I asked Dave all about it and he came up with a rather intriguing explanation which is as follows:-

“I just graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in May before starting up emulsion, I majored in illustration and I did my senior thesis on Moustaches.. I essentially did a whole load of ridiculous research and started coming out with certain images that pinpointed certain types of beards and then followed through by stereotyping the people that might sport one.. More specifically it turned into a conglomerate of what the beard’s kids would look like, What they would hunt (including their bones) and what would be the weapon of choice would be…”

I’m stunned, highly logical madness if you ask me. Still it’s helped Dave turn out his first powerful t-shirt design. He went on to say “It turned into a triptych. You can see the other two finished illustrations at my portfolio site – www.diangelis.net/anatomy.php.”

So let’s take a look at the Deerd Tee, and the psychology of beards!

Deerd Tee

It’s beautifully drawn, but perhaps rather disturbing in some deep down subconscious kind of way. It reminds me of a mixture between the movies The Deer Hunter (if their kids’ continued on the tradition of shooting off at just about anything in the mountains) and Wicker Man (the cool 1970s original), obviously before the human sacrifice got under way. There are those connected with nature who can kill, there are those who aren’t who can still kill, if there weren’t then most omnivore humans on this planet would either have to go out there and slaughter for themselves or turn veggie.

It’s a fascinating tee, I wish I could say more about it, but psychologically it’s a conundrum, the joy of nature, the thrill of hunting, life and death in it’s most raw element. I couldn’t ever kill, I know that, but I’m a hypocrite, I still eat meat, so who am I to criticise, nobody can truly say what is the natural order of things these days, we’ve all screwed it up as it is.

It’s definitely a hypnotic t-shirt illustration, beautiful details in the beard, and the characters seem like they’ve been appropriated from a family Polaroid lost and then retrieved after decades of sitting in the loft. The ominous skull held aloft gives the design a slightly Shamanic feel, really rather a trippy affair altogether. You can get the 5 colour screen printed Deerd tee in sizes S to XL for $20 here.

Deerd Mono Tee

At $5 less you can get the Deerd Mono Tee, a variation on the Deerd Tee in just one colour. To be honest I think the image looks even more powerful as a monoprint, but that’s probably down to personal taste. Get this beautifully drawn bargain tee in all sizes here.

I can see a great future for Emulsion Apparel, Dave promises that plenty more illustrated tees are on the card, including a few zombie shirts (which are nearly always a winner on my part). Take a splash at Emulsion today.