Tee-Cember: The Season to Support

While many sites have been having big sales all month, Cameesa has gone the opposite direction: December marked the introduction of a new support pricing scheme. $20 is the new support price, double the old standard. I'm personally a bit skeptical of the whole thing really driving support the way they think it will (and I definitely question the economic feasibility of their plan), but there are a couple definite perks for You The Buyer: firstly, of course, every support you may have made at $10 is grandfathered in... you WILL get your shirts if and when they print. The second perk, however, is a hugely elevated kickback for new supporters: while the $10 scheme paid out $0.02 for every sale of a tee you supported, the $20 tag comes with a $0.20 kickback. Again, I question how this will work out for the site financially, but it's certainly an interesting experiment for anyone interested in seeing a bit of a kickback just for having awesome taste in tees.

We at SingulariTee are big supporters of the idea behind Cameesa (check the site for more about the "crowdfunding" idea, including videos), and have long promoted some favorites in our blog header... we continue to suggest these as excellent places to start if you're interested in trying out the new Cameesa scheme. For those of you less willing to make the investment of time and money that supporting requires, though, perhaps their holiday sale will be more interesting to you... they're offering 10% off everything until 2010 with code HOLIDAYS09. We're big fans of Overcompetsation, by tgentry, which has the questionable honor of being the only Cameesa design we've written up in a contest watch (and consequently one we've forgotten to write up til now... sorry guys!) It's a wonderful little scene, and a great concept piece. We tend to think a good, intelligent joke shirt is worth about 100 pop culture tees (especially given their rarity), and getting ANY joke shirt with a seriously skilled execution is a wonder in and of itself. The size hammers home the joke, and the lemon blank is just, well, bright and wonderful. Pick one up... we're pretty confident anything we've ended up supporting will look at least this good when it prints. Yeah, I said when. We're cocky bastards like that.

What the Cluck pt. 2

After months of waiting for full support at Cameesa, waiting for the shirt to print and come in, and waiting for the shirt to reprint so it wasn't bizarrely pea green, I was beginning to despair that I might never be able to excitedly inform y'all that Coq Music is officially for sale at the crowdfunding site... so much so that my official update has long been delayed even past its true launch. Still, this is a tee I've been truly stoked for, and for those of you who may not have seen it yet, I hope you will enjoy. It's glorious. The colors are wonderful, the style is whimsical and appealing, and the concept is totally out there, which pretty much guarantees a home run for me... really, I was sold from the start on those hip glasses on the rooster. What I really love about the designer, though (blog favorite Monsieur Pimpant) is his natural, rough, loose style. He designs so organically, using the tee as just one more sketchbook page, and at his best he creates a vignette that captures the imagination... the possibilities of what this piece could mean are pretty endless, and imagining that world doesn't get old. What sort of society had giant birds commanding tiny men to wind their Victrola? What sort of music are they even listening to? We can only hope it is not the chicken dance.

More Sales With Cameesa

In addition to the DBH sale (see above and below for more), there is also a pretty swank sale at Cameesa, ending April 24th. They're claiming 15% off per shirt, but it comes out to a solid $3 across the board (which in most cases will save you a little extra change). Like DBH, the newest tees aren't seeming to be effected, but with free shipping being offered on any order of two or more shirts, you'll still come out ahead if you toss one of those in your cart as well.

We're personally most in love with the support feature at Cameesa, but if you're looking for something to buy right now, may we recommend "Explanation for my Passion (Or Lack Thereof)" by BootsBoots? There's not a lot of new ground to be broken in "heart" designs, but I'm a big fan of the idea that, as much as I might WANT to go whole-hog into a relationship, or project, or long term goal, my heart is more interested in sitting around playing videogames. I actually know far too many people where this scenario is literal, but I enjoy it more figuratively... it's something we've all been through. The placement and the branching blood vessels certainly help keep it fresh, too, as do the wonderfully bold colors.

The Weekend of Big Changes: Cameesa

As many of you know, we're continually excited about Cameesa, the crowdfunded shirt contest that lets you, the shirt fan, put your money where your mouth is and help your favorite shirts get printed. So it is with great excitement that we tell you that they have now cut the price dramatically... a support, formerly a $20 investment, is now $10 plus the cost of shipping. To celebrate, Cameesa is even offering free shipping on everything, from their already printed tees to new supports, until March 27th. If you've been cautious about dropping $20 on a shirt that may still take a long time to get in your hands, now is the time to get in on it. And "get in" it seems people are doing... in only a day since the change, almost every design has bounced up a couple supports they didn't have prior. Here at SingulariTee, the hope is that we can finally get our hands on the hip birds in Monsieur-Pimpant's "Coq Music" (see above), or that Againstbound's "Color Bleeding" will finally start attracting the interest it deserves, but we recommend you go check through the supportable designs and find a few you love. As always, you can still support unlimited designs on the same ten-spot (with the first to print being the one you'll get), but with the slashed support cost and the free-shipping week, you may just want to do as I've done, and create as many single-shirt supports as possible to lock in that price. We're sure you'll find something you desire.

Read About it in a Blog, Read About it With a Frog

So there's this awesome site called Cameesa that I know I've told y'all about before, but is too awesome not to keep mentioning. It's all about crowdfunding... you the customer can control what prints by helping fund it. It's a great opportunity for shirts with rabid fanbases but just not enough mainstream support to succeed on voting sites. Here at Singularitee, we of course have favorites: currently we're throwing our $20 behind Coq Music, Color Bleeding, and Space Bees II. Check 'em out and support 'em if you dig 'em.

But this isn't about that as such: it's about a promo the site is running in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday. Yes, we know that the good doc isn't able to celebrate with us, but his work has stoked the imaginations of millions for generations. In his honor, and in conjunction with their two excellent bookish tees, they're holding a contest. Grand prize is one of those two literatees and a book of your choice. This is an awesome prize, and I am greedy, but sometimes obligations come first... it's definitely worth checking out. Hell, feel free to wax nostalgic on books here too... I'd love to hear all about it.

Of course, if you don't win, or don't trust your chances enough to enter, you could always just pick up their literary threads individually. One has been praised often at this blog, but the second is one of their longest running tees, and the shirt that made me start expecting big things from the site: Take Me To Your Reader, by vonmonkey. I like the mixed feel of it... the simple outline of a cityscape as compared to the designer's trademark sketchy, detailed style on the otherworldly tome and the unsuspecting man about to be abducted, and that combined with the wall of text that makes up the beam encompassing the character. The vintage looking text works well with the vintage looking illo, and the color scheme only serves to hammer home the concept. But the concept is solid on its own, as well. I love this because it seems like a classic commentary on the imagination... the way good literature can feel like it's taking you away to another world. That the shirt features elements that could have been a great short story in and of themselves shows that this is a concept the designer was really feeling upon creating it, and one that will lead potential fans to fall in love with the piece as much as it is presumed the designer did with its concept.