King Noir

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     King Noir, London, UK, art t-shirts, illustrations, streetwear, tattoo art

Founded in 2009 King Noir are a UK based streetwear brand, the brainchild of two highly creative friends from London, Lawrence Gumm and Thomas Gilmour, expect some very funky and original designs!. Set up shortly after Gilmour (not the voice and guitar of Pink Floyd in case you were wondering) lost his job in a London based art shop, he teamed up with pal Gumm. Lawrence Gumm harks from a film industry background and is a connoisseur of  tattoo art. Having been tattooed by some of the most widely respected artists on the scene such as Frith Street’s Xam, Deno and Valerie Vargas it was obvious where their passion and inspiration for outstanding design would spawn. After a few successful brainstorming sessions in an East End boozer the concept of King Noir was born.

There following is small but highly devoted, and with a little exposure I can see King Noir emerging as part of the staple diet of underground streetwear scene of London and beyond. Here’s a few of my faves from their current collection…

Balloon Vs. Storm T-Shirt

The Balloon Vs. Storm tee is available in B/W and red in sizes S-XL, this rather hypnotic little number features a beautiful composition and perhaps a lesson or two for life. A gloriously illustrated vintage hot air balloon that would make Phileas Fogg green with envy sails through a shower of arrows, beyond them lies an abstract sun featuring another of their motifs at its centre, an equally surreal crown with a third eye. At only £15 this and all of their t-shirts are what I would class as a bargain. I can imagine their prices much entice a lot of new custom, which is the whole point after all!

Ninety Nine Anchors T-Shirt

Another slice of utterly British surrealism, I can see King Noir gathering quite a following for their delightfully weird take on fashion. Ninety Nine Anchors features just that, except for some reason they’re dropping from a giant Victorian umbrella. I am starting to wonder if Gumm and Gilmour’s local boozer is spiking their drinks with hallucinogens. No matter what they’re drinking, it’s definitely the right poison. Perhaps the strangest nautical theme tee I’ve seen in a long long while, it’s available in white for £15 in all sizes.

Red Dead Doll T-Shirt

Loving the combo of a Russian doll and Day of The Dead art, this tee is again available in B/W and red there’s as with other shirts in the collection a ‘third eye’ peeking out of the design, and a very subtle use of the logo. A love the woodcut effect in this illustration, a great confluence between folk art and post modern grit give this t-shirt a real edge. Both colours are available for £15 each in all sizes.

Black Crown T-Shirt

The Crown tees are available in black, red and grey and feature their superbly simple yet downright strange logo. If you’re looking for bold design with no messing around then look no further. I get the notion there’s more to it though, living in Britain we’re not citizens but subjects of the Crown. We’re spied on by more cameras than any other country in the world. Two popular subjects for a lot of artists in the UK contemporary scene, this nifty combination of  two major problems blend into one gloriously tribal motif. Get this tee for £15 in all sizes.

Check out all their work including tees, badges, stickers, hats and limited edition posters at www.KingNoir.com and make sure to follow all their graphic exploits at Twitter.

A Crazy Blend Of Emulsion

admin    T-Shirt News     emulsion apparel, emulsionapparel.net, hunter, hunting, illustrated tees, illustrations, illustrator, screen printed tees

Emulsion Apparel run by Dave DiAngelis and Chris Fiftal, is located in Boston and deeply rooted in skateboard culture and art school didactic. This is a relatively new label, still finding their way in the t-shirt market. Dave asked me to take a look at the collection so far, and asides the usual logo tees that so many raw brands begin with, there’s a couple of beauts in the form of the Deerd Tee.

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!
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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

Epidemic T-Shirt by Linty Tees

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Eric Terry, art shirts, epidemic, illustrations, linty tees, retro

I love doodles, I’m not a great doodler myself, I suppose I like to refine the image and boil it down to its bare necessities, to be honest I don’t boil as much as I should with my iconography, but I do with the succinctness of the idea. It seems that the more t-shirts I find, the more I feel I have my own unique style and approach to t-shirt artwork. Most of my designs have some form of message or play on words, a simple subtext if you like, it is probably a habit I picked up at art college, but I’m glad I did. read more