Woolly Woolly by Edward Pincombe (Edword) is my pick for shirt of the week for being an all-too-rare shirt that is both season and so well done you'll actually want to wear it year-round. There's something deeply charming about the mammoth's eyes, which seem to protest that he's only wearing an adorable hat because it's cold (it is an ice age, after all). What makes it even better is the fact that each hair on this mammoth's head is well-drawn. It's a solid piece, and I'm loving the large size of the print, very well-suited to such a huge beast of an animal.
Folie A Deux by Ben Conrad is the first of four in the newest curated series of Selects, Patrick O'Brien's Storytellers Collection. For my money, this is also the best of the bunch, featuring two immaculately rendered statues locked in a frozen combat. The kicker is the bird perched on one's back, which cements the concept. What made me fall in love with the design is the lighting, which seems to emanate from the center of the conflict. The composition doesn't feel as shirt-friendly as it probably could have, but there's enough goodness here for me to gladly overlook it.
Falling Up by Timothy Saccenti is another in this Select series, merging a falling acrobat with a dropping leaf. The overlapping shapes reveal some nice similarities in the way angles are matched by both elements. It feels photographic and experimental, with some interesting color use and some ghosted elements that are fun to discover (like seeing the face silhouetted on the figure's legs). It's not my personal style, but I love that stuff like this exists.
The End of the World by Aaron Augenblick is a great drawing of a cover of a comic book. And yeah, it's the kind of thing that drives me a bit nuts because it feels like it's something taken from another medium and slapped on a shirt instead of something crafted or adjusted to suit this medium, the shirt. Frankly, even just the character of the mutant would have made for a brilliant and fun tee. I'm disappointed here because I adore the drawing, and now kind of want to read the non-existent comic. But as a shirt, it doesn't measure up to the Threadless standard because it lacks that adaptation to the t-shirt.
Once Upon a Time by Michael C. Place is a shirt with the kind of absurd humor I can't get enough of. The premise is ridiculous (a talking foot?) and the cheerful, straight-forward presentation dares you to question it. Despite all the reasons to like it, though, I'm hung up on how it sits on the shirt. The design feels like it's the wrong shape to really shine as a tee, which I think is the only thing holding me back on a purchase.
Abe by Joe Carr (ISABOA) shows Abraham Lincoln as he's never been seen before, wielding guns instead of common sense and diplomacy. What I really love about this shirt is the length of it- everything is dramatically elongated, tying in so nicely to Lincoln's public image. Overall it is a great piece, though I have to admit that I wish a little more care had gone into rendering his hands- they're the one sloppily made area in an otherwise very choice shirt.
Jungle Gym by Olly Moss (Woss) is a solidly executed pun design, showing animals taking over a swing set at night. As kid's shirts go, it's pretty decent because it's a twist on something seen every day, combining two things that kids love (animals and jungle gyms). As an adult shirt, though, it's a bit lacking for me because there's not really a joke. Jungle animals actually using the jungle gym to have fun would make me laugh, but animals just around one is clever without being particularly funny to me. So, while it's excellently drawn, I'd chalk this tee up as being strictly for kids and those who are around them a lot.
Not Safe For Work! by David Creighton-Pester (WanderingBert) shows the darker side of a collection of common office items. When I say darker side, I actually mean that they all have teeth and mean faces. Well, mean face. This design is a bit frustrating to me in that it feels more like a sketch than a finished design. I would have loved to have seen some variation in why each item is a monster, like the phone twirling the cord like a flail to attack cubical workers. As it stands, the artwork isn't interesting enough to make it work as a shirt- this is better off as a cartoon.
Under My Bed by Maxim Cyr (Recycledwax) is what this artist does best, a huge mass of hill-like creatures who somehow each have their own personality. The convention of them all being monsters under some poor kid's bed is fantastic, because it gave Recycledwax a great reason to play to his strengths while still telling a story. The use of glow ink on the eyes gives just a little edge of spookiness to an otherwise cute tee. One thing that I think might have been nice to see is more of a contrast between the reality of the child and his bed against the more imaginative monsters, but that might be another shirt entirely.
I Supplement My Personality With Witty Shirts by Johnathan Yen is a slogan that doesn't have a huge amount of character, but the blandness of it is why it kind of works. It comes across like a page in a corporate report, screaming some statistic with big type and minimizing the supporting evidence. I actually think this might have worked better if they flipped the pie chart to make most of the worth in the shirt instead of the person's personality. It's not really the kind of thing that appeals to me personally either way, but I think it does what it needs to do and brings something a little different to the TypeTees.
I 'Occasionally' Use Air Quotes by Ross Matlock isn't really funny to me. The whole sarcastic air quotes and misused quotes thing in general is actually much more irritating than the kind of mistake it mocks. So when I look at a slogan like this, all I think is that some unfunny bastard is going to run around making even more lame jokes about quotation marks while wearing it. And frankly, I want to believe this world is a better place than that.
Hungriest Hippo by Alex Solis (alexmdc) is, like all his work, incredibly well-drawn. It's both a reference to that favorite childhood game, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and something that's pretty funny even independent of that, due to the general oddness of hippos. It's a bit funny to think that those creatures can get so huge just by eating other things in rivers, so in that sense the design makes more sense than reality. I also like how the yellow is used to highlight the top of the water, a nice touch that conveys the feeling of sun hitting water.
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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Saturday, February 28
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