Contest Watch: Week of June 10

Title: Twin Brother
Designer: ndikol

We're going layout crazy today, since we're working with purely Threadless designs. For starters, we're gonna cute you into submission with this piece. What I love about it is the simplicity. It's all very childlike, while being soothingly so... simple shapes, like a good kids book. The palette is pleasant as well, subtle but smart. But the concept, while also embracing that same simplicity, is the real wonder. The repetition of the shapes from sun to lion to flower, progressively shrinking in size, just makes an incredibly appealing design. It'll make a great kids tee, but it's not overbearing in any way, which makes it perfect for all future wearers. This is what cute is all about.

Title: GalactiCactus
Designer: Niv Bavarsky

It's no surprise to y'all by now that I love stuff that makes no sense. More than likely such work makes up the vast majority of what I've talked up in my time with this blog. I believe that art is for expression, and there simply isn't much being expressed if you're spelling everything out for everyone (and really, do you WANT to spend time around someone who can't handle some simple thought?) What this tee brings is a wearability of execution with an oddness of content. The colors invite the surreal, the spacey, but doesn't keep anyone out unless they purposefully wish it. Great shirts should wear well, and I believe this would do just that.

Title: The House Smoker
Designer: kako64

Well then: if you tend to crave your oddness way bolder, this is definitely a tee for you. One of the easy highlights is that beautiful yellow-on-black contrast, and that lends worlds of character to the title dude and the focal point of the tee. The big blobby shape is a charmer. Far be it from me to try and glamorize smoking, especially at the expense of a whole house, but there's definitely a calm about the guy, like you'd imagine in an old sitcom, when dad comes home and lights his pipe. You almost pick up that warmth between the warm yellow of the creature, the warm lights shining in the windows and chimneys smoking along throughout the scene, but also in the playful and cozy style. The town looks like a really homey place, with it's buildings drawn roughly so that despite height and presumed population, it still has a rural, rustic feel as well... some old-world Europe stuff, perhaps. And that feeling really adds worlds of depth to this scene.

Title: Drawn to Life
Designer: Anything Goes

Far be it from me to ever go so far as to insist "anything goes" as the designer's moniker does, but this piece is really a brilliant showing of what should be done with source material. The way the photograph interacts with the drawn elements is stunning and uses great perspective. The elements line up perfectly, and pop out three-dimensionally. What I really love here is how the photo implies a dead series of fallen trunks, yet the drawing gives them a rebirth, giving a double layer to the design's title: not only is there a drawing attached to real-life images, but that drawing brings the photo trees back to life, and does a stunning job doing so. One of the best from the current Threadless Loves Shutterstock contest.

Title: Balalaika
Designer: Lesha Ki

We end off in pure shirt. Patterning. Colors. Vector work. If you were to condense the world of tee design down to its basics, this would be it. It's design created for fashion, design created to be worn. The patterning, symmetry and ornamentation sprout off from the title element, an Eastern European instrument somewhere between a guitar and a shovel. I think this would be even more perfect if the feel of it related more to that focal element, but it still makes for a gorgeous design that one can wear and just enjoy the interplay of the elements.