The Highly Motivated Super Motif

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Isabelle Lumpkin, Little Boots, Rolling Stones, Santigold, graphic t-shirts, illustrated tees, super motif, supermotif.com

I’ve just read through Super Motif’s manifesto and am fascinated at the ideological machinations behind this label, both conceptually and philosophically. This British brand openly reject the usual routes to building a successful name in fashion, preferring instead to take a dicier but more impressive stance, to simply let their t-shirts speak for themselves. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for SM, not only is the ethos behind their company as illuminating as anyone in retail could possibly muster, they produce a fine selection of graphically exuberant tees that would raise the bar in anyone’s wardrobe.

Although their submissions page is down right now they do still seem to be encouraging work from designers and artists, with a preference for hand-drawn illustrations for the main part. Check out their commissions page for more details, just remember that SM are as interested in why things look like they do as what they look like! The current payouts for accepted t-shirt designs are a £500 advance against a royalty of 12% of gross sales.

SM are gracious enough to dedicate a page to their designers too, which is something I’d like to see at a lot more t-shirt stores. If you fancy listening to music, SM are a multi-talented company after all, check out their mix tapes. But first and foremostly, let’s take a look at some of their t-shirts! read more

Feed The Brain – Print The Mind

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     TPM, The Printed Mind, brain, brain tees, brains, graphic t-shirts, mind, theprintedmind.com

The Printed Mind have slipped by me so far, I do know that Levi Hardeman, part of Texas-based Word! Apparel in a previous incarnation started his new venture this year, but asides that I have little more to go on than the rest of you good tee-obsessed folks out there. What I can say is they offer up a wide range of smart slick designs, printed in generous proportions, and every t-shirt is guaranteed to have some association, however vague, with the mind or brain, depending how you hang philosophically.

Asides their fascination with the cerebellum they have nurtured ties with a family of hardcore metal bands including A Tragic History and My Children My Bride, have deep debates on the best Mexican restaurants and a slight leaning towards the dafter end of the Sci-Fi spectrum. As you’ll soon no doubt discover their passion for exploring the mind won’t lead you into the furthest regions of philosophical debate, or the meaning of being. Let’s just say they’ve come to the same conclusion that many of us do in our relatively short time on the planet. The mind is a strange thing, harboured up in a couple of pounds of grey matter, firing off electrical impulses under a protective bone shell, and came upon the idea that this rather mysterious subject would make a great concept for a t-shirt collection. Which it invariably does.

Here’s why:- read more

Ride The Rockett – Black Friday Sale

admin    T-Shirt News     Black Friday Sale, Ride The Rockett, cut price tees, graphic t-shirts, illustrated tees, t-shirt discounts, t-shirt sale

Hey here we go with another Black Friday, this time courtesy of our good friends at Ride The Rockett. We’ve featured before if you’re not familiar with their work, read it at Supersonic Tees at Rockett. If you want zombies, heavy metal, punk, Satanism, bad taste humour, L.A surrealism, or anything under the general header of ‘your mother/father wouldn’t approve’, then you have to check out this label. They deliver 110% over-the-top illustrated tees that turn heads till they twist off zombie killer style heh.

But here’s where it gets really exciting. RTR are offering a ginormous 40% off their products this Friday, now that’s a big deal worth raiding the piggy bank for something a little more extreme than the usual tees in your wardrobe. Just enter the code bozobux40 at the checkout, and if you spend more than $50 you’re automatically entered into their contest to win one tee from every collection in your size!!!

Anyway, can’t leave this without showing one great example from the label:- read more

The Tee Tao of Hizoku

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     art shirts, artists, graphic t-shirts, graphic tees, hizoku, hizoku.com, illustrators

Hizoku have lofty ideals, that’s for sure. Their aim to collectively cultivate human creativity is borne out in their high concept, intricately illustrated tees for the t-shirt connoisseur, there’s no doubting that. The supreme message might not be to everyone’s taste, such as the t-shirt blog Hide Your Arms, but it doesn’t take long to realise that once you’ve arrived at Hikozu’s store the results speak for themselves. I don’t really mind what the ultimate aim is for this brand, I just know good t-shirts when I see them, and this label supplies them thick and fast. With a superb team of professional artists and graphic designers working behind the scenes to advance the art of the t-shirt, rest assured Hizoku deliver what they promise.

Names such as Facundo Diaz a prestigious Argentinian graphic/web designer and 3D illustrator, Tony Ariawan an Indonesian designer and 3D illustrator with an incredible eye for light and all its manifest effects, and A. J Dimarucot whose elemental blending of the extremes of traditional art and graphic design all reside in this particular slice of higher consciousness known as Hizoku. For those with their feet firmly planted in the ground, the fact that Dimarucot is a former art director for OgilvyOne be a simpler clue to the extreme high standard of illustration at this beguilingly graphic t-shirt company. Here’s another even bigger sign that Hizoku are probably as hot as an indie t-shirt brand can get, Dimarucot is currently in the top ten designers at Design By Humans, if he’s voted the overall best he’ll be awarded a massive $10,000 – so if you do love his work go and vote for him here.

Hizoku have yet more strings to their proverbial bow, they’re business savvy to the extreme, with freebies pouring out left, right and centre, here’s what you can expect for being a customer at their store.

*Free shipping on all orders over $75 in the USA.
*Customer perks including: Buy 1 item and receive a free sticker pack. Buy 2 for free stickers and a wristband. Buy 3 items for free stickers, a wristband and free shipping. Buy 4 for all of the above plus a free randomly chosen t-shirt!
*Buy 5 shirts or posters for a 12% discount. Buy 10 for a 20% discount. Yep they print posters too at just $10 each!
*Join their Street Team and earn a free shirt for every 5 you sell.

Phew… let’s take a look at our top picks:- read more

Get Your Teeth In To FreeGums

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Freegums, T-Shirts, art shirts, com, funny tees, graphic t-shirts

So who, what, why where? Well it all began (for us here) when Rohan from Fabnob.com.au (a fashion writer and devoted fan of Buy Tees) told us about their latest interview with Alvaro Ilizarbe aka Freegums – we were pretty impressed with the interview and not being au fait with FG we decided to investigate further. Alvaro is what you might call a Renaissance Man, no I don’t mean he wears a doublet and stockings and a feather in a velvet cap quoting Shakespeare at any opportune moment, well maybe he does but he obviously keeps that aspect of his life close to his heart, no I mean the guy is multi-talented and happy with almost any creative medium. By the way in case you’re wondering the name ‘Freegums’ was originally the name of Alvaro’s party nights, don’t ask me why, I’ve no idea.

He used to run house parties, he once drove an ice-cream van full of art around South Florida promoting and selling new contemporary art, oh and as you might have guessed he makes great t-shirts. If you want the full low-down on what makes Alvaro check out this great interview at Fabnob otherwise stick around and check out what all the fuss is about! read more

Bang On Target at SharpShirter.com

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Threadless, art, art fashions, art shirts, graphic t-shirts, illustrations, sharp shirter, sharpshirter.com

Dan Lachman, the guy behind the awesome t-shirt company SharpShirter.com is a bona fide genius, he’s not an artistic genius, although he certainly has an eye for great artistic talent, he’s a genius at organisation, persistence and at applying his unique and rather surreal world view on the urban fashion market. As Dan has admitted himself he can only manage to scrawl the occasional stick figure design, but unlike lesser mortal souls out there he didn’t let that rather massive obstacle stumble him towards his vision of conquering the arty end of the t-shirt market. He might not quite be there just yet, but this is definitely a man to keep an eye on, his label Sharp Shirter is guaranteed to raise a few eyebrows, the beauty of the label’s designs, their strangely evocative logic and marvellously illustrative quality have to be seen to be believed. Dan has poached some of the finest artists and t-shirt designers from Threadless.com and provided them with a warm and safe (virtual) home where they can subsist on coffee, beer, cookies, praise and cash plus the knowledge that they will receive the respect they deserve without a hoard of lesser talents having a dig at them every five minutes.

Dan the man shoots high, and from what I’ve seen he’s bang on target. Sharp Shirter isn’t ever going to be a bland mainstream label, you can tell that straight away, but as far as cult followings go this humble t-shirt label is rapidly going from strength to strength selling in 60 stores worldwide with over 100 products including t-shirts, hoodies, pullovers, dresses, and even laptop and phone skins! I can’t really describe this art collective’s designs en masse, each created by one of a small army of highly talented artists under the banner of Sharpshirter, the styles are eclectic, and vary wildly from the beautiful to the hilarious to the stunning and shocking. However, to make my life easier I too can use the power of image to explain exactly what the hell I’m harping on about here.

Working alongside Dan are the venerable ‘El Perro‘ his fab website designer and his roomate and best bud Andrew Kneynsberg, as soon as Dan graduates from Wesleyan University the three of them plan to take the label to a whole new level, if you want to watch the rise of an art fashion collective that’s guaranteed to expand in leaps and bounds, then Sharp Shirter is definitely a fine example of the American Dream at work. Well I’m not American but I’m guessing it looks something like this. The fact is weird is good, art as fine as this can’t be beaten, and t-shirts are the coolest way to show the world just how savvy your eye for fashion retailing really is – with all that under your collective belts you can’t go far wrong in my eyes!

Look up, up there, it’s the Sharp Shirter, he’s aiming at you, but as long as you have great taste in highly evocative and artistic urban wear it shouldn’t be too painful read more

You Will Flip For FlipNY!

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Flip NY, Flip NY Tees, Flip New York, FlipNY, I Love New York, New York T-Shirts, New York Tees, graphic t-shirts, graphic tees

Okay for starters, www.flipny.com has to be the greatest t-shirt website design I have seen since time began, the homepage has to be one of the most engaging and vibrant I’ve come across so far. Click on the pic to see exactly what I mean! Sure it’s in Flash, I don’t know if it’s me but Flash is always a little slow loading, but the wait is definitely worth it, wow, a totally mad panorama of a New York cityscape from an alternative dimension!

If you want to skip the intro (which personally I think would be a crime) you can go straight to the store at www.shopflipny.com – their extreme graphic talents continue on with a selection of some of the wildest graphic tees available on the net, and I mean wild. Expect an exuberance of vector and bitmap prowess, colours asunder and a unique slice of N.Y culture to take home to wow your friends! read more

Brand Of The Free 25% Discount

admin    T-Shirt News     BOTF, brand of the free, brandofthefree.com, graphic t-shirts, graphic tees, organic t-shirts

We’ve got a few pieces of news about Brand Of The Free tees, they’ve really been listening to their customers (which is always a good thing), and have come up a whole ream of changes for 2009 that should tickle your fancy.

First of all they’ve kicked off the Spring season with a generous 25% discount. Simply use their coupon code BOTF25 at the checkout by March 31st 2009 to get a quarter off the price of any of their organic and sweatshop-free items today!

They’re increasing sizes for several of their tees, 2X (Men’s/Unisex) will be available in four designs: Made in America, Re-recycle, Green Light and Open Mic- all due to arrive this week. read more

Return To Mount Hexx At Das Monk

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Au, Das Monk, Mount Hexx, NZ, OZ, T-Shirts, Tim Laing, art shirts, graphic t-shirts, tees

A dark and foreboding summer awaits us as the Sydney based Das Monk t-shirt label release their latest collection in collaboration with UK artist Tim Laing entitled “Return to Mount Hexx”. Das Monk’s Marc Hendrick and Tim Laing have worked through the winter months to create a brave new collection which mixes a blend of kaleidoscopic colours and post-psychedelic forms to form a strange and enchanting world of modernity meets folklore in the shadowy world of Mount Hexx.

Strange and enticing characters and iconographies are revealed for all to see, including a face constructed purely from hands, a Navajo Indian paralysed in a perpetual state of bliss, an impala whose skin corkscrews around its hollow body, and a RussTim traveller whose obsession rendered him more skeleton than man. This is the time and place where t-shirt design leaves the mainstream follies of consumer sensibility and light humouresque and entrenches itself in the dark arts of illustrated madness and fear. Dare you follow them to the brink, to the very nether regions of the underbelly of urban streetwear, where few live to tell the tales of Mount Hexx? Well if you do you’ll be glad to know that Das Monk are offering worldwide free shipping if you use their enchanted code >> superfreebie << at the mysterious chamber of the checkout read more

New York Style For The World At R.A.G

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     NY, NY style, New York T-Shirts, R.A.G, Rag Clothing, Rag Manhattan, graphic t-shirts, graphic tees, urban wear, urbanwear

R.A.G Clothing opened its doors in NY in 1959 and has since expanded its number of stores to 5 locations across Manhattan. My partner came across RAG Clothing on a recent trip and was surprised (and relieved) to find their inimitable range of stylish designer t-shirts and urban wear are available online. They offer a great line in graphic art shirts although I’d say their men’s tees outclass the women’s by miles. There’s also a small selection of I Love New York tees for those of you who can’t quite afford a weekend fix of NY right now, though again they aren’t quite on the same level as their graphic t-shirts. read more