Spunky.co.uk are buying t-shirt designs!

Spunky.co.uk have to be one of my favourite online British t-shirt labels; you may have seen them doing their thing at Glastonbury this year, this company is the real deal, they go out there and actually sell their gear rather than sit back and wait like most stores. Besides they have a refreshingly quirky sense of humour and a great selection of original t-shirt designs on offer to top it off.

They’re currently seeking new t-shirt designs for their next collection and are offering £150, a sample t-shirt and as much publicity for your work as they can possibly muster. After all it’s a two-way street here, the better known the designer, the more sales they receive. Essentially I’d take a punt with Spunky because they seem to support their creative sources more than your usual t-shirt label might, they’re even redesigning their t-shirt designer showcase to further improve public awareness of their contributors. Although I have asked if they might consider linking the designers’ names on each product page to their showcase profile. I’d like to see more interactivity too, perhaps a shoutbox or star ratings, although I don’t want them to just become another Threadless clone.

What’s more each of the t-shirt designers featured at their showcase site SpukClothing.co.uk include your details, your website link, example works and a short biography, and even a mailing list for latest updates on your t-shirts, all bundled up as a very cool profile page - check this example ‘card’ for one of their most popular t-shirt designers at the moment Adam Powell who’s designed a rather hilarious t-shirt called Jackin’ Club Beats. What’s more they only print on organic t-shirts and have a very decent home-grown audience now, more from word-of-mouth and street smarts than marketing, although I can’t remember the last time I logged into Gmail without seeing their Adsense link.

Furthermore they include a profile card with a short biography of the designer with every t-shirt they send out, think about it, that is a great feature. Spunky don’t pay out the way some of the major players do, so don’t expect residuals or whopping great cash prizes, but then again, your career as a t-shirt designer relies more on steady growth and recognition, from the street up as they say. Spunky knows what it’s doing, it’s featuring graffiti artists and illustrators in a new and exciting way. It’s almost as if they’re cherry picking the next Banksy for the t-shirt world. They’re taking a gamble and so should we.

I’m going to try out a design on them and see what they think, I mean, it’s gotta be worth a shot, if I know who they are, there must be at least another ten thousand or more like me out there, all thinking we’re so on the ball finding Spunky. They keep their feet on the ground and stick to their independent roots, I can’t imagine an investment group buying up these guys any time soon. They don’t even seem to have an affiliate program at the moment, perhaps they don’t need one! Who knows, they seem to be very popular here in the UK anyway. They even offer 10% off your first order and a free postage deal on all UK orders over £20!

If you want publicity and credibility this would be the place to get it. Send your designs (don’t worry the copyright is safe until you sign the contract) to designs@spunky.co.uk and who knows ,before you know it, you might become an underground star of the UK t-shirt scene!

Here’s a few of their current best sellers…