Yep, you read that right- there's a store-wide holiday sale underway right now at Threadless! Check them out and fill your cart with $5, $10 and $15 tees for the holidays.
Music Business Remastered by Dale Edwin Murray is my favorite shirt of the week. Part of it is the shirt color- I'm a sucker for a great purple tee, and this is definitely that. I like the cleverness of the idea, but it's the style that fully won me over. The roughness is appealing, giving it a crafted feeling and adding to the sense of vintage. Very nice work.
Wild Wild Wind by Yeoh Guan Hong (yeohgh) imagines a wind so strong, it blows the spots off a giraffe. Shirt placement is key here, as the wraparound contributes to the theme by forwarding the idea that the artwork has blown right off the front of the shirt. It's pretty solid conceptually, but I admit that I felt a bit let down by the design itself. While I typically love one color work, I think that there was a bit of a missed opportunity in deciding not to show multiple colors being blown about.
The Skyscrapers by Michael B. Myers Jr. (slaterock) is a really fun piece, depicting two workmen dressed as buildings who scrape the blue sky away to reveal a starry night. It's very much the kind of scene a child would imagine upon hearing the phrase sky scraper, but done in a precise and fantastic style. I see it as perhaps better suited to a print than a t-shirt, but it's definitely good work regardless.
My Life is a Game (a New Stage) by Michael Valadares Ferreira (Bisparulz) shows an imaginary level design for what I think must be the world's most adorable video game. The artist's trademark style works well in conveying some personality on even the tiniest villains, and any gamer is bound to find themselves wishing this was a game they could actually play.
I Can't Get Enough Minimalism by Sean Beyer is one of this week's Type Tees. I have to say, it barely works as a slogan to me- it's sort of bland and unremarkable. There's the beginnings of something in the "can't get enough" and "minimalism" contrast, but it's not done boldly enough for it to stand out. The only think that even halfway salvages this is the styling of the letters, which is attractively minimalistic.
This week's Select is Dissolute Tree by Jean-sebastien Deheeger. To me, the artwork perfectly captures that calm stillness of winter in the way the shirt color is used and the texture of the central tree is expressed. It also appeals to the sense of wonder, in that it feels a bit unbelievable that nature always gets the seasons so right. I like the idea of this little repairman, locating the trees that are out of season and adjusting their clockwork accordingly. It's skillful and absolutely gorgeous.
Kyoto by Aaron Gilmore (Arrow08) is something Threadless doesn't print much- pure art. There's not even a hint of a joke here, and it's all the better for that. It's also proof positive that you don't need a concept to create some depth in a piece, as elements like the triangle (similar angles in the fan and the figure's pose) draw the eye in and create a lot of interest. The inky background helps contribute to the movement of the design.
Vampires Beware by Ian Leino is another of the Category of Objects shirts that Threadless prints every so often, and as usual I don't really get it. Like, yes, I understand that all of these objects can be used to uncover or harm vampires. But what is it about tossing them all on a shirt that would make this a tee design worth wearing?
Keep It Simple Stupid by Aaron Hogg (hogboy) is a complex silhouette, showing the mechanisms of the world's most complicated bicycle. What works about the design for me is the way it appeals to the sense of discovery- I find myself looking all over the machine, trying to find new twists that the artist has added (I especially dug the elaborate horns). It could have easily been irritatingly busy, but the silhouette and gradient treatment make it fun to look at without veering into eyesore territory.
The Food Chain by Olly Moss (Woss) is a really funny and clever infographic, applying the laws of nature to the undead. But as a shirt, I'm torn- while I love the humor, I think it gets lost on the tee because you need to be up close (and for long enough to read some of the labeling) in order to get the full effect. The shape of the design is another issue, as it's not tremendously flattering on most humans. So while I admire the design, I think it's a better fit for a print.
Icebergs Just Wanna Have Fun by Mathijs Vissers (Demented) is classic Threadless, an inanimate object with a face creating havoc. What I dig about this design is the intersection of comedy with reality- the iceberg's face is hidden below the waterline, which implies that it might actually be there if we were able to look. He's playing with real boats like they're bath toys, a very appealing scenario. The colors are ace as well, conveying cold in a way that's still a lot of fun.
I'm Not Bitter I'm Just Unsweetened by Julia Gotz is another of this week's Type Tee- oddly with the exact opposite issue as this week's other offering. In this case, the slogan itself is pretty solid, both funny and unique. But the text treatment is just kind of bizarre, I'm not really sure what it's getting at. I don't see a connection to the phrase, which feels like a missed opportunity.
Call of the Wild by Brock Davis (Laser Bread) really strikes me as a vision of an alternate reality Miami Vice, where a bear enforces the law with a grizzled flair. And that's the magic of this design, the way it inspires the viewer to make sense of it. The artwork itself is well done too of course, but it's really the concept that makes this a standout.
Design Battles by Chris Harris (Wiena) imagines artwork as the battlegrounds for an epic, unending war between creative forces and elements of their destruction. It's a hilarious idea, and one that any artist understands. The cartoon itself, though, falls a bit flat for me. My problem is that the shirt only shows the objects marching into battle, while to me the fight itself is the more interesting design. Picture the pencils frantically drawing extra copies of themselves even as they are erased. To me, that's the more interesting scenario, and once this design caused me to think along those lines, what I was actually looking at on the shirt didn't measure up.
Snake Oil Science by Ryan Keightley (Legacy Incarnadine) is an odd shirt for me. There's a very high skill level in the art and there are a lot of individual elements that I like a lot (in particular the snake oil lettering). But when I look at this shirt, I kind of have no idea what I'm looking at, and that puts me off. It feels like two shirt designs to me, one with the snake on top and a second one of the face and hair below. I think I'd wear the top shirt, but the bottom section feels very disconnected and confusing to me.
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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Sunday, November 30
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