Illuminati Propaganda Tee

admin    T-Shirt Contests, T-Shirts     Fairey, Illuminati Propaganda, Orwellian, political tees, springleap, t-shirt winner

Wowzers, it’s been a while since I’ve really liked a Springleap t-shirt contest winner and damn what a turn up for the books, it’s half way to Fairey Land (as in Shepard). Red and black is always a stonking colour combo as far as I’m concerned, it’s everything nasty and evil you could hope for. The Illuminati Propaganda Tee has earned Suburbanhijinx aka James Campbell a whopping $1000 in their massive rollover competition, it’s no surprise either considering it’s his 4th win at the site, I think I’ve even reviewed on those winning designs way back when.

Illuminati Propaganda Tee

The Illuminati Propaganda design received a final vote of 4.80 which I swear is massive for Springleap, be prepared to queue lol. You can buy this beaut for R183 / $24 / €19 / £16 in all sizes for guys and girls.

Speaking of evil reincarnate, Orwellian or otherwise I must admit there’s a slight resemblance to Simon Cowell’s ‘X Factor’. Ah well it’s probably just coincidence, then again it could be a vast demonic conspiracy – who knows…

Springleap to their store for more.

New Hideout Tees

admin    T-Shirts     British tees, Hideout Apparel, Hideout Tees, graphic t-shirts, graphic tees

It’s been a while since we’ve posted about Hideout Apparel, they’ve a couple of new tees on offer, and they’ve done a great job of sprucing up the site. I have to admit I’m not keen on one of the tees, and regular readers will probably guess why in a moment… I’m not sure if I’ve made this suggestion before but I really think it’s time to get a separate domain name for the brand, or at least a subdomain, it’s easier to rank on Google, more fans find the tees, the brand gets greater recognition and so on and so on. Ah well we live and learn.

So here are the two newbies on the block:

Kraken Tee

There seems to be something of a resurgence for the Kraken, I’ve reviewed at least one other Kraken tee this month, and I’m sad to say this is the lesser of the two. It’s not so much the quality of illustration that’s at fault (although the lack of colour doesn’t help) it’s the damn rectangular print.

I feel like I’m turning into that crazy old man next door who spends all day shouting at his TV and occasionally hitting it with his walking stick. The problem with filling every part of print is that it reveals the limitations of the process. It just looks cheap. Sure it’s a big rectangle, but in a way that makes it worse, I don’t want to look at the edges of a print, I want to look at the design. Then there’s an enormous logo at the bottom which again I’d have preferred they’d left out.

I’m tempted to link to an example of how it should be done, but that’d probably be too cruel. Anyway I’m sure others will disagree, Hideout have a strong following after all. I just think, damn, what a waste of a concept. Could be so much better. Available for £20 in Asphalt and Heather.

Take Flight Tee

Phew… I am very glad to say I have exactly the opposite opinion on this one, beautifully drawn it looks like a frame from a French Zombie animated movie, very Quixotic in its own elusive fashion. The composition is great too (no rectangles in sight). For me it’s a far better tee than the first but I’m guessing it’s all down to the internal politics at Hideout, they’re friends and creative input is shared equally, even though I am convinced one has far more design talent than the others. Still… get the Take Flight Tee in Steel Blue and Asphalt (although confusingly some of the photos look as if they’ve been tinted red) for £20 each.

Ah well we live and learn.

Hungry Lifestyle

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Australian tees, Hungry Lifestyle, text tees, typographic t-shirts, typographic tees

For a typographic t-shirt brand Hungry Lifestyle is a rather super cool label actually. They’ve even helped me a little towards curing my prejudice. The thing is that I don’t appreciate all the emails asking me to review logo obsessed brands, but to be honest HL do it with a lot of style and definitely deserve a break in my eyes. It’s all a fashion hangover from the 90s, I just saw so many Nike and Adidas logos on a Saturday night out it felt more like JB Sports than a club. But if Hungry Lifestyle are the way of the future for logo/typographic tees – all in all – it ain’t half bad!

Founder Andrew Anderson, who I’m guessing is the designer too, really takes care and attention when it comes to producing his products. All the tees are American Apparel and printed in Australia, and nicely printed at that. The coverage is generous too, not a small and fiddly print in site. As usual with many Oz brands the prices are a little steep, the four tees available are available at $30 each, but you can buy the lot in one bundle for $100 which is a little more bearable.

What I will say is that HL definitely have “a feel for fonts”, they’re choices are smart as they come and in certain aspects remind me a little of typographic street artists like Eine, bold vintage and retro type that stands the test of time. That said their ‘Bubblegum Tee; looks a little drippy for my liking, I think someone might’ve left the packet on a radiator or something :p

Rad Tee

Classic Tee

All Stars Tee

Bubblegum Tee

To learn more visit www.HungryLifestyle.com.

15% Off At Zigelstyle

admin    T-Shirt Discounts     Zigel Style, Zigelstyle, t-shirt discount, t-shirt discounts

If you remember the name you should, we featured Zigelstyle‘s unique collection of indie graphic tees earlier this month. Well after a little tinkering with the shopping cart system we’ve managed to convince Gideon, the guy behind the label, to offer you our lucky lucky readers a whopping great 15% off all products at their store! If you fancy saving a bundle then simply enter our exclusive discount voucher code 11079271030 at the checkout!

Here’s a little reminder of their tees:

New Standard Clothing

admin    T-Shirt Designers, T-Shirt Reviews     New Standard Clothing, T-Shirt Designers, art shirts, artist shirts

New Standard Clothing. A slick site, a great selection of diverse art shirts and highly talented artists from around the world, a t-shirt club to receive discounts, a very simple upload process for prospective designers, free wallpapers for your iPhone, and a fun and interesting blog, the list goes on but you get the idea. NSC are serious about tees, to the core! I really like the range of shirts on offer at their store, eclectic styles, beautifully conceived, and plenty of funny/quirky designs for those with a good sense of humour. It’s not often I can browse through a t-shirt collective and like everything I see but this is definitely one of those exceptions. Collectively the brand reminds me of a high class indie store in the right side of town, the art leaps out confidently from their site, well presented unique designs by artists with strong styles and individual angles on life at large.

The R.R.P for their shirts is $25 each but if you’re based in the USA you get free shipping too. You can save an extra dollar per shirt if you join their tee club but we have a discount code for New Standard Clothing that can save you 10% with the discount voucher code BTSAVE10 – just enter it at the checkout for a great saving. In the meantime check out some hot picks at NSC…

Hungry Like A Wolf Tee

You know the tune, now love the tee. Joking and Duran Duran references aside this is a great tee – simple, bold and true. Designed by the 3-strong crew of Australians at Leon Vault – they have their own online store which isn’t up and running quite yet but definitely worth checking out. Available in indigo in sizes S-XL for guys and girls.

I Love Science Tee

I can’t believe I haven’t seen this concept before, so obvious now I can hear the echo of designers around the globe sighing with disbelief. A great take on the whole “I Heart” brigade of tee design, which I personally can’t abide. Reinventing a t-shirt standard isn’t an every day event – kudos to the artist who’s managed to evoke a lovely retro look. ‘Engineered’ by Christopher David Ryan aka CDR, a quirky illustrator based in both NY and Maine. Just for the guys this time – in all sizes.

Bonjour Tee

Crazy yet beguiling, the Bonjour Tee for girls is designed by British illustrator Gemma Correll who, all in all, has a knack for depicting rather hilarious scenes such as this one. Available in all sizes. Here’s another by her hilariously titled…

Pugs Not Drugs Tee

Embarrassment & Breakfast Tee

I’m not the biggest fan of typographic tees but I really love the chaos in this design, plenty for Brits to have fun with including a twist on the phrase “Britannia Rules The Waves” to “Britannia Waives The Rules” (except that we do neither :/). Still very a swinging tee with a nod to Brit greats like fish and chip dinners and old Two Tone tunes makes it the Best of British as far as I am concerned. Mad but rather fun all the same! Designed by graphic artist Matt Lyon aka C86 – available in all sizes for girls.

Vertigo Tee

More one for fans of Roy Lichtenstein than Alfred Hitchcock I love the cocophony of retro graphics, half craziness is always a treat and the perspective of the guy at the top of the stairs tops it off nicely. Designed by Tomo77 who’s a mainstay character in a lot of the big contest sites like Threadless and DBH. Available for guys in all sizes.

Panda Rock Tee

A cool graffiti style funny tee for girls and guys with some nice splatters and drips to keep the urban crowd happy. Kiss has a new frontman and he’s totally wild. This one’s by Concrete Rocket - an old favourite here at Buy Tees. Nice to see some new stuff! Available in all sizes in white for guys and blue for girls.

Ursus Maritimus Discoteque Tee

Last but definitely not least, well, let’s say at least the most silly, I can’t help admire this design, it’s out and out daft but still I like it. Even with a swanky Latin/French name it’s still daft as a brush, if not more. Philip Tseng is known for his cute yet slightly mad illustrations, if you love cartoons, rainbows, and animals wearing clothes he’s the guy to see! Available in all sizes for guys (though definitely worth NSC considering printing this one up for the girls!).

Set yourself a new standard in t-shirt fashion at www.newstandardclothing.com.

‘ave a Banana…

admin    T-Shirt Designers, T-Shirts     Banana Tees, British tees, Dale Edwin Murray, funny tees, graphic t-shirts

I hadn’t heard of Banana Tees until yesterday, they’re a new t-shirt brand on the block with a friendly easy-going attitude and a couple tip-top tees in the collection already. Run solely by British illustrator, designer and t-shirt fanatic Dale Edwin Murray, having achieved plenty of success designing for clothing companies, bands and major retailers as well as plenty of t-shirt contests – he’s decided to strike out on his own and used his alter ego Bananaman (no not this one >>  Bananaman) as inspiration for the brand name. But don’t expect banana themed tees at every turn lol.

All the tees are available at £15 (or 15 squid for cockneys), the majority of which are 100% cotton (apart from the marl gray which is 10% polyester and made in Honduras), shipping is reasonable at £1.50 for the UK and £7.50 for the rest of the world. I particularly like the distressed look of the prints.

Make Ideas Real Tee

A lovely sentiment perfectly rendered in a great piece of symbiotic design. Creativity should always be encouraged, not that Dale needs it, he’s well on his way. Being an old Warhol nut I’d have called it “Art Factory” but I am after all a bit of a posh git so ignore me lol. Get your MIR Tee (no not the defunct space station – it’s just an unfortunate acronym) in sizes S-XL.

Live Well Tee

Another positive message rendered in a quirky and appealing design – damn Dale is a positive guy – give me whatever he’s drinking. A nice simple illustration that I’m sure BUPA wished their ad agency had come up with, available once more in sizes S-XL.

See the rest at www.BananaTees.com.

Enclothe Autumn Collection

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Enclothe, art shirts, art t-shirts, art tees, graphic t-shirts

This is the first time I’ve reviewed Enclothe and to start off I have some great shots of their forthcoming Autumn collection for you which will be available November 1st. For those who are already familiar with the brand you’ll notice a change in direction as each new collection is released.

Expect even more naturalistic designs which perfectly suit the fall season, with scenes of nature deftly illustrated for the most part by one talented individual Derek M. who also set up and runs the company as well as manages retail and marketing for Enclothe. They also offer hoodies, posters and accessories featuring the same quality of design if you fancy completing your collection.

Let’s begin with the forthcoming additions – this is the first time the collection has been revealed to the public and I am sure that Derek M. would appreciate your feedback if you’d care to comment:

The attention to detail is as always exceptional, and the “design treatment” for the Fall season is conceptually and technically finer than ever, with subtly engrained and textured naturalistic illustrations that raise the benchmark for t-shirt design. Enclothe has counterbalanced its Summer collection of tragic tales of ghost Ships, great lighthouse battles, and mysteries of the deep with a more contemplative collection of highly ornate and personalised designs. As always the passion for both art an arcane art of storytelling comes to the fore, Derek has spearheaded a t-shirt brand that looks beyond the immediate, eschewing fads and trends in order to lift t-shirt design to a whole new level, be it conceptually and/or technically.

Here’s a potted history of the brand development:

“Enclothe was started by me (Derek M.) back in 2003 with simple goals. It was a way to sell some ‘Warmonger’ shirts I had designed as my personal way to protest oncoming Iraq war. The sign shop I had worked at had a screen printing press so I started working after hours to print my own shirts. The success of that led me to begin creating other shirts, ‘Ninja Pirate’, and ‘451‘ were among some of the first designs. From those few shirts the business grew and travelled with me down to San Francisco for five years as I attended the Academy of Arts University. There my skills and taste matured and I began to craft some more elaborate plans for Enclothe. Since then we’ve bounced from SF to Oregon down to San Diego where we briefly opened an Art Gallery/shop, this was a short expensive stay before we ended up back in my home in the Rogue Valley in Oregon, which is where we will stay for the foreseeable future.

I have to include a few of my fave tees from the Summer collection, especially Enclothe’s 451 tee inspired by Fahrenheit 451 written by one of my fave sci-fi writers as a child Ray Bradbury and magnificently translated to the screen in 1966 by François Truffaut. An Orwellian tale of fascist society controlled by the limitation of knowledge and information. A task carried out by “firemen” who, as did the Nazis, burned books rather than put out fires.

If you fancy any remaining tees from the Summer collection be warned, most are now either out of stock or running very low, still no harm in trying your luck. My personal fave has to be Electric Buddha, technically superb, I’d love to be able recreate this old school etching style – something I have been struggling with for weeks. I’ll have to get some tips from Derek if I can.

Enclothe have a strong reputation for intelligent and beguiling design infusing their love of mythology, science fiction, literature, the arts and the environment into each and every garment. The Autumn collection features stories of ancient battles, dying planets, the beginning of creation, and the end of time, some big subjects for the humble medium of the tee. Enclothe sources talent from around the world in order to enhance their sublime art shirts, having already featured artwork from such luminaries as;

Jeremy Hanlin
Aaron Allen
Nikki Burch
Sven Palmowski
Adam Rosenlund
Geordan Moore
Michael Heinz-Fischer
Jerry Maninang

See and learn far more at www.Enclothe.com.

Blue Plate Special

admin    T-Shirt Contests, T-Shirt Designers, T-Shirt Discounts     Ian Leino, TeeFury, funny tees, seafood, t-shirt discount

Our old mate Ian Leino has got created a new design that’s up for sale at the time-limited t-shirt store TeeFury today! Titled simply “Blue Plate Special” it mixes his love for hole-in-the-wall seafood restaurants (and their cheesy tourist shirts) with a deep appreciation for the wealth of aquatically-based characters in modern pop culture – everyone from Admiral Ackbar to Dr Zoidberg. As always at TeeFury, it’s just $9 + shipping, and will be for sale until midnight tonight.

Luuk

admin    T-Shirt Designers     Australian tees, Luke Chiswell, Luuk, art shirts, art t-shirts, t-shirt design

Luuk aka Luke Chiswell is an Australian artist and tee designer as well as a rather elusive character. There’s very little info out there on Luuk but his t-shirts really caught my eye and so I thought I’d share. First off the featured shirts are only available at a few Australian and NZ retail outlets (which I’ll list at the end of the post) but even if you’re not an Antipodean it’s still a little eye candy for you all. I love the style, beautifully simplistic and off-the-wall humour combine to create a rather outstanding selection of novel t-shirt designs.

However much I love elaborate illustration the truth is Luuk really has got the knack of what t-shirt design should be about. Immediate, eye-catching, solid design with a strong visual impact that lingers somewhat in the memory. Take a look at these, and if you do know of any more retail outlets outside of Oz and NZ then let me know and I will add them to the list!

Here are the stockists:

Wiloh

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     California, Charity T-Shirts, Doeasembilanpro, Sam Bevington, Wiloh, art shirts

Wiloh is an eco-friendly streetwear launched in July of 2010 in order to promote environmental and social awareness through sustainable streetwear. They collaborate with creative people from all over the world to design limited edition t-shirts printed using vibrant water-based inks on eco-friendly bamboo and organic cotton. They’ve also teamed up with Kids In Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S.), a charitable organization that reaches out to help children affected by natural disasters and poverty, to form their “Tee For Tee” initiative whereby every t-shirt they sell is matched with the donation of a specially-designed t-shirt for a child in need.

The global team behind the label hark from all parts of the world and all creative sectors, illustrators, photographers, music and fashion bloggers, a Californian style icon, designers, graphic artists and more. There’s definitely a buzz about this label, what’s more their shirts are cool, which is always a relief when it comes to charity tees. You can have a conscience and look good! Top designer tees with prices ranging between $24 and $28 each are digitally printed on lightweight, organic bamboo/cotton jerseys and v-necks.

Sugar Skull

I am always a sucker for a sugar skull, this one’s by the highly talented illustrator Sam Bevington and is available for guys and girls.

The Eye Tee

Again designed by another great illustrator, this time Indonesian artist Doeasembilanpro, love the steam punk style details, I’m suprised it isn’t available for women too, crosses are popular with both guys and girls.

The Heist Tee

I love this typographic spree by Tokyo Candles, I can’t find any more info on the artist, but as far as toon violence goes he/she/they’re a maestro!

Pentagram Love Tee

If you’re a little bit evil and a little bit lovely this one’s for you… created by “style icon” Krystal Simpson, from Salinas, California. She’s heavily into 60′s and 70′s rock stylings. Krystal was a contestant on MTV’s 2007 reality show, I’m With Rolling Stone and has tried her hand at modelling, designing and all-round fabulousness.

Space Cat Tee

This has to be my favourite, just for way out wackyness and imagination, a lovely idea and definitely deserves to be snapped up by Nickleodeon as the next big kid’s toon series. Designed by the London based fashion and lifestyle blogger (and fabulously named) Mademoiselle Robot.

See more cool tees, help the kids, and look the business at www.wiloh.com. Keep up with all their latest news at Twitter and Facebook.