The T-Shirt Review That Never Was

Okay this is probably way off social protocol and breaks the boundaries of Net Etiquette by a few feet (or miles), but I will be keeping the t-shirt store and designer in question anonymous because I want to share this rejection e-mail with you. Why anonymous? Because the guy has talent, and it needs time to grow, and getting his site ranked for “t-shirt criticism” isn’t going to help. Why share? We can all learn a thing or two from design critique - positive and negative alike.

This is a transcript of an email I’ve just sent to a t-shirt designer who I can tell has tyalent, seems a really nice guy, has a pretty decent store, a wide collection of t-shirts, and a unique style, but I’ve refused to review him at this stage. I think, I hope, he will understand my position (fingers crossed).

I’m not here to slate any designer, no matter what level of skill I always appreciate an individual that wishes to express them self through art, and especially t-shirt design. (I’ll have to post a thesis on the validity of t-shirt design as art form and medium one day - till then I’l just keep reviewing them).

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Hi Kenny

I can give you a link exchange, but I will have to decline the review.

I can point you to plenty of reviewers who will consider your work however I can’t, but if you want to know why read on.

Regards

Paul

>>>>>If you don’t want to know stop here<<<<<

I fully understand if you reject my views, partly or fully, every artist has their own vision and no one can fully interpret art objectively, however I have quite a bit of experience in tees and I thought maybe the following may be of interest to you. If I’ve offended you please accept my apologies in advance, it’s
hopefully just a little advice from a stranger you might take on board (or not).

The site needs a bit of redesigning to be honest. I preferred the layout of Anonymous Site to Anonymous Site 2

I can’t really see the detail of most t-shirts as they are now, I know that larger images can eat up bandwidth but a little CSS and a few Png’s could fix the problem.

The links on Anonymous Site 2 on the right take a long time to scroll and at least two links don’t work.

I do really like some of your tees, but most of them leave me feeling a little lost. That’s not due to a lack of skill or ability on your part, as much as an overall theme (or series of themes), message or individual style I can get my proverbial teeth into.

At first I tried to go with the flow, the designs are certainly old school, they have an art crowd vibe which I like, but the subject matter
is rather disjointed. Perhaps it’s a cultural difference here, but I can’t really find the flow in the collection for many of your pieces.

I go for subtext, wordplay, the perfect conception of an idea (however humble) crammed into the low-art form of t-shirt design. I was seriously swayed by the abstracts, there is a definite niche for that if you can get it right. I’d only say try to make them more painterly, like: Mark Rothko.

Sure he’s a painter but I think you’ll see what I’m getting at for works like Work One and Work Two, however I don’t think the line drawing style
works so much with the figures and faces. Perhaps this is just my personal taste, but I always prefer exploring defects in the printing process when it
comes to full-face prints, such as Andy Warhol, i.e a print that has slipped - exposing the coloured layers beneath in the margins.

I love large animal designs but I don’t really see the story, so I’d expect far more from a design/craft aspect - like this for instance. Or a more conceptual approach like this

I do appreciate the simplicity of Work Three and would like to see more every day slices of life like this. I like the concept of no face but I don’t know if the result has the same impact. Have you ever seen that awful old sci-fi film WestWorld with Yul Brynner as an android? At one point his mask comes off, his mask is his face , what is left is a mass of technology with two swivelling eyes. I suppose it comes down to this, the t-shirt market is far more competitive and savvy than a few years ago, I struggle to compete - we all do. So all we can do next is supply the demand.

The current demand seems to be for something clever, something that makes the wearer seem street smart, even intellectual I suppose. If it’s fantastically detailed then that can be impressive, if it’s a very smart idea, a juxtaposition of two old ideas to form a new one, an anomaly in the English vocabulary, a play on words, a surreal take on an everyday situation, perhaps even iconic (if you’re lucky).

It’s hard to tell someone their work isn’t doing it for me, I know what rejection feels like, it’s what all creative people face time and time again. However I didn’t want to just leave it at “no”, I wanted you to see exactly why and perhaps some solutions that may eventually make you one of the top players in the t-shirt world. (Who knows you might mention this email in an interview one day when you’re rich and famous?).

Like I say Kenny, you can take it or leave it, I’m not trying to control your artistic direction as much as nudge it in the direction I feel you want to follow. You are producing what I’d describe as Street Art Shirts. You definitely fall into line for Post-Modern and Pop-Art reference and you are starting to explore the power of line versus the vintage feel of retro design.

However I honestly believe the process isn’t complete. Perhaps I’m wrong Kenny, perhaps you’re already a great success and have tapped into the mother load for your specific market, if so I congratulate you and wish you all the more for the future. But if there’s still some way to go I hope you’ll keep
in touch and update me on your progress. Don’t get me wrong, you have great style Kenny, I just don’t get the ideas yet. Yes it’s late, it’s Sunday and maybe I am off form, but I spent a real long time taking criticism at Art College from one of the most cantankerous old guffs you could imagine.

His name was Roy Grayson, and there’s one thing he taught me, “justify your work, justify the meaning, justify the results“. If it doesn’t need explaining you’re a master. I still haven’t managed to attain the Zen of T-Shirt Design, if you do perhaps you could give me some advice too!

Kenny I’ll be publishing this email as a post, I’ll keep you and your site anonymous because I don’t want your store ranking for “t-shirt criticism” when it should be up there for “Art Shirts” or “Post-Modern Shirts” which is really what I think you’re on the verge of doing already. Besides I’m sure my readers would find it interesting to see the workings of a t-shirt reviewer’s mind and the processes involved in conceiving a range of best-selling t-shirts.

If I could take a bet on t-shirt designers, you would be one of the front runners Kenny, take a look at the competition out there, www.Threadless.com or www.DesignByHumans.com or www.Uneetee.com and many others. You have to find your niche, you very nearly have it, and when you’re ready we
can do a feature and bring your site some traffic. In the meantime get cracking, have a rethink about your message for each t-shirt, if it doesn’t have one - make it a vast swathe of beauty and complexity of line, if not that, a genuinely unique concept or treatment of an image, if not that the most hilarious
slogan you have ever read. Then you’ll be laughing all the way to the top of Google and the bank.

Apologies if I come across like a Simon Cowell of the t-shirt world, I’m not, I’m just a bloke who loves t-shirts and writes blog posts the way most people will write first draft novels. It’s nothing personal, well in fact in this case it is, and that’s because you have a great deal of talent. If you could just push the
envelope that little bit further I’m sure you’ll hit the t-shirt world with some killer designs!

Regards

Paul Baines

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Was that mean? Did I mess up? Should I have posted this at all? I’m hoping no, no and yes. If Kenny takes any of my advice and finds more success with his
business then I am justified in my criticisms. If this post enables other designers to take a broader view of their work, its potential market, and how they can compete in what must be one of the fastest growing creative industries in the world, then it was worth it.

I’m not an art bully honest, I just don’t like to see potential go to waste - let’s hope that Kenny feels the same way.