Do Believe The Hypothesis

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Hyp-Inc.com (aka Hypothesis Inc. Theory Of Self Co.) are a hot label with some very smooth tees on offer, in fact the same can be said for their very Flash site which exudes a gritty urban surrealist style from the word go. Their eye for the new and original is something to behold, don’t expect anything but out of the ordinary at Hyp-Inc, who essentially have a slant on life and all that entails you won’t find on your big labels or even most home-grown indie brands. Their positioning is near enough unique, more commercial than the usual art t-shirts available on the net, but always distinct and irreverent in both graphic sensuality and purpose rarely found in the back catalogues of their larger competitors.

Be different, that seems to be the ongoing theme, not as such an out and out ’shock passers-by’ tactic for design, but they make a strong impression and a lustrous statement of intent all the same. If I didn’t know better I’d guess these guys have been channelling Magritte from beyond the grave, their array of surrealist tricks is impressive, their simple messages are definitely head turners in a crowd, but subtlety (for once) abounds. Fine t-shirts for fine minds.

I can’t hook you up with product pages as such, but you will definitely have fun wandering around Hyp-Inc’s √ºber slick site, it almost looks like an online trailer for a Cannes winner or a game of mind over matter lushed out in gorgeous Photoshop grainy layers, drawing you in to a time that never was, to a place that never will be. The t-shirt titles are rather cryptic at times, which I like, the designs vary in styles, but there’s distinctly some Dada and Surrealist crossovers going on here. My favourites have a musical leaning, and as it happens Hyp-Inc have a strong following in the music industry, (amongst others) having created complex illustrative posters, CD and vinyl cover art, clothing and advertising imagery for a rich seam of cool bands and festivals including Phish, Matchbox 20, Disco Biscuits, as well as plenty of websites and businesses like www.footylovefilms.com. Expect the best of the best, no hype, just hypothesis with a firm footing in fact – check out these tees.

Theory.Self Tee

I adore this t-shirt, it takes me back to art college. I took a rather fractious degree course fraught with confusion and at times an over exuberant display of pretension on the students behalf. We were immersed in the dual worlds of art history and conceptual art simultaneously. in the brief times I mentally came up for air I’d take refuge in works like this – Theory.Self. This illustration is almost to good to be a t-shirt, it reminds me of a mixture of a Dada poster for one of their insane expositions, see Cabaret Voltaire – no not the band, and a Picabia malformation of mechanised existence, stir that lot up in a pot of pre-Communist propaganda and tear up a few pages of Foucault for the seasoning and you’re half way there. Phrenology comes to mind, or rather the old china busts quirky potteries produce to this day, rather more for nostalgia nowadays rather than the former debunked science. There are definitely some influences from the textbook generation, those old colour printed plates that attempted to clear up the quandaries of life with diagrammatic illustrations, coloured with friendly hues that couldn’t quite disguise the almost medical nature of everything general knowledge, back in the day when books held all the answers. It’s a rare sight to see something of this quality, both conceptually and graphically, printed as a t-shirt, but I’m glad that Hyp-Inc have taken the initiative. Available M to XL in Creme for $20.

Trumpet.Gun Tee

Why hasn’t this been thought of before? The trumpet always seemed more like a strange weapon to me, well at least as a child, rather than a musical instrument that is. Pehaps it’s the effect of a biblical subconscious drummed into me as a child at Sunday School. I never really believed what they told me, my mum only sent me and my sister there so she could have at least a few hours off a week from our whining, but somehow all those sticker books and hippy sermons must have stuck. A beast of a design, so simple it’s dangerous. Love it. Available M to XL in tri-blend grey for $22.

Organic.Sound Tee

I’d like to think that this tee was organic, I do know that all of Hyp-Inc’s t-shirts are 100% sweatshop free, but seeing as there’s the word organic in the title for this design, it would be nice to back it up with some eco credentials. Still that asides a lovely piece of typography, as you might now I’m not a big fan on slogans, but this is gorgeous, very fine indeed. I much prefer organic sound to sampled junk, although for many bedroom DJs the choice between using a generated clip sound of a car crashing and wasting their dad’s pride and joy on the freeway for the sake of a new track is probably a simple one. If you can’t afford studio time, or instruments, or a tour van, you will find the creation of many organic sounds prohibitive to say the least. Stylish as they come – available in brown sizes M to XL for $20.

Sax.Anchor Tee

One more surrealist classic before I toodle off and get some grub. It’s a Sax Anchor of course! I am starting to suspect that Hyp-Inc must spend a lot of time playing with found objects and images, pairing them off, juxtaposing them, performing all sorts of artistic surgery on our world of eclectic recognition. This again is a beautifully simplistic conception, there’s little too say but double the fun for all those sax lovers out there. From my proverbial crows nest I see some sibilance on the horizon, I’m not sure if there ever was a nautical connection associated with the saxaphone, or as in the words of Homer Simpson ’saxamaphone’, but there is now, thanks to the one and only Hyp-Inc. You can grab this beauty for $22 in tri-blend coffee, sizes M to XL.

No hype, no hyperbole, just pure and practical hypotheses of a self realisation, check out the rest of Hyp-Inc’s collection and have some cerebral fun.

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