Temporary Insanitee?

August 8, 2008

Okay - it’s true - I had a funny turn back there - but don’t worry I’m better now. I’d just come back from a funeral for a friend of the family, little sleep and the daunting prospect of designing and writing for the day did rather turn my brain to mush. Hey you know artist’s are temperamental, at least I didn’t cut off an ear. So ignore what you’ve read, I’m not going anywhere, I just know who to avoid when I’m feeling low now.

Sometimes you have a day that forces change, mine involved me vowing to create less t-shirts and make more art, I’ll be opening up a new site soon simply called PaulBaines.co.uk - not exactly catchy but you can blame my parents for that oversight.

The truth is the t-shirt world and the world of fine arts have some distinct differences, and it’s something I like many designers before me, must come to terms with. Ideas are fair game. The exact execution is a different matter, but simply concepts by themselves cannot stand the call of plagiarism, and however much I’d wish otherwise, it isn’t going to happen.

Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t any law or rule in fine arts that protects an artist’s ideas, it’s just an unsaid code of practice, honour amongst artists if you will. Appropriation is as rife in fine art as it is in t-shirt design, but in art you’ll find referential works that at least cite their influences, be it in the piece itself, the whole collection, or in any public debate it inspires. This isn’t so in t-shirt design, it’s tooth and claw, dog eat dog, and not something to be taken as seriously as I am often guilty of doing.

I’ll be reducing my t-shirt design output over the next year and concentrating on large scale fine art prints, dealing with ideas, images and subject matter that would never make it on to a t-shirt in a month of Sundays, and that’s because artist’s have certain freedoms and rights of expression not afforded to the humble designer. Artistic licence and the inalienable right to express oneself is afforded to all fine arts, not so with fashion, and in particular, t-shirt design, where each and every work is subjected to the legal and social critique that any product in the general market would have to fulfil.

Essentially t-shirt designers have no power of copyright, yet they can be sued by major brands and commercial concerns, when it comes to breaching others’. Essentially t-shirts are the perfect medium for broadcasting an artist’s oeuvre on the high street, but, by mass printing the image and making it publicly available to all an artwork comes under the scrutiny of legal frameworks and litigation that say a piece of graffiti by Banksy would never encounter.

It’s a shame there isn’t more solidarity in the world of design, it is of course far more commercially orientated than the world of fine art, art gains presence and builds value, whilst design is priced right from the outset.

Now for a shameless plug :-

Moonlighting never made the grade at Threadless.com, and in truth I don’t think the site is worth the trouble as a designer anymore. I’d rather submit my works to other similar sites where the critique is at the very least more constructive, the consumers of a more international base, and the competition not quite as insanely outnumbered as it is at Threadless.

If you’re a member of Uneetee.com (it’s free to join) come and vote for my latest t-shirt and help me regain a little of my composure before the week is out. I could do with a boost instead of another slating, it’s getting very tiring, those who run the t-shirt scene only like to comment when you’re down, like scavengers over a carcass. Let’s see if Karl from Tcritic reviews this post, I’ve noticed not a single mention from him until that one day I cracked up (with good reason), it’s a shame there isn’t more positive encouragement from those running the scene instead of the backbiting. Death is a great leveller, there really is more to life than writing a blog you know.. although I must admit going mental does seem to generate far more publicity than great t-shirt reviews.