Make it Rain

It is nearly too muggy to write this evening, so the new Tilteed Limited tee comes as a bit of a horrible omen. I feel as if I jinxed myself by bringing it in. Overall, though, it'll be worth it, for any number of reasons. Drowning Out the Sun, by D-Roy, is a stellar summer tee for those of us who can't abide by the oppressive heat, but a sweet tee all around for its faded colors, chunky vector lines, and smart art. The colors are an obvious perk, to me... they're not overly saturated, which makes the tee feel a bit weathered and classic from the start (which I think increases wearability with many of us). The use of the tee blank, however, is incredibly smart, especially for a guy who I believe is getting his first tee print through us. With the big, full-chest print, having so much white breathing through is so important. Yet it comes off effortlessly, much like the clouds seem to be effortless with their raining. It's so commonplace that they seem nonchalant. I'm super excited to see this tee get a chance with us. We love getting a chance to bring you something new and different. We hope you'll give it some love, too.

The Waiting Game

Look here, shirt sites, and listen the hell up.

We all want to see awesome, deserving tees print. It's human nature. I would rather wait years to get a chance to own a totally worthwhile tee than never see it happen. But this is getting out of hand.

Just last week, we thrilled to a totally deserving Threadless design getting what it deserved a year after submission. This week it's Design By Humans' turn. The irony, to me, is that both designs went up for voting at the other site before finally being printed by the original one. And this is where my issue lies.

Againstbound's Ominous and Ghastly Mont Noir was a top 20 contender from last year's DBH10K (going on now for 2010). Almost every top 20 was printed within the month or so after the winners were announced. This was one of approximately four not to. The layers of elements are no less awesome now, the art is no less original to the designer, the design is not somehow more printable than it always was. It's a surefire buy when I get to it. But I just don't get what took so long. Even in the worst-case scenario, by a month or two after the 10K, Againstbound should easily have had mail expressing intent to print this later. Yet it made its way to another site. In the interim, DBH printed things like Guntree and Dogfight, among the worst prints I've ever seen. So why couldn't this one be fit in until now?

The business of selling art is getting cowardly, it seems. They're afraid to print work they clearly like. And seeing pieces like this and the other from last week finally print proves that fear. These are tees they liked, as evidenced by the late printing. But waiting a year is just wrong. Waiting so long to even tell an artist you want to print their piece that they have taken it elsewhere is wrong. You need to suck it up and make the plunge. And when I see some sites printing work that is absolutely uninspired after a month or two at most, this really should be unacceptable. There have been well over 300 days to find a spot for this design to print. So while I am excited by it, and excited to wear it, it really proves just how married the design world is to the business aspect, and how scared they are about the art side. I don't want to live in a world so close-minded that this would never print, but in some ways, knowing this would take so long to do so is just as scary a commentary about both our cultural and capitalistic tendencies.

If your business ostensibly sells art, it is your obligation to sell art. Otherwise, you are only damaging the art world. And art is more important to society than your corporate savings being full.

Contest Watch: Week of July 22

This has been a pretty super week for Contest Watch... you should definitely check the last few posts for some supertown updates. And while you're at it, go check Threadless, where "The Serenade of Pangolin's Mandolin" is up for votes. This bad boy was a long-time-ago feature here, back in the days of Shirtfight, so definitely give it some long overdue love.

Threadless mostly dominates this week, but there were a few winners that won't win over at shirt.woot, also. I'm pretty averse to featuring the fog, because even though I can predict winners and losers, it seems unfair to promote the obvious potential winners. However, there was one definite standout, and it sat outside the fog: Bird in Space, by CapedCrusader514. The theme this week was Art Titles Reinterpreted. You'd think this would be simple, given other woot derbies, but apparently people don't know what "title" means. We got a lot of pieces that simply parodied the work without looking at the title: this is one of those rare instances where someone was both able to pay homage to the piece while doing what the theme requested, reinterpreting the title. The shape and position and color of the bird recall the piece it is inspired by, but it is made literal instead of abstract. But all this aside, it's just a stunning piece to begin with. The linework is lovely, and the shading is certainly part of that. The golden hues pop against the black. There's something I love about those sorts of color schemes, with big bright colors on black spacey expanses, so this is totally my sort of tee. I hope we'll get to see it again in the future. On a tee, this time.

Now, however, we can get to all the Threadless goodies for the week, and there really have been some goodies. Let's start with tolagunestro, which is always a superb place to start. His "Fast Spin" is the sort of glorious oddity we love to see here, with the execution to back it up. There's an obvious juxtaposition of the slowness of the snail with the idea of a speedy carnival ride, but I'm much more intrigued by the gorgeous texture (if anything about a snail can be gorgeous without first covering it in butter and garlic), and the rickety yet delicate framework of the spiraling ferris wheel sort of structure. It's an original take, to be sure, and eye candy without a doubt. Not only that, but an orange blank? Sign me up. If there are two things that I would say all successful shirts have (and by "successful," I mean this in an art and not a business sense), it would definitely be original concept and skilled execution. Obviously, just about every tee shop on the planet doesn't back me up on this given many of their selections, but their foolishness doesn't take away from the truth of the matter. If someone wants something bold, unique, and attractively done, this should be the sort of tee they're voting for. Convenient, then, that such a tee would indeed be up for voting!




Of course, execution can be all about simplicity as well. Which is what I love about Mammoths Were Hippies, by Tawan. Simple, smart concept needs simple, smart design, and this goes just far enough to illustrate with charm, without overkill. The "hippie" idea is so simple and so perfect for the mammoth that it seems incredible it had never been thought of before. I'm just glad it was thought of by someone who would put it together correctly. The meeting of the minds shown here, with just enough surprise readable in the elephant's eyes, and just enough passive nonchalance behind the mammoth's shades, charms without rotting the teeth. There is much to be said for pure intellect in designing. Would that more people would just do it. There are plenty of great, future classic ideas out there. Relying too heavily on other people's work is flat out lazy when there are smaller-name designers out there who can hit home runs like this.

Even so, sometimes reference can be wonderful if done smartly, as well. Which has almost nothing to do with Fleck's "Zenobia," except that there's a part of me that desperately wants to somehow relate this to Ethan Frome. It's not wintry. The city doesn't seem to be a hypochondriac lusting over a pickle dish. I guess you could say that it's standing up on pretty flimsy legs, but that's more of a stretch than I'm willing to go. So despite the piece being inspired by Calvino (one of my faves), I've yet to read Invisible Cities, so no classic literature for me this time. But classic illustration, that we have in spades, and really, that's what we should want. This is what complexity should look like. It's structured, ordered, but not fully. There's still something fragile about it. I love the idea of the complex infrastructure being supported on such flimsy braces... it seems to want to make a statement and yet keeps quiet about it. But all that aside, the ramshackle nature of the city's support system makes the underlying story all the more interesting. I like how those lower bits are sparse and a bit scattered compared to the dense, repetitive patterns above. I love the way the illustration fills up the tee, with the bulk of the design at the chest and the dregs hanging down at the stomach. It flatters the canvas by filling it well, and flatters the body by not calling so much attention to the parts people tend to be more self-conscious about. Even the swatches of dull red, the only real pop of color here, arcs over the top of the chest. It's really quite well conceived in positioning, and visually, this is a sure-fire buy if and when it prints. It's subtle but not bland, it's detailed but not cluttered, and it's familiar without being generic. Stunning work on what should indeed be a stunning tee.


Finally, let's check out the current Loves competition: this one's about comics, and I'm not going to lie, I'm quite scared about it. I will probably be somewhere between crying and mauling if/when some HILARIOUS shirt that shows batman as a bat for the umpteenth time prints. But then, on the other hand, when designers really embrace a style, and utilize their own mind to flesh it out... now that's where the big payoffs come, and comics are a perfect venue for that. That's why I dig the Incredible 5 Senses by Gums. There's obviously a Fantastic 4 element to the team, and a definite classic comic vibe to the style, but the characters are just wonderful. What works so well is how comics have always had their own internal logic. Superman is an alien who looks like us. His only weakness is a rare alien rock, that somehow is easily obtained by earth-baddies. Wolverine had his entire skeleton replaced by super hard metal, but it's OK because he can heal himself. Galactus is THE SIZE OF A DAMN PLANET BUT SUPERHEROES CAN KICK HIS ASS SOMETIMES. So the idea that we might get exposed to all these beautiful, bizarre worlds in this contest is ever so appealing. In this comic, our heroes are our senses. With human bodies. I'm not sure what's not to love about this. The characters really are alien to us for that reason, but in the comic style, all is forgiven visually. You just want to see if Tongue can escape from The Capsicum Crusader (Milk Man to the rescue?) before time is up. It's a great interpretation because the team is readymade, but also ideal for the stylized, mutant ideal that especially Marvel heroes are known for. The execution feels natural, the colors feel wearable and authentic, and the whole package is exactly what this contest should be about. Please guys, no shirts with Spiderman as a spider. Isn't that overdone yet? The answer, btw, is yes.

Wet T-Shirt Contest

On the exact opposite end of the design spectrum, it would seem, as our last tee (posted what, a couple hours ago?) there's TheInfinityLoop's "Painted With Water." There's really nothing abstract about this at all... it's a pretty simple sea scene, and all the elements are pretty clear. However, the style makes the piece, and makes the concept shine through. The style is a take on the old "Paint With Water" books that were big in the 80s, allowing the art-free kids to feel like they've created something by applying water to the dried smears of color on each page. I remember how lurid the greens became against the water... it might well have been that color that kept me so interested in the creative process, ironically. Anyway, having the simple aquatic scene featured on this design totally makes sense with the style of the books, but it also heightens the concept... of course there would be water in this scene, and it brings out the life in all this life.

Long time readers know that our former Contest Watch featured designs have never fared well at shirt.woot (and long time readers probably also know exactly why they wouldn't), but I am ever hopeful this will be the time that things change. However, if not, you only have until August 9th to grab this. Today, of course, it's only $10 until it sells out or tomorrow dawns. Here's hoping the former happens.

Twilight With Talent

I imagine I am not alone in the world of art critics who feels that there's a certain "T" word that has proven the uselessness of trying to get through to the masses on issues of quality. It sort of hearkens back to being in high school, and being almost offended at the absolutely wonderful phrase "in sync" being debased into, well, a pretty useless phenomenon. So it's pretty much refreshing to be able to use the word in the context of true art.

So let's reflect a bit on ZackOlantern's "The Twilight Rider," which is a vision in Eggplant. I have been in love with this piece for a while, with it's amazing, challenging abstractions and colors. It's like Bennie and the Jets: weird and wonderful. What I love about this sort of art is that it can really be interpreted any way you want... it's about the gorgeous visual, the totally foreign world created in the piece... it's a design that has an artistic payoff if you take the time to study it and contemplate it and just appreciate it. That's way more worthwhile than having things spelled out.

As always, this is a Tilteed Limited tee, and therefore, you've only got 3 days to snag it, so don't slack off. Tees like this just aren't common enough these days, so grab one and help slowly reverse the movement against our minds.

Intense in Tents

They say good things come to those who wait. I'm not a believer. Patience is a virtue because the virtueless want a monopoly on getting what they want. But every now and then, something good does finally pan out. And this week, after waiting a year, it is one of those times.

Blog favorite GinetteGinette gets a long overdue second print over at Threadless this week, and it is everything I could hope it to be and more. Please marvel at the wonder which is Tipi Man. They did the piece proud: the big, simple main graphic is appropriately huge, and given Threadless' printing quality, the likelihood is that even at this size, it'll still be soft instead of stiff. There's a charm in the odd little tipi character, and a shiftiness in its eyes that is intriguing. The real payoff, though, is how the simple graphic plays with the ornate background. It's like salty and sweet... the big graphic makes the belt printed flora seem far less overpowering, while all that detail allows the simplicity of the tipi to sit attractively without seeming one note or clunky. It's really smart design, and totally worth the wait... if Threadless' recent propensity for over-reprinted reprints and sell-out panderprints has finally opened the door for them to take risks on truly deserving oddities (and the overall quality this week coupled with yet another huge scoring "oh look pop culture things as real animals" print implies it might), I -might- start getting behind this whole generification of graphic art. There are lots of tees that have been overlooked out there, and while it's great to see one of my favorites finally get what it deserves, there's a long long way to go. A year is a damn long time to wait.

We Ain't Lion.

Today marks the last day of the grand Tilteed Flip giveaway, which means the Flip cam WILL be given away soon soon soon. As such, that also means y'all should consider hurrying up the promotion on our Facebook page contest. I'm giving away tees for every hundred of you, and I don't want to be saved money. The contest will be running just a titch longer, through the end of the latest Tilteed Limited curation, so you still have time to help make it happen.

As for that latest curation? It's JimmyTan's classic unprinted tee "Grandpa". I've wanted this tee to be part of the limited catalog for a long time, and I'm superstoked to see it up finally. It's all about the facial expression here, wise and happy. The title really makes sense of it all. I think many of us can see something of our gramps in this, even if he didn't smoke a stogie, wear a monocle, or eat our dad. There's so much character that I simply can't imagine how no one picked this up yet, but we hope their loss will be your gain. I also dig the use of color... the blue accent really stands out here, while the main linework is detailed enough that there's no need for more color. If you agree, you've got under 72 hours to make it happen. And that goes for the contest as well.

Give 'em the Boots

We've seen Kindred Market before in the long long ago, and thought hey, that's a pretty cool concept, but wanted to wait to see more. What concept, you ask? Well, Kindred runs a shirt contest of a different sort. Instead of printing the hottest tees, they give birth to a brand, which hopefully will then create hot tees. It leads to a decidedly mixed-bag feel to the site: you have stunning art mixed with vectormash and even slogans, but the potential is what makes the site so interesting. Instead of waiting every week for a single shirt to either be awesome or horrible, like some sites, there is a whole new brand under their umbrella to judge on quality. Which is kind of exciting.

This week, however, Kindred has brought us a line that should excite a number of you out there in tee land. Welcome friend-of-the-blog BootsBoots to their market! Boots is known for an oddball sense of humor and a quirky sense of cuteness, and the pieces up from her line's first release highlight this for sure (as well as her admitted penchant for text-text-text). Honestly, it's nice to see how completely the pieces selected for the launch speak to the designer's overall style.

Unsurprisingly, my favorite of the group is her long-unprinted Intergalactic Hitchhikers. It's an example of how cuteness can still be unique and personal in style, and it's also the most original and artful of the crop. If I had to break down the success of this to one element, I'd say "arrows". The arrows give a nice flow for the eyes to follow, and facilitate the composition of the overall design. They also bring in the color contrast that really makes this pop... the orange highlights against the blues really make this lovely and eyecatching, and unlike some halftone experiments, the glow here works as a matter of those contrasts. It adds to the otherworldly feel. I'm also a pretty big fan of the mediocrity-snarking "Lulz 101," which takes a well-deserved swipe at, well, something like 75% of the tee world, but this one always seemed to sum Boots up in an image.

I understand Kindred works in DTG printing, which isn't my ideal method to buy, but also has a screenprinter they use for store orders, which is all the more promising. I have no clue where they wholesale to, so if you're on the hunt for a solid screened design, I don't know what to tell ya, but it's definitely worth checking out if you're a Boots fan... her pieces are currently pretty damn reasonably priced, too, so it's a chance worth taking. Either way, we'd love to congratulate her on the new shop, and we hope the concept is something that not only takes off for her, but for kindred... who knows what they can offer if they start getting some serious exposure.

Don't Keep this Quiet!

Ok. We can do this a couple ways. So listen up.

Option 1 is I just talk about Reticent, the latest limited tee on Tilteed. That's easy enough to do with it's lovely colors, abstract shapes and lines, and futuristic vibe. I could certainly tell you all about how it was a former contest watch tee, and how I love designer NinthWheel's work, and yadda yadda yadda. And it would all be true. If you'd prefer that, I can do that all damn year.

Option 2, however, switches it up a bit. See, yesterday I introduced you all to the blog's new Facebook page. It's still new, fresh, and growing. But I'd like to see it grow more. So in honor of Tilteed's birthday contest, and to make up for some under-represented contrasts in the past, I'd like to offer you all an incentive for your loyal reading. I'd love to see the fan page grow, so I'm gonna give away some tees. For every 100 fans I gain between now and the end of Tilteed's flip giveaway, I will randomly choose a fan to win a Tilteed tee of their choice. That's any catalog Tilteed tee, or any current limited (I obviously can't do much of anything for past tees). And that means if I get 100 fans, I give one away, and if I get 512, I give 5 away, and if I get 10,000 fans, well, let's be honest, I'm kind of hoping that doesn't happen by the end of the month. I'm not made of money.

All YOU need to do is FAN UP ON FACEBOOK. It's easy, it's free, and sometimes you'll even get extra content. Hell, sometimes the blog ITSELF doesn't get new content! And spread the word, because every new fan we get, the more chances there are to win. So if you prefer to just hear about how awesome this limited tee is, and how you should grab it now before you miss out in 72 hours, please re-read the first paragraph over and over again. But for the rest of you, I totally think the second option sounds more fun, don't you think? You know what to do.

Contest Watch: Week of July 8

Weeks later, we have a couple things worth noting this week on Contest Watch. First off, if you love SingulariTee, and you obviously do, you can check out our Facebook page for our hopefully more frequent updates and even occasional bonuses (sales watches, bonus contest watch pieces, whatever else I can milk for extras). We'd love to see you fan us. We'd also love to see you give some love to DaleEdwinMurray's "If Thine Eye Offends Thee." It's one of the best I've seen around the circuit this year, and it's a crime that it didn't print with Threadless. We really needed another Mario shirt instead!

We've been happy to get the chance to chat up Design By Humans a lot this week in various arenas... they've got a killer sale going on, and we still have a 10% code to get you even more savings (check our banner). But there have been scads of great potential DBH tees just itching to be talked about for a while now, one of which being a favorite we missed talking about once upon a time at Threadless. Since it's new to you, let me present ecsu's A Timeless Murder. Again, like Dale's, I'm not sure why we're even getting this chance to bring it into today's contest watch: it really -should- be printed already. It's got it all... amazing colors (the primary-colored rainbow makes for a bold accent against the dark clock housing), wonderful textures on the wood, engaging flow with the rainbow and the strangling arms, and even the concept is nice and intriguing. It could go a lot of directions, but I like thinking, given the murder in the title, that it's a commentary of the impossibility of infinity, and the way time keeps marching on, but all things end. The great thing about designs like this, though, is that it's so reliant on symbolism that anyone who cares to take the time can find something to connect with here. Great, ambitious art.

Over at Threadless, we've got some greatness as well. Mostly birds, apparently. Consider the case of Torakamikaze's Let It Out. I'm pretty sure the colors here used to be in popsicles in my childhood (huzzah blue raspberry!) so the design rocks my midsummer world on palette alone. It's got a psychedelic nature to it that makes it quite appealing, but what I love is the highly synthetic looking colors against a pretty nice looking eagle-head. Or is that a hawk? Ornithologists? Anyway, it presents a nice contrast of styles and concepts, and the "lasers from the mouth" thing is pretty super in and of itself. This hawk is intense. Or falcon. It's possible there's a vague patriotism factor making this so workable, as well... the eagle with a spin on a red white and blue palette might subconsciously make the whole piece feel all the more right. It's obviously unintentional, but the subconscious can't hurt when you're looking at art. I imagine this right here is all about the tee, which is to say, the artist created it because it looked rad, not to show off drawing chops (though it's certainly attractive), nor to put forth any deep or amusing concept (though, who knows). But at the end of the day, a hot looking shirt is enough reason for a shirt to exist. Shirt for shirt's sake. It's not trite. It's not boring. It's simple, standalone fashion-graphic. And it's destined to be a tee.




More tweet tees from Threadless are coming from the likes of alvarejo, who brings us Ready for First Class. This is definitely stunning execution, because it's a different sort of tee. It's much more about vintage details than bold graphic. The black-and-"white" illustration style hints to this already, but it's all the more obvious with the ridiculously outdated accouterments this little guy has with him. It's all pretty lovely... the sign of a truly skilled artisan... but really the best parts of this have nothing to do with concept or linework. Sure, the top hat is the first thing we notice, and it's somehow always a smile to see a critter in a top hat, but I think I like the stuffed suitcase more... what is this guy even going to pack? The camera goes even further over the top... it's so large, so gaudy, so old, that it just looks hilarious in any light, especially being worn by a pigeon. But the detail I love most is the shoes. They're so blatantly big on the pigeon that the absurdity of the whole thing is heightened all the more. These are people-clothes, pigeon! That's the best of this piece: so many similar designs fight to make the humanized creature seem totally natural, but this one revels in just how silly the whole idea is. It feels very self-aware, and that, along with stellar execution, is what sets it apart.

Of course, Threadless never has been purely about flawless execution. Indeed, for all the amazing tees I've discussed that have been up at the site, their legacy is much more in tune with such designs as bananaphone's "Dear Sir." This defines Threadless humor, which is no surprise when you consider the iconic tees the designer has brought to the site. Sure, it's easy to think of the scads of pop "humor" dominating the airwaves, but this is what built the site's humor catalog, in a very real way. The graphic is simple, which is what a graphic needs to be in a quick-and-dirty humor tee like this, but it still has its distinct style. More importantly, though, the text is legitimately funny. Or at least, I think so. It's a matter of the refined, polite request for what is undeniably a horrible deal to make. I'm personally OK with not getting my face clawed, Mr. Bear. It doesn't hurt, of course, that this flowery prose comes from that simply-styled graphic... it makes the juxtaposition all the stronger. Nor does it hurt that the tone of the text resonates with me for it's dark almost anti-humor and its sense of snark. Or that I kinda love me some red tees. But in the end, it's just refreshing to see this sort of tee still being created and still thriving. I'm pretty sure, unfortunately, that scoring will be over by the time this post comes up, but if you're into seeing this sort of thing continue to succeed, I urge you to comment anyway. Regards, Adder.




Finally, back to DBH. I tweeted about this earlier this week, but for the rest of you, you need need need to check out the scads of amazing work that went up for voting this week by beecombs. My favorite of the pieces is, without a doubt, Hive, because it looks like nothing I've ever seen before. The complex network of polyhedrons invites both the eyes and the imagination... the tube-like areas feel like transit pathways, which helps bolster the idea of this structure being a hive, but the questions come harder and faster than the answers. It's hard to say if this is a rendering of an insect abode, or some alien space station. The piece straddles the chasm of organic ore formation and wooden carpentry project as well. It keeps you wondering just what you're looking at. And as far as I'm concerned, that's fine. Maybe I don't want to know. I'm happy just looking and imagining, so long as it looks awesome.