBH bird obsession makes some degree of sense to me because birds are gorgeous animals- but a shirt like this, with its sketched and child-like m's as bird symbols, utterly fails to take advantage of that. Even the shirt color is strange- why cream? I've enjoyed some of this artist's other work, but for me this is a miss.

Design By Humans is an on-going t-shirt design contest that prints new shirts every weekday. Prints are chosen from the shirts submitted by and voted on by DBH members. Shirt of the Day winners receive $500 cash and $250 DBH credit. Shirt of the Week winners get $1000 cash. Shirt of the Month gets $1500 cash and $250 credit. Winners also have an opportunity to earn residuals through the Rockstar Awards Program.

Labels: design by humans

Threadless has a new major competition starting up, titled Threadless Loves Drawing. They're looking for shirts based on original drawings, which already has me excited to see the winner.

Enter before September 15th 2008 for your chance to win the prize package, which includes a Wacom Cintiq 12WX tablet, a $750 House Industries gift certificate, a $500 Utrecht gift certificate for Utrecht, a full set of Front Forty Books and CD's, your design featured in Print Magazine's February 2009 issue, an oversize poster from the Print Magazine 2008 New Visual Artists issue, the 11-year retrospective Regional Design Annual DVD and a one year subscription to Print Magazine... all in addition to the traditional Threadless prize of a $500 Threadless Gift Certificate and $2,000 in cash.

Labels: drawing, loves threadless, threadless

Shirt.Woot's newest Derby theme is up, and the topic is Your Favorite Element. Here's everything you need to know, directly from Woot:

Where would we be without the elements, those 117 different atoms that form the building blocks of all matter? Nowhere, that's where. So pick one of your faves and celebrate it in a t-shirt design. You can depict the atom, show us something made from it, riff on the name, whatever - as long as the focal point of your design is one element and only one element. (So, for instance, "water" or "nitrous oxide" would be off-limits as themes because two elements get more or less equal billing.)

Make the element the first word in the title of your entry, followed by a colon and the rest of your title (e.g., "Helium: the Silent Killer").

For this Derby, incidental text is allowed.

Labels: derby, shirt.woot

A Better Tomorrow has just announced the winner of their Typo Shirt Contest. The honors went to Fight for a Better Tomorrow by sixsixsix, which expertly repurposed the site's name in the form of buildings, landscape, and epic monsters. It's a great shirt even if you don't catch on to the lettering, but with a cool message if you are able to find it. As I've said before, ABT has the best name of any line I've ever seen- it's the kind of slogan you can wear proudly without feeling like you're mindlessly promoting a company. Fun shirt, and a fun contest- I'm hoping this will be a yearly event.

A Better Tomorrow chooses winners from the shirt designs submitted and voted on by site users. Although the site is in German, designers from all over the world can enter and win. Winners earn 500 euros when printed.

Labels: a better tomorrow, typo, typography

Uneetee's newest winner is Honour Glory Legacy by Ryan Keightley. A lot of the individual elements of this shirt work for me- I like patterning and layering, and the ghosts are nicely done- but overall, the composition seems cluttered and doesn't quite gel together for me. In particular, the ribs overlaying the knight's armor seem pointless and distracting. I think there might be potential for a good shirt here, but it feels like another round of two of editing would be required.

Uneetee chooses winners from the designs submitted by and voted on by site members. Winners receive $1500, with the chance to earn more through reprints.

Labels: uneetee

Bunyan's Blues by Ken Marshall (Style Swap) is my favorite shirt of the week because of how thoroughly the humor is conveyed. Instead of just capitalizing on the blue steak, showing Paul grilling in the middle of a field of tree stumps makes it clear how hard up he is. The result is a shirt that is funny, attractive, and even oddly poignant.



In Us All by Luke Ramsey is this weeks Select. While it's a type of shirt that I don't typically enjoy (it displays the organs), but it is done with a lot of style which goes a long way towards making it feel fresh. The heavy patterning of the innards almost gives them a furry texture, and the cutaways of the creatures are amusing. It's solid work, but not exceptional.

Imposter In The Bird Hotel by Michelle Li (littleclyde) is at first glance an attractive, though maybe predictable, shirt. The birdhouse is fun from far away, as it is full of colors and textures. Close up, though, is where it really succeeds- all the unique birds are fun to look at, and there's a neat easter egg in finding the cat hidden among them. Another strength is in the way the environment is shown in lighter shades, a great way of establishing a tone without distracting from the main event.



Foam Monster In Emotional Reunion With Severed Limb by Aled Lewis (fatheed) is one of the funniest and most original ideas I've seen on a shirt. It's like the answer to the question in the back of everyone's mind- what is the deal with those huge foam fingers? The answer is presented as an unfortunate foam monster, roaming the crowd in search of his hand. The style of drawing is attractively sparse, really letting the joke take centerstage. An especially great shirt for sporting events, but likely to be a hit with any crowd.



AV by Olly Moss (Woss) is a gimmick shirt. It succeeds where most shirts of this type fail, however, by mimicking an attractive object. There is something pretty cool about the way AV interfaces look because of the geometry, repetition and bright colors. I'd never wear it because I don't understand the desire to have a shirt look like anything other than a shirt, but I think objectively it's the best looking example of the genre that I've ever seen. I can picture hardcore music and video enthusiasts cheerfully lining up to buy it.

Stalagmite vs Stalactite by Steven Bonner (steven218) thrives on simplicity- the wavy rock layers spice it up a bit, but otherwise it's all basic and crisp. It works because the concept is so informational, it looks like a graphic for teaching children. As such, I think it works best as a kids shirt. While the front and back, up and down format is fun and fitting, most adults don't flip around enough to give it the kind of workout I think the theme requires.

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.

Labels: threadless

Uneetee's Mystery Shirt is back, promising a random shirt for the low price of $6. This offer is good for today only, so act quickly.

Labels: uneetee

The Retort by Bananaphone is the best shirt of the week because of the way it balances aesthetics with humor. The fish are filled with colorful patterns instead of scales, like an updated take on a vacationing fisherman's shirt. It delights in the bizarre, as one fish pipes up with a comeback about finance. Dada at its best, the kind of thing I think the shirt world could use a lot more of. I have to admit though, the print is a lot bigger than I expected- I think at 70 to 80% of this size, the text bubble and joke would be more apparent.



Quack Dance Colours by n3twork is definitely a unique shirt. The look is vintage, but with an attitude and color palette that update it and make it fresh. It's not the kind of thing I can imagine wearing, maybe because the ink coverage falls oddly to my eye- it seems that the top half of the shirt and one sleeve are almost totally empty, but everything else is thick with color. Great art, but not quite finessed to the shirt in a way that works for me.

CMYK? by MasterControl is a shirt I'm predisposed to hate. Design references and in-jokes always feel like they're trying to hard. Yes, those colors look good together. But calling them out in a speech bubble distracts from the coolness and mystery of the image itself. I like the spacesuits and the way the eyes are drawn in- it is very successful in establishes the scene as off-kilter and puts the humanity of the characters in question. But for me, the CMYK aspect just doesn't work and makes this too conventional- something more intriguing should have been done with the photo (patterning might have been a good start, or leaving that helmet open).



Too Much Work Eat My Face by TristanPernet centers on a really amazing illustration of a man's wrinkled face, obscured in part by coffee-like stains. I like the way the rings contribute to making this feel like a page in a sketchbook, something that is quickly captured instead of carefully plotted. There's also a lot of personality conveyed in those lines, especially with the scribble-filled speech bubble that extrudes from his temple. Where it fails a bit for me is in wearability- while I admire the skill with which it was created, I'm not inspired to wear it because the character isn't appealing or attractive enough to excite me.

ZebrART by deyaz might be too overdone a concept for me to properly judge. I feel like I've been seeing colored versions of zebras since early childhood, probably because I literally HAVE been seeing them that long. Fruit Stripe Gum was a staple of summer for me, and in the years since I've seen this kind of image pop up in ads for products like color copiers. And unfortunately, nothing about this particular rendition feels fresh to me. Color drips, if anything, just make it worse- one tired concept using an even more tired graphic element. Disappointing.

Design By Humans is an on-going t-shirt design contest that prints new shirts every weekday. Prints are chosen from the shirts submitted by and voted on by DBH members. Shirt of the Day winners receive $500 cash and $250 DBH credit. Shirt of the Week winners get $1000 cash. Shirt of the Month gets $1500 cash and $250 credit. Winners also have an opportunity to earn residuals through the Rockstar Awards Program.

Labels: design by humans

A Better Tomorrow has selected their newest winner, Acedia Sloth by Metamephisto. If you're like me, then you have no clue what is going on here. Thankfully, the artist has helpfully labeled the little headphones dude "Sloth." Now everything makes perfect sense! ...Yeah, I'm still clueless. But you know, it looks pretty cool. I like the zombie-ish expressions, the faint distressing and the splash of green ink. Even the oddness itself is a plus, because it sets this design apart from the crowd and keeps the viewer guessing.

A Better Tomorrow chooses winners from the shirt designs submitted and voted on by site users. Although the site is in German, designers from all over the world can enter and win. Winners earn 500 euros when printed.

Labels: a better tomorrow

This week's Derby at Shirt.Woot is completely different than any other- it's a Derbylympics, featuring three shorter contests with a winner apiece. Definitely an intriguing concept, I'm excited to see how it pans out.

Here's the first event information, as stated by Woot:

1st Event - Black and White
What can you do with the most basic color palette possible? Your design is limited to black ink on a white shirt, or white ink on a black shirt. No other ink colors or shirt colors are permitted. Aside from our usual Derby rules, any subject matter is allowed...but no text. This is the only Derbylympics event where you'll get a head start on your design, so make the most of it.

This event opens for submissions and voting Friday at noon, and closes on Sunday at noon, when the second Derbylympics event will open. Only the one shirt with the most votes will be printed.

Labels: derby, shirt.woot

Design By Humans is launching their biggest contest yet, in which the winner will walk away with $10,000. The top ten will be chosen by DBH, but after that voters have the final say. I have to admit that the emphasis on votes makes me nervous- it seems to hand the victory to whichever top ten finalist has the most MySpace friends. I'd rather have the winner be based on art than popularity.

The deadline for entering is August 29th, 2008. The winner will receive $10,000 and their work will be printed in three colorways.

Labels: design by humans

Uneetee's newest winner is Genesis by Matthew Tabor. The focal point is a cluster of massive trees, with birds flying up top and roots trickling down below. It's a pretty solid idea for a shirt, and the artwork fills the fabric well. My hangup is with the drawing itself- it just looks messy and unfinished to me. While I like sketchy things, the fact that this sketchiness doesn't seem particularly well done is a huge sticking point. The roots are irritatingly sparse and oddly shaped, and even those central trees don't seem quite realistically proportioned. It's wearable, but not half the shirt it could have been with some more work put in.

Uneetee chooses winners from the designs submitted by and voted on by site members. Winners receive $1500, with the chance to earn more through reprints.

Labels: uneetee

Scribtee currently has a sale underway, as they're looking to clear out some older designs to make room for more new contest winners. A lot of cool shirts are marked down to $15 including two of my favorites, Psychorilla and Dragon Pet.

Winners at Scribtee win $500, and are typically announced monthly. As with other contests, site users can vote to influence which shirt designs will be printed.

Labels: sale, scribtee

This week's Select, True Love Will Find You In The End by Si Scott, is absolutely amazing. It's exactly the level of artistry you'd expect from Si Scott, and it suits the medium nicely as well. Everything about the swan design works perfectly and looks effortless- the balance of dark, light and grey, the motion conveyed, and especially the rich detail. Definitely one of the nicest pieces I've seen at Threadless, or on any shirt for that matter. The only aspect I'm not totally sold on is the text itself. The placement is perfection but the sentiment feels a little too Hallmark cutesy, not quite up to the level of the rest of the shirt in my opinion.



Tief Fairies by Frank Barbara (franx) is the winner of the Hot Chip Loves Threadless contest, which mandated that entries find an innovative way to use glow in the dark ink. In the daylight, the shirt is covered by a huge, colorful skull- not the most original subject matter in the world, maybe, but definitely good-looking. The glow in the dark effects are where the real uniqueness takes place, showing a squadron of tooth fairies busily relieving the skeleton of its teeth. It's a great design to me because the glow enhances the shirt, it isn't just the sole reason the shirt is worthwhile.

Complementary Colors by David Creighton-Pester & Evan Ferstenfeld (WanderingBert) is solid all around, starting with the pun (funny, and not too annoyingly overdone). What really sells, though, is the incredible style. The speech bubbles are textured instead of solid, even casting shadows where they overlap. And the attention to detail doesn't stop there- each color is represented as a different type of art supply (my favorite is the pairing of green paint and a paint brush), each decked out with a goofy cartooned grin that adds even more cheese to their over-the-top compliments.



The Future In The Past by Yoshi Andrian Amtha envisions an antique-style gentleman DJing with a phonograph. I've seen the idea done before, but this is definitely the best rendition yet- the gold foil and the great style (right down to the wood grain of the bases) kick things up a notch. It's nicely done, and I think most musical history types would get a kick out of it.

Living Doll by Stephen Dillon-Malone is a gimmick shirt, which I am pretty much destined to hate. Here's the thing- to me, a kid's hand holding a doll is not a common sight. So when I see it applied to a shirt, I find it less iconic than just plain odd. It's also a shirt that only works when viewed directly head-on, which is disappointing because in life, shirts are so rarely confined to being seen that way. Another flaw for me is the coloration of the hand, which looks splotchy and live-traced (something I think would look even worse blown up at the size of a real shirt. I could see this gimmick maybe being popular with parents, but otherwise I'm not seeing the appeal.

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.

Labels: hot chip, loves threadless, threadless

Design By Humans has extended their sale until tonight at midnight. Many shirts are available for prices as low as $12, a fantastic deal on such high-quality work.



Because of the sale, only one new shirt joined the DBH collection this week: Eating Apple Off the Tree by N0osheen818. I like the approach to coloration, which grants the apples vibrant reds while the rest of the composition remains pure line. The apple-eater himself, though, is bound to be polarizing- this strange face takes up a huge expanse of the shirt, and it's not what you'd call traditionally attractive. In fact, my first thought was that it might be a caveman, sort of a prehistoric twist on the Adam and Eve story (I can't confirm that this was the intent, though). Even so, something about that face feels very disproportionate to me, which prevents me from being more positive.

Design By Humans is an on-going t-shirt design contest that prints new shirts every weekday. Prints are chosen from the shirts submitted by and voted on by DBH members. Shirt of the Day winners receive $500 cash and $250 DBH credit. Shirt of the Week winners get $1000 cash. Shirt of the Month gets $1500 cash and $250 credit. Winners also have an opportunity to earn residuals through the Rockstar Awards Program.

Labels: design by humans, sale

Fair and Bare, the UK's fair trade based t-shirt contest, has just printed their first winning design. Tree Huggin' by Wotto is a great choice- instantly appealing, with the monster's expression perfectly conveying his contentment. Another nice feature is the use of lines throughout- the monster's fur and the leaves of the tree are given depth and a textural feeling. Even better, the environmental protection angle of the shirt jives well with the site's bent without being a blatantly branded piece.

Winners at Fair and Bare earn £200 when their work is printed. Even better, when Fair and Bare increases the payments, all past artists will be bumped up to the increased payment as well.

Labels: fair and bare