Now it's Overhead

Hey, just a quickie: tonight Teefury has totally blindsided me by releasing BlakeB's "There's So Much to Learn," a former contest-watch favorite and an unforgivable oversight over at Threadless to miss out on it. It's only available for the next 24 hours, and perfectly timed with classes beginning, so buy three. One for you, and one for your two favorite teachers.

A Foxy Teefury Spoiler (On Sale Friday)

I'm honored to be bringing you yet another Exclusive Teefury Sneak Peek today. Sadly, I don't have a long time available to do any sort of blogging today, so I can't really go too in-depth, but I would like to touch on the piece at least briefly. It's "The Mischievous Mr. Fox," presented by YAWN and curated by Jimiyo. Yeah, I thought this was a Sonmi, too, so don't feel bad. I'm not particularly sold on the gradient here, but the illustration is spot-on foxy. I have to agree with Jimiyo, this is "whimsical and well rendered fox," and it's nice to see some illustration that looks like it's both hand-done and skillfully rendered. I am always a fan of hand-done lettering, even if I'm rarely a fan of text, because it adds huge appeal to an element that is normally robotic and static, using soulless fonts. And let's be honest, the Harry Caray Glasses are enough to make any woodland creature thrice as awesome.

This'll be up for sale at Teefury all day Friday and only Friday, so if it's calling to you, that'll be the time to snag it. Until then, you may lust after the mock-up below.

Teefury Sneak Peek for July 4th!

We'll be getting to the Contest Watch this evening, but for now, allow me to give you a sneak peek at the Teefury sensation that will be sweeping the nation THIS JULY 4TH! That's Saturday, homey. Check it out.

Behold, "Once Upon a Time," by Sam Schuna. The artist describes it thusly: "Old timey typewriters are awesome, and this shows just a little glimpse of all the stuff that can come out of them with a bit of imagination." Ah, a bit of imagination... so refreshing to see a design pay tribute to that. The design rises up from its typewriter base like smoke... I love the way the linework overlaps and shows through, fitting scads of unique images in a small space... you can hone in and discover every last wonderful piece, or you can let the swirl and cluster of images stand as a whole, which I personally like because it replicates the swarm and spume of the imagination, where a million thoughts seem to rush at each other at once. The colors used to bring the transparent images to life are wise not only for being appealing, but for being distinct enough that every last detail is still totally noticeable. The typewriter anchors the piece at the bottom in a much heavier, almost woodcut style that contrasts with the elegant but simpler linework above. I like how it delineates the mechanical from the imaginative, and the tool from the creation. For people who have been yearning for a good, creative tee, this is almost a must-buy, and quite honestly an excellent gift idea for any true creative mind or appreciater of creativity.

It's really a welcome respite from a TeeFury which has, of late, seemed to be an outlet for media marketing above a purveyor of amazing daily shirts, and it shows just what sort of quality the site is capable of: when TF is at it's best, no other daily site can really touch them on designs. So mark your calendars: this will only be up for sale on the 4th, for 24 hours, and you're not going to want to miss it. Who knows... a purchase could send a message. A message that a design doesn't need to ride the pop-culture train to sell well. And a message that we need more curations from Sonmi and MJ. Pretty please? I can't imagine I'm the only one who misses the old "two and two and two" schedule.

I shall leave you with the final mockup, featured below.

Rocktopus

Following hot on the heels of the sheer awesomeness of Sunday night, Teefury is releasing "Man vs. Music" this evening. It's by Leon Ryan, and it depicts two of the best things ever: ludicrous rock and tentacles. I'm pretty sure there are Japanese movies that do the same, but less eloquently.

Leon insists that the inspiration is simple: imagine the 80s. Remember all the guitars with ridiculous numbers of necks? How cool would it be if someone could play them all at once? Exactly. And thus, Octoman was born. However, his monstrous axe seems to be pretty unhappy about his arm endowment, and has decided to sprout scads of tentacles to fight back. To quote the artist, "Duh."

Personally, I like it as an Alien Symbiote thing. Clearly this is Venom in a rock band, as evidenced by all the flowing arms that seem to come more from his back than the guitar. No, I swear, I was never a comic nerd. But since the concept is going to be odd no matter what, let's consider art as well. I won't discuss the colours: you already know my opinion. Slightly less documented is my severe love for octo arms... I could endlessly watch those lines twist and turn around themselves (my favorite one, and yes, I do have one, is the clearly guitar-grown limb around the mic stand). As for the rocker himself? He's got just enough grit and flash to make sense in his surroundings, with a totally rock-n-roll pose (is he jumping? kneeling? who cares, it's total rawk). That's part of why I read the tentacles as expected and not attacking... he's so into the music, he may as well be a snake charmer to all those arms!

Teefury, as we all know, is a "You Snooze You Lose" venture. You've got about 24 hours to snatch this up before it's gone for the foreseeable future or longer. I personally recommend adopting the mantra "You Don't Snooze, You Win" on this one. It may be a bit weird now, but I bet you'll regret missing it some day down the road.

ONE DAY ONLY (REMINDERS)

FOR ONE DAY ONLY:

~THE APPARITION OF THE GROUCHY GOD is on sale at Teefury for $9!

FOR ONE MORE DAY:
~BlakeB and RobbieLee at Teextile for $15!

YOU HAVE BEEN FOREWARNED

SuperSecret Teefury Preview (ON SALE SUNDAY!!!)

While I feel obligated to remind you that you can and should pick up Trash by RobbieLee at Teextile today for $12, I have much bigger news.

See, I was leaked an exclusive sneak peek at Sunday's TeeFury, and I would be remiss if I did not share it with you. It's a HUGELY exciting one for me, to be honest, so I've been absolutely bubbling trying to keep it in, but I can finally tell you: THIS SUNDAY, MAY 31st, TeeFury is printing Apparition of the Grouchy God, by Aphte. And it will be glorious.

Apparition looks a little different from how we last saw it, long long ago in one of our earliest Contest Watch segments (shame they couldn't have printed it right to the seam like they did for Pseudo's Daughter), but there's still so much to love: the many-eyed god is still there, the whimsical town is still 100% charming, and the vomiting is still the most awesome vomit ever. The color scheme is still bold, with the blue and pink against the silver blank, and still makes the piece look like a candy-or-fondant-world. Which I'm all for. And there's still plenty to see here... great detail and plenty of eye candy upon repeat views. Aphte says his inspiration was largely this: "Let's do something quite complex, but there should be also a huge monster or something like that." And really, who can argue with that logic?

If you think this tee is as awesome as I do (and ye gods, it is pretty damn awesome), you've got a little bit of time to make sure you'll be around long enough to order one of these fine specimens on Sunday. Just remember, with TeeFury, you get 24 hours. A full 24 hours, but ONLY 24 hours. Be sure to plan accordingly, because this shirt is too good to miss, and if you miss it, you miss it fo' sho'. I'll be sure to remind you on Sunday. Loudly.

The expected mock-up is below... I'm leaving both images as-is, so you can get the full-size experience. Past that, I'll leave you with some further wisdom from Aphte:

While drawing this, I was thinking of a little story to be associated with it. The big monster would become the God of a big city, and he was kind of pissed off by all these creatures praying for him so he attacked the city without another real reason. Because this God's got an IQ of 27. Well. Something like that, I guess.

What the 'dillo, yo?

What does this week have that other weeks do not? Lots of armadillos! To start, we'd love to give you a heads up on recent Contest Watch design "Trampoline," by jillustration, which is just covered in armadillos. It'll be on sale at Teextile Friday (when we'll chat more about it), but if you want to grab it early for $15, snag it at this link any time this week.

Today, though, and for one day only, you can snag Burrowish, by the wondertastic Torakamikaze, at Teefury. Originally submitted into DBH's contest, Burrowish is a great shirt that should have made it there, but is at least being granted a brief life at TF. It's got absolutely lovely detail, a pleasant dark earth-tone palette, and features an armadillo genie... that alone should totally worth the $11 price of admission. It's also a former contest watch design, and while we definitely prefer to see such designs find a permanent home somewhere, SingulariTee loves Teefury anyway, even if Wotto has been trying to bankrupt us with his last three picks. Give 'em some serious love today... Tora deserves it.

Teefurious Updates

MJ is a bastard.

I say this because I've already got two update posts this week, with another I'm sitting on for Friday, and she goes and curates "Roundup," by Travis Gentry (tgentry to you wooters, TGWA if you recall it from Threadless) for tonight's teefury. I feel like I blogged on this eons ago, so I'm not gonna waste time finding it, but it's simply one of my favorite humor concept pieces... the art is well rendered, and the concept makes me laugh every time. But I already had a blog planned for today, and now I have to do two. Even if this one is a quickie. Bastard. But hey, update 16. Can't complain too much there!

As with all teefury shirts, we may see this one again somewhere else, but not at this price. We'll keep you updated if it finds another home, either at another print shop (hopefully) or elsewhere. For now, though, scoop this up in the next 23.5 hours... you may never get the chance again.

Give a Hoot pt. 1

We could go on about Rob Gould's "Midnight Visitor" for a while if we wanted... about the awesome color choices, the charming drawing, the line of ominous and adorable being straddled. However, I think curator Wotto sums it up best:

In the circles that Mr Gould dwells I assure you all that this tee IS in fact LEGENDARY.

Anyway, It's awesome. That owl is in your house right now.

There really is no more to say. Either you love it (and I do) or you're wrong. My only complaint is this: stop it, Teefury, with the printing awesome stuff when I cannot afford it!

If you can swing an extra $11 yourself, and you agree this is the stuff of legends, you have until Midnight EST to pick one up, before it is lost to the sands of time and left to the whim of errant shirt boutiques which may be wise enough to pick it up later.

Citrus Marches On

Update #11 comes shortly after #10 in the form of Drakxxx's Clockwork Orange, first blogged back in September. Originally posted at woot, it now finds a home at Teefury, at least temporarily. I loved the sketchy style and creativity, as well as the happy feeling to the sunny citrus, but feel the whole shebang is even better with the new addition of the gears... it gives the piece a lot more visual interest and weight. We at Singularitee hope that it secures a more permanent home some day in the future, but are glad it had its moment in the sun no matter where it was. Just remember, this is NOT going to last forever at this price... snag it in the next 24 hours, or you will miss out on the first print from a designer who could easily make some splashes in the next year.

Garden Reptiles

Teefury is the sort of site that relies on quickness... quick shirt-lifespans translate into requiring quick decision-making skills to put in a quick purchase before the shirt is lost and gone forever. Similarly, many shirts seem to have incredibly quick turn-around time from selection to print. It only seems fair for my reviews to be quick as well, in the interest of giving all interested buyers ample time. Today's shirt is by DaniellesGarden, and is called, simply, Lizards, because that is, simply, what is on it. The colors are also simple, but the lines are gorgeous, with plenty of shape to the lizards and a perfect, organic end to the cracked wall they are climbing up your chest. Because this is all about quickness, I've evaluated and decided that while I like this a lot, it's not a buy for me... however, it really is a sweet shirt, and so I wanted to make sure you guys had the chance to get it yourselves. I think it'll be love at first wear.

Again, TF doesn't reward slackers; this shirt will be gone within 24 hours, and while some artists have used those retained rights to sell 'em elsewhere, it's the exception, not the rule. Anyway, there's no reason to miss out on a shirt you'd love for $11 shipped, so grab it while you can.

Tee-cember: A Minor New-Year Miracle

Two deal-a-days. Two budget tees. Two completely buyable designs. In all honesty, the idea that I could love a teefury AND a shirt.woot on the same day is a fully new and baffling feeling, but one I quite enjoy. My only regret is not being able to buy them.

Above is the TeeFury offering, an anti-humor piece called Life Is Complicated (by Lehel Kovacs). I quite enjoy it, with that bland sigh coming out of the horn's bell. It could be the frustration of playing a new instrument (as Lehel suggests it may), or it could be a joke that such a normally bold and blaring instrument would put out but a sigh, or it could be a French Horn's lament, knowing that to most, it is a frivolous piece of brass. Whatever the case, it's an outside-the-box piece, which is enough to make me love it, even the positioning... what others see as too high, I see as ideal, having the horn positioned about where a real one would need to be to play it.

As for shirt.woot, as the year dies, so does their shirt offering. Dale Edwin Murray is the person responsible here, with a piece called Death Stare. There sure is a lot of staring going on, too. It's a little unsettling, but I love the eyes, simple as they are. I also love the drippy comma-ghosts, each one bringing something a bit different to the party, and I appreciate the blue background, not only for its welcome splash of color, but because it creates a contrast, not only between the shirt and itself, but acting as a canvas for the darker elements of the design, helping them show up against the asphalt, which would otherwise likely swallow them up. In general, this is the sort of thing I'd like to see more of at woot... think creative, attractive, and wearable. Instead of a cute twee shirt, why not have something which is both adorable and a little morbid. Morbidorable. All I can hope for is that I'll be able to snag one in randoms.

As always, remember: TeeFury shirts WILL NOT EXIST tomorrow, unless they get optioned elsewhere at a later date. Thusfar that's been the vast exception to the rule, so if you want this at all, your only guaranteed chance (and your cheapest chance, at that) will be to snatch it up in the next 21 hours. As for woots, you'll probably have a two-week window after today to buy it at $15, but as with all dailies, and indeed almost all woot shirts worth wearing, I cannot presume this particular one will last any longer than that. As always, the early bird catches the worm, so grab it now to make sure you don't lose out.

Tee-cember; God Rest Ye, Limited T-Shirt Deals

A couple limited-time only deals to discuss today. For starters, Uneetee is starting the back-half of the third sale they've had this season, based on the 12 days of Christmas. Today's deal offers all tees at $13, and $2 flat shipping on all orders for US/Canada, but it'll be worth checking back daily, both for new deals and for their $10 Insanitees (today's being Pick Up the Peace, tailor made for any classic rocker who's a fan of The Who).

Definitely head over to Teefury today as well and check out Edgar R. McHerly's "Stream of Consciousness" (shown left), a thought-provoking and evocative piece. It combines his cartoony and artistic sides in one design. This is the sort of thing that makes this particular designer so exciting... he's not afraid to go hyper-artistic on us, and his unique style and distinct frame of mind give us a glimpse into a totally different world. It's good to finally see more of his signature work printing, as his successes often come from his least distinctive pieces. Even if you're not into the shirt, at least stop by for the beautiful but macabre poem included in his sidebar portfolio. And don't forget, as with all TeeFury shirts, this one is gone-zo forever at midnight tomorrow (EST).

Finally, in the world of apparel the tshirt is king, but over at Inkhound, they're polygamous. Inkhound's new-ish, and actually combine a little bit of both the sites above: they feature one shirt a week (or so), like Uneetee, after which the shirt is no longer available through them, much like Teefury. Also like TF, the rights remain with the designers, so they can market their shirts themselves or anywhere that will take a slightly used design. The difference? Along side each shirt is a hat, with the same sale time and same rights-retention. The current one is from Compete-Tee-Tion's MJ. It's based off an old shirt design, Professor Von Platypus, and while I'd much rather have the monocle wearing, mustache sporting bizarro mammal on a shirt, the contract means it's ever possible, and the hat looks incredibly swank for so limited... the image is embroidered on, for starters, so it's going to look as high quality as your buddy's Local Sports Team lid, but it'll be a lot more fun, loads more distinctive, and start far fewer pissing contests among fans of other animals. With all this going on, surely something out there might strike you today.

Tee-cember: The Reason for the Season

A hot tip from a half-hour in the future: prolific designer Jimiyo's blog has a hot tip regarding tonight's print at TeeFury, where he helps as curator. Starting at midnight, EST, until midnight Friday, TF will be selling his design, Hope. While normally, I'd be a bit unlikely to talk up a one-day design I didn't love, especially one chosen by its own artist, this one has a deeper purpose: Jimi will be donating his profits to a local charity.

Of course, that alone isn't enough to get a shirt on my blog, but when you're dealing with Jimiyo, there's always a reason to praise the product. He's a master of text, always hand rendered and always thematic, not slogan-y. When he uses it, it's to bolster the illustration, not to explain it. There's also the impeccable detail, the super-smooth lines, and the gorgeous texture. In this piece, the colors kill... the sea-foam green especially makes this unique and pops off the black like nobody's business, yet the unconventional color combo is done skillfully so it looks just right. Also in this piece, it's all about concept... the phoenix coming up from the flames is all about hope, but the flames on the heart bring it back to the human experience, and how true hope burns within us. There's a reason Jimi's so respected artistically... this design helps show it, and with his affable persona and generous intentions on this print, I'm proud to be able to tell you to head to TeeFury any time Thursday and pick this up.

As always, don't forget that TeeFury prints for 24 hours. That's it. Finito. No guarantee you'll see it anywhere again. If this is calling to you, and there are myriad reasons it might, you shouldn't dally.

Giving Major Thanks

It's always a good Thanksgiving when there's a WanderingBert on teefury. "Stampede" is an utter charmer. While I'm rather digging how the colors contrast strongly while still looking good, it could have had any color palette, so long as the designer put his trademark charm into his character. In this case, it's a besneakered centipede, cheerily clomping along, whistling on his winding weekend walk. And completely oblivious to the tiny man he is inevitably going to trample. Poor little guy.

But the holiday takes on a new meaning when we check shirt.woot, to see a longtime blog favorite, Radiomode's "Music Industry," finally got the print it deserved. We spoke of this little guy long ago in our first Contest Watch (where you can see a fuller discussion), and again prior to woot's Editor's Choices for their Double-Take derby. Now we see it printed in a so-far unprecedented move... we have, until now, never seen a derby entry print outside the top 4 without being part of an entire week of Editor's Choice selections. Will this signal more unexpected pleasures from woot in the future, or just give the masses another reason to demand their favorite gets printed? We'll find out in time, and keep you posted. For now, I'm just stoked to see it at all. After the lackluster Editor's Choice week, and with every derby producing more and more worthy entries that will never see cotton, even this one anomaly is something worth giving thanks for.

As is always the case with Teefury, you're gonna want to snag that ASAP... you've got a bit over 20 hours from this posting before it's gone forever. Don't waffle on the Woot, either, though... if you don't grab it tonight for $10, you're only guaranteed to see it 'til the Monday after this coming Monday for $15. Ironically, it'll probably set you back less than your average CD.

Short Just Like Your Temper

A quickie tonight about Teefury, which is featuring a shirt by the name of Octocable. It's designed by piratesvscowboys, who named himself after what he's hoping is the next epic meme battle. It's a solid shirt, definitely a good buy for any audiophiles. The X is a little odd, but all the elements fall together nicely, and I like how the colors work against each other. It reminds me Jelly Tape, a favorite by KookyLove currently in post-score limbo at Threadless, but the shirts are distinct enough that I'd easily consider both, and to be honest, this is gonna tug at me all day. If it's tugging at you, and with all those arms who'd be shocked, you better scoop one up quick... I have no clue if Teefury shirts still sell out or not, but they certainly only last 24 hours, so by 12AM EST tomorrow it will be gone forever, at least at the Teefury price.

Random Musings

The internet is absolutely chock full of great shirts and shirt sites... it's entirely possible that one may never end up owning everything they like. Yet, with so many options to choose from, I feel it odd that the one thing I'm always willing to save cash for is a random grab bag. Uneetee has long offered mystery shirts on random Mondays, and there are rumblings at TeeFury that similar may happen there, which is exciting to me. The industry leader, however, is definitely shirt.woot, which sees a random bag appear about once every two months. It's a sensible move from woot, since their main site has long been known to offer "bags of crap," precious gems that are the ultimate consumer lottery, containing anything from flat screen TVs to the more common and apt broken junk. In the case of the shirts, the worst case scenario is a sleep shirt, a work-out shirt, or a shirt for painting. Maybe you could even make gifts out of them.

Woot's latest random sale was Thursday, and the early bags are featuring any number of shirts from throughout their summer months (we're talking around mid-May to mid-September). The shirts are long since sold out, but come tomorrow, and the rest of the week that follows, people will start getting their bags in. Some will be ecstatic as they unearth the shirt they've always wanted but missed, or shirts they never thought they'd like, but fall in love with upon opening their bags. But others will be left very unsatisfied. This post is for you.

You see, some of you may not know yet, but there's a great site named TeeTrade which was created especially for these sales. You can use your shirts as currency for newer or better shirts, such as Road Closed, PB & Jellyfish, or Swordfish Fencing (shown above). TeeTrade makes it easy to make contact with other shirt owners and arrange trades privately. As you might expect, all trades are at your own risk, but there is a trade feedback area for each user to help you trade with confidence. And since it's all contained to one site, you end up getting a lot more response for a lot less effort.

Of course, if there's more to it for you than just improving your lot, you can always use the search function to find specific shirts you may have wanted and missed. A couple such shirts I scored last time were Iceberg A Head, Decibliterated, and Monkey Play. Furthermore, you can post shirts as "Wanted," which means a user with your desired shirt could find you instead. It's like a dating site for shirt wearers, except in this case, you WANT to find people totally unlike you.

But let's say you have a shirt that doesn't fit anymore, and you don't want another shirt. You could always trade it for money, as represented above by It's Going Out Faster Than It's Coming In (which I did trade through the site as well). In the same fashion, let's say you got up too late and your size sold out, or you've otherwise found a shirt you need, but have nothing to trade... there is nothing holding you back from offering green for a shirt you want. I snagged It Might Have Been a Giant, which was nine months reckoned by the time I got my copy. It drives home an important reason to check the site out: the shirts available are only limited to what shirts the users want to let go of.

I seriously believe this is a site that any shirt fan should check out, no matter where they shop, and above is possibly the best evidence: The Clockwork Menagerie. This is a shirt from Threadless's "12 Club," which offers one exclusive but totally random shirt a month. Regular Threadless users couldn't buy this shirt unless they had already become members of the 12 Club before it printed. Yet I got one from TeeTrade. Brag brag brag. Seriously, though, I highly recommend the site to ANY shirt fan, no matter what site they favor. Even if you don't woot, you could find a shirt that makes you wish you had that one day. Even if you won't risk a random bag, you might have a shirt you've grown away from and want to sell off or trade. There are shirts from all manner of sites up for trade, although woot is certainly the biggest draw, and many people have even submit non website shirts to try their luck. It's an incredible resource for all shirt fans, and if you've been looking to change up your wardrobe, it could be just what you needed.

Unex-Spook-Ted DBH Sale

Color us surprised! Along with announcing a fifth Halloweek print tonight (our apologies to blog-favorite H-Week designs by Spires and Jublin), Design By Humans is letting us scare up some savings just in time for the big holiday. Everything's priced $15-20, which makes it a great time to grab one or two. Be on the lookout for more DBH in our Halloween picks later today, but for those who can't wait, perhaps you need less of a costume substitute, and more of an homage to costuming? Jimiyo's "Create" is perfect for you! It's an absolutely stunning celebration of nature, growth, and art... the art of creating with your own hands and coming up with something perfect. Or ghoulish, this time of year. You know you're a whiz at that sewing machine... rock your costume this month, but pick one of these up so you can flaunt those madd skillz all year. Or just buy it because you love amazing linework, crisp graphics, and gold foil. But act fast, because the sale is a brief one... it will end Sunday at midnight.

::::UPDATED:::: Turns out, this whole sale is to celebrate a partnership with TeeFury, which is all fine and good as far as I'm concerned. More to come, I'm sure.

Ride the Lightning

Just a quick and dirty post about TeeFury, which is a deal-a-day, 24-hour-only shirt site. For $11 shipped, you get a shirt that will be printed for exactly one day... it's a great deal for the consumers who are getting high quality work for cheap, and a great deal for the designers, who keep their rights to their design and can resell their work later. I want to write more about them, but that will be for another time. For now, let it suffice to say that today's 24 hours rock. The design is MJ's "Thor Is My Co-Pilot." It's very self explanatory as a text shirt, so I don't need to say much, but I have a couple notes to make. I normally hate text shirts, but love this one, for the following very scientific reasons:


1) It's funny without being derivative. It's a clear parody on a trite saying, not an out of context movie quote, and not a shock-jock attempt at faux-edge.

2) Colors Colors Colors. There's severe pop, and the choices make total sense given the topic too.

3) This is a biggie for text shirts: Hand Lettering. Distinctive style is so rare in slogans, and that really sets this apart from scads of half-assed slogany badness. It's almost like a metal logo. THOR WILL ROCK YOU TO ASGARD MOFOS! EPIC SCREAM!

-ahem-

More tomorrow! Promise! I've got a lot I want to get to.