One Ten at 8Ball

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     8ball, One Ten, artist t-shirts, graphic tees, illustrated tees, t-shirt collective

You probably already know 8Ball.co.uk – they are a very familiar site on the t-shirt scene, a British store selling licensed tees from many of the major labels and manufacturers from around the world, particularly funny shirts. However, 8Ball are taking a new direction with their new collaborative/collective project titled One Ten Clothing. You may think you’ve heard it all before, a successful mainstream t-shirt company dipping their toes into the indie/artist market but in all honesty, when Rich at 8Ball sent over a wealth of sample images I was proverbially floored by the quality of both the artists and the designs. They have some extremely hot hot hot tees on offer right now. Expect both up ‘n’ coming and established indie artists to wow you all the way to the checkout, I really think you’re in for a treat today, and I don’t say that lightly. These are what I call ‘real’ art shirts, many hand drawn and inked, covering a broad diversity of edgy styles and subjects, and wonderfully eclectic as a whole collection.

All of the tees at One Ten are available at £17.99 each (Buy Tees Exclusive Discount – Enter BUYTEES at the checkout for a whopping 20% off all One Ten tees!!!) and come in sizes S-XXL for both guys and girls, check out these phenomenal selected tees and artists… yes this post is a biggie.

Budi Satria Tees

Budi Satria Kwan is a highly accomplished graphic designer based in Singapore with a flair for simplicity and fluid line, rather surrealist in both style/content, each illustration is in itself a take on life and confidently conceived for maximum impact. Budi is both blessed with great ideas and a slick and simple graphic style that really stands out.

Drawn To Play Tees

Drawn to Play is UK illustrator Chris Carr, expect surreal, street/graffiti styles and a tendency to explore the ‘beauty of the ugly’ in much of his work. Harking back to a golden age of skater art, expect naked ladies and freaks all round :D

Masch Tees

Masch aka Mark Schofield is a professional designer and creative consultant based in the UK who loves to spend his free time letting his proverbial hair down and designing for the love of it. Cool, smart, funny.

Lunartik Tees

Lunartik is the alter ego of artist, designer and all round madman Matt Jones – his work for One Ten is inspired by his time in Japan & London. His characters and creations have been shown worldwide, both in exhibitions and in his work for Toy2R, Forbidden Planet, SEGA Games, & Mind Candy.

Paul Roberts Tees

Paul Roberts under the guise of Monsters Monsters is well known for his silly funny quirky line in outsider art/simplified illustration style – his tees are guaranteed to make you laugh if only out of disbelief. I love these two shirts, although I can understand those who’d say Roberts’ work is an acquired taste – heh.

SHHH Tee by Peasoup

This tee is absolutely mad, designed by the artist Peasoup, the acronym stands for “Self Help for Hard of Hearing” and is supposed to represent the chaos that surrounds us all. Still… if you have a dirty mind like me… well… it looks more like some kind of, how can I say this politely? An erotic explosion. Lol. Available for men and women in all sizes.

Seb Burnett Tees

Some of the funniest shirts at One Ten have to be from the quirky mind of Seb Burnett, an illustrator, character designer & reluctant animator based in Bristol, UK. The King Charles tee has to be one of the most kooky tees ever spawned, when is this going to be a hit animated series? Time to talk to Adult Swim!

Finally, probably my favourite designer of all at One Ten right now, there’s a touch of tattoo/stencil art about Steven Silverwood, ever-so-slightly Shepard Fairey(ish) if he’s been raised by the Tim Burton the movie director.

Steven Silverwood Tees

Steven Silverwood is a highly versatile designer and artist with a real feel for what people want, no matter the brief, a very talented guy in my opinion.

Check out all the art tees at One Ten via www.8ball.co.uk/one-ten-clothing.

Double The Fun at Springleap

admin    T-Shirt Contests     cash, springleap, t-shirt community, t-shirt contest

It’s been quite a while since Buy Tees has featured Springleap, they’re a highly popular South African t-shirt community with designers and fans all around the world. Something I was getting a little tired of were the themed contests over there, well it seems I’m not the only one because Springleap has changed it’s policy to an open door one, i.e draw what you like, as long as it doesn’t break any decency laws, but asides that you’re free to express yourself any which way and how. Even better news is that to celebrate the shift back to open-brief design submissions the next prize is going to be a staggering $1000! If you’re an old pro and made your name at other t-shirt communities such as Threadless and DBH, now’s the time to hop on board with Springleap and try and get your highly talented mitts on their impressive pile of cash! What’s more you’ll earn residuals from every t-shirt sold too…

The competition details :

Regular guidelines apply: NO OBSCENITY, NO HATE SPEECH …all that JAZZ.

Designers can submit up to 5 designs.

Submissions for designs open: 23 September 2010
Submissions for designs close: 12 October 2010
Voting starts: 14 October 2010
Voting ends: 28 October 2010
Winner is announced: 28 October 2010

So get cracking and submit your very best t-shirt designs today at www.Springleap.com.

If you’re just after buying a tee there then we’ve got a discount voucher for you lucky people – just use the code: springleap2010 at the checkout by 31 October 2010to get two tees for the price of one!

604Republic

admin    T-Shirt Discounts, T-Shirt Reviews     604Republic, SplitReason, art t-shirts, art tees, graphic tees, hoodies

Here’s another new label for you 604Republic. Strictly speaking they’re more into hoodies than tees, but seeing as their tees are awesome I’m going to feature them anyway. Their designs are primarily sourced from indie designers and they really do have some great t-shirts on offer already. It’s no surprise when you realise that the guy behind 604Republic’s is Sebastian Arciszewski, the former founder and CEO of the über cool SplitReason.com, although this new venture will be tapping a very different market, leaving the funny t-shirt market behind and diving headlong into highly illustrated hoodies/ shirts, which is proverbial music to my ears.

With a slick site up ‘n’ running from the word go, a great choice of high quality products, printing and graphic design I’d bet my bottom Dollar (if I had one) that 604Republic will be an indie streetwear brand to reckon with over the coming months. All the tees are $19.95 each and come in men’s and women’s cuts, sizes range from S-XXL for the guys and S-XL for the girls, (there’s even a cool gauge/meter at each product page to tell just how many of each size are left!) Their quality hoodies are on offer for $66.04 each and are also incredibly high quality with flat laces, a hidden cell phone pocket and a 3 panel hood. What’s more Sebastian has kindly offered up a generous permanent discount for all Buy Tees readers of 15% on any of their products! Simply enter BUYTEES2010 at the checkout and save save save!

Here are some hand-picked tees from the 604Republic Collection for ya:

MechaHeart Tee

A steampunk treat for you here, I usually prefer full front panel printed tees but considering the nature of the design the placement offers up a perfect blend of concept meets print. Essentially slap bang over the heart. What’s more the old-fashioned etched style of the illustration really brings out the detail, it’s something that a lot of 2d steampunk artists forget nowadays, steampunk has to be done by hand, it’s the only way it can look authentically “aged” enough to be believable. Even if steampunk is just a fantasy :p

Jeeves3000 Tee

Another superb rendition, again in a rather gloriously antiquated style, with a very nice use of half-tones in the final print, this humorous design has plenty to keep your eyes occupied (or rather everyone you bump into when you’re wearing it). I love the goldfish bowl/brain detail, I’m not quite sure if the fish are controlling Jeeves3000, but if they are I’m sure it has a very short memory ;) What’s more the heart of this splendid robot is powered by a hamster wheel which is a great use of green technology – lol.

Snailpocalypse Tee

I have to admit that this design does tug at the old heartstrings for me, beautifully drawn and highly reminiscent of many record covers I slavered over in second hand vinyl stores as a kid. If the artist for this tee ever decides to create a feature-length trip movie, I’d love to see it. The colour scheme is perfect, I think the humble mushroom could do with the same treatment as the snail, just in case 604Republic ever want to continue the tale of these two characters and their crazy ride home, a shroom with a view would top it off for me ;) Only for the guys this time – sorry girls…

Here are some links to their current artists if you’d like to find out more about them:

Michael Blaine Myers Jr. – www.drawsgood.com

Joshua Kemble – www.joshuakemble.com

There’s plenty more original designer street wear available at www.604republic.com.

More T-Shirt Battles at Witzkrieg

admin    T-Shirt Contests     Wizkrieg, horror t-shirts, horror tees, t-shirt battles

As the “t-shirt battles” progress at the rather hilarious t-shirt site Witzkrieg.net two new contenders in the form of classic horror writers H.P Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe have been introduced to the fold. Prepare for an all new ruck between two giants of Gothic horror literature and they fight it out for their rightful place in history. Going purely on graphics with no particular literary leanings to one side or the other, horror fiction not particularly “being my bag” I’d have to say my favourite outcome is “Lovecraft Wins“. You’ll know why when you encounter the beast “Cthulhu” emerging from within, truly horrific, yet beautifully illustrated. Available at $18 each in sizes S-XXL in brown.

Lovecraft Wins! Tee

Poe Wins! Tee

Whilst I’m at it here are the latest rather intriguing results of Witzkrieg’s other t-shirt battles:

Nikola Tesla is crushing Thomas Edison.  We’re talking about a fun on bruising…

The awesome power of the Norse God Odin is throttling the Greek God Zeus!  HAIL ODIN!

Genghis Khan has Impaled the Impaler on his own spear and is most likely drinking Vlad’s blood as well.

As far as the battle raging in the Amazon Teddy Roosevelt the Bullmoose is making damn sure the Brazilian Manfish is a permanent addition to the list of extinct animals.

Choose your contender today at www.Witzkrieg.net

Artistry Is Dead

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Artistry is Dead, Evolved athletic, Fernado Jiminez, Hestin Lostwood, Regan Smith Clarke, aid, art shirts, art t-shirts, artists

Oh no it isn’t! It’s alive and well and creating quite a buzz at the new arts collective/streetwear store ArtistryIsDead.com. A label with exactly the same intentions as Buy Tees, to showcase untapped indie t-shirt talent from around the globe, except I review them and these guys sell them! What’s more each artist comes to an agreement with AID over charitable contributions, (kinda sounds vague to me but essentially worthy). Nevertheless, teething problems in the details department aside, a uniquely artistic t-shirt collection awaits you. The tees range from just $9.99 to $22 in all sizes (sweatshop free printing – American Apparel) which includes a few hoodies too. The designers include Regan Smith Clarke who does an incredible line in Art Deco style prints and tees at his own site as well as this one, plus Hestin Lostwood, Fernando Jimenez, and the street wear label Evolved Athletic.

Check ‘em out:

W.T.W.T.R Tee

Russian Doll Tee

Boston Tee

Choose Schools T-Shirt Design Contest

admin    T-Shirt Contests     Charity T-Shirts, Fibers, custom tees, t-shirt contest

We all like a good cause, t-shirt designers seem to be exceptionally charitable when it comes to helping organisations and charities do their good work. The Choose Schools T-Shirt Design Contest is being run by the P.O.D (print on demand) site Fibers.com. As with most companies of their ilk there are two options, either customise one of their own designs or upload yours and get your tee printed and shipped. The theme for the contest is a “celebration of teachers”, which is rather sweet, my mother was a teacher for years and has worked with remedial kids so I know how hard she tries to give them a leg up the ladder of life. As for myself I was almost a permanent fixture at our headmaster’s office, I was constantly reproached for asking pertinent questions, most of which were nothing to do with the subject at hand.

Still, it would be nice to think that the teaching profession has reached the level when we can all celebrate their sterling work. If you’d like to express your admiration for teachers then here’s what’s on offer:

Vote for your favourite design or submit your own ‘teacher’ themed design for the chance to win over $2500 in prizes.

Win $2500 in DonorsChoose.org gift certificates!

Grand Prize: $1000, 2nd place: $500, and 4 others win $250 in any category including Students, Humor, Teacher Pride, and Inspirational Submissions.

Winners also earn profits from sales in the form of gift certificates to use at DonorsChoose.org to continue funding their projects for a year after the contest ends.

If you want to see how Fibers is helping schoolchildren then check out their page at Donors Choose or see their photo gallery here.

So get cracking and help out 100s of schools today at www.fibers.com/contests/choose-classrooms.

Head of the Giant Robot Tee

admin    T-Shirts     comic art, comic tees, geek shirts, manga tees, robot tee, sci-fi t-shirts

Excuse the tardy posting, I’ve been slaving away high up on scaffolding painting the house whilst the Autumn sun holds out. I really meant to write something about LTD Tee‘s latest offering in the form of their Head of the Giant Robot Tee by comic book artist supremo Shane White. This latest collaboration with the Jet City Comic Show held on Saturday 25th of October at the Seattle Exhibition Center. If you’re in the area and a comic art nut then you can book tickets for the show for $8 each here.

I’ve just stumbled Shane’s site and I can’t believe I’m the first to give it a thumbs up? You can judge his talents for yourself by taking a peek at LTD Tee’s exclusive box set including the Head of the Giant Robot tee, a limited edition print, screen printed box, a certificate of authenticity and stickers is available for the presale price of $24.99 (normally $26.99).

Head of the Giant Robot Tee

LTD Tee have outdone themselves again, they really are becoming a magnet for truly talented artists, I’m not always a fan of their choices, although this particular tee is exceptional, but you have to admire them for pushing the  envelope, if you want to grab your tee pre-order one at www.ltdtee.net.

People Like Me – People Like You

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     People Like Me, funny tees, kitsch tees, pop culture tees, retro tees, street fashion, witty

People Like Me is one helluva’ crazy looking store, it shouts, nay screams kitsch, retro, and all the other buzz words that any trendy fashion aficionado will slaver over. The t-shirt are simple but striking and very well thought out, perhaps I’m getting a little jaded these days, having reviewed literally hundreds and hundreds of tees but their Consumer tee really jumps out at me in a big big way. It’s one of those t-shirt design ideas that any designer worth their salt will slap their forehead the moment they see it and think “why the hell didn’t I think of that?”. What’s even more exciting is they’re holding a big ‘ol sale on right now so if you want to save a few bucks for that next night out then you can wow your friends and potential “pick-ups” on just about everything on offer at the store, which includes some funky bags and accessories.

What’s really smart about PLM’s collection for both guys and girls is the generous helping of very witty design savvy. They’re not highly illustrated, in fact they’re as simple as t-shirt designs come, but they smack of an über coolness that’s something of a rare commodity these days in the world of fashion, even street fashion. So without further a due get your highly greedy mitts on any of these beauties from between $19.50 and $22.50 each (usually $26-$30).

Consumer Tee

This t-shirt is my new best friend, I’m fickle that way ;) Seriously though, there’s a powerful Dada feel to this design, although reading their blurb it says “Stylistically, we owe our bright colors and bold illustration to anything from Tammy Faye’s make-up, to comic books and Adam West Batman reruns.”. Still… totally gorge.

Ad Space Tee

Who’s says the world’s becoming to commercialised? Well, everyone really, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em? Nice choice on the Gothic/tattoo font too.

Vain Tee

Ooh nice touch reversing the text, I had a similar idea for an “ambulance t-shirt” once, still I’ve just given that one away now lol. If you’re so vain you probably think this tee is about you then you’d better head on over to PLM’s site at www.peoplelikemestore.com.

Wolf And Harrison

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Wolf and Harrison, cowboy shirts, leather, patches

When Wolf and Harrison, a new t-shirt brand launched just a few weeks ago, contacted me I didn’t know what to expect, although I had my suspicions. In their email they mentioned ‘instead of standard screen printing, we are sewing on patches on our shirts.’ Which got me a little worried, I prepared myself for the worst, i.e a heap of cowboy clobber for Country & Western fans, however I was wrong, and pleasantly surprised as it goes. I’m guessing the patches are made from a spandex/leatherette type of material (I could be wrong). Judging by the photos (I don’t have a sample) they’ve done a very good job at mimicking leather. Fortunately W&H aren’t heavily into corny shoulder patches (which you find on a lot of cowboy shirts alongside elbow patches and dodgy cowboy ties). For me the women’s collection is more successful than the men’s, although their Bull Tee is a cracker.

The tees are available in a range of sizes, S-2XL for guys and XS-L for guys at $35 each. The washing instructions seem a little tricky, cold water, and iron inside out (does anyone iron their tees?). Still if you want to know more about the label they have a promotional video here, otherwise read on.

Bull Tee

A tribute to the Texas Longhorn – I love the crosses – it’d be nice if they used them in more tees. Especially in a “comic art” style as eyes, dead cool.

Horse Tee

Inspired by a trip to Mexico, a nice rendition. Love that mane ;)

Wolf Head Tee

Highlighting the plight of the rather beautiful but endangered Mexican Grey Wolf. A nice feature for a back panel available in black and white.

See all of Wolf and Harrison’s novel and rather ingeniously designed tees at www.wolfharrison.com.

The Haunting Begins

admin    T-Shirt News    

I gave you all a sneak preview of the new Haunted Collection of tees at Seventh.Ink a while back, well the tees have finally arrived, hot off the press and ready and waiting to the scare the wits out of all you good t-shirt lovin’ folks out there. All three new terrifying tees show a new direction for the guys at www.furyshirts.com, bigger, better, bolder graphics and a definitely grittier look in both ideas and style. Although they’ve still managed to keep a sense of humour about it, don’t expect chainsaws and blood splatters, this is more your literary Gothic horror featuring classic characters from the diabolically creative minds of Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe and Washington Irving. Each of these three frighteners are available for guys at $24 each in sizes S-2XL, and if you fancy completing the set there are plenty of matching buttons and belts on offer too. Also, customers can save 10% off by signing up for the newsletter at the top of their site or by joining Seventh.Ink on Facebook.

Poke your head out from under the bed sheets and gaze into the eyes of pure evil with these rather fetching horror tees:

It’s Alive Tee

Frankie’s been to Hollywood and he hated it. Mean moody, and a wonderfully generous print, if he comes your way defend yourself from this nut with a wrench :D Available as tees and hoodies for girls and guys.

Who’s Headless Now? Tee

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow comes alive in this awesome tee, perfect for Halloween! Available as tees and hoodies for guys and girls.

Raven of Nevermore Tee

I never found Poe particularly scary, however the design for this tee is rather fetching, a great shirt and hoodie available for guys and girls.

See them all at www.furyshirts.com, and yes they’re selling out fast…