Back To Basics – Print Liberation

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Print Liberation, cool shirts, political t-shirts, printliberation.com, text t-shirts, type tees, typography tees

Print Liberation break all the rules when it comes to t-shirt design, yet their range of tees deliver such a powerful punch, offering a deceptively basic typographic home-made style, which personally forces the likes of people like me to reassess exactly what makes a great tee. The truth is their simple and straightforward designs offer an alternative to the slick graphics and ideas of most of the indie market. Sure, putting it bluntly, they’re as basic as can be, which in most circumstances is a risky position to take in fashion, yet their philosophy works. In fact it shines.

When you buy a t-shirt from Print Liberation you’re buying a message, you’re opting in to an ethos that hasn’t reared it’s head in decades. Big bold upper case fonts declare their ideology like a heavyweight knock out blow to the head. Don’t expect ‘pretty’ or exuberant illustration – that just isn’t what Print Liberation are about. Don’t expect glib and throwaway sentiments either, this brand doesn’t mince their words, this brand is about as close to an ‘anti-label’ as anyone has managed to create in decades. Their home grown basic design ethic is born out of experience and need, not ambition or fashionable attitude. You get what you see, and what you see is the truth.

They offer a range betwixt the big bold and rather glib typography tees that flooded Britain in the 80’s and the highly politicised tees of the 60’s and 70’s psychedelic era. Avoiding the petty thoughts of famous bands of the time like Wham’s “Choose Life” and Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Frankie Says“, and taking on a deeper and more politicised line more suited to the revolutionary downturn of the hippie movement. Yet there’s nothing sentimental or amateur about Print Liberation’s presentation, with a total lack of pretension, their designs get to the point straight away. There’s no room for art when it comes to this label’s idea of fashion, their hard-edged design ethic tells you why and how it is the way it is. They never cushion the blow, they never ‘decorate’ the truth with illustration and a spectrum of colour. They think the way many of us think, and in turn, their customers help to spread their message.

Founded in 1999, a moment when much of the media touted the world as we knew it would end, well if the Millennium Bug had had its way, a bedraggled collective of burnt-out advertising executives decided to turn the tables on big government and big business. Using the same talents prostituted to the corporations in the name of profit, they began to brainstorm their way through to a new beginning, an new era of indie urban fashion and art. The message would always be the truth, the mechanism for delivery would be popular culture, and the ideology revolution. You’re either with them or against them, that’s just how they roll, live with it. read more

American (Political) Legends T-Shirts

admin    T-Shirt News     political t-shirts, retro campaigns, retro t-shirts, retrocampaigns.com, vintage tees

Retro Campaigns, an old favourite of the Buy Tees team, have just released three new tees to mark the beginning of a new series of presidential t-shirts, simply titled ‘American Legends’, this collection offers up a little good ol’ political nostalgia featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln himself, as well as Teddy Roosevelt, and someone I’m not familiar with (being a Brit) called William Henry Harrison, who apparently was the first showman in politics.

For those not familiar with RetroCampaigns.com you can read our previous reviews here and here. This makes our third feature on RC, perhaps we should ask for a freebie or two, and see if we can’t hold a contest for you lucky people. We’ll see. In the meantime let’s check out Abe and Teddy, oh and the other one heh…
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The Art Of Politics At RetroCampaigns.com

admin    T-Shirt News     JFK, democrat, political t-shirts, presidential, presidents, republican, retro campaigns, retrocampaigns.com

Re-imagined, digitally aged, and carefully printed on vintage-style fabric Retro Campaigns have just released another batch of past presidential campaigns for the politically nostalgic t-shirt fan. Expect more familiar names from the American role call of leaders, the good, the bad and the ugly are all present to swear their oath of allegiance to kitsch fashion on a monumental scale. Look out for new tees featuring landmark characters of the political landscape such as JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, as well as less well known campaigners such as Barry Goldwater and Adlai Stevenson.

It must say something about our present culture when politics of a bye-gone era can warm our hearts and bring a smile to our faces. Perhaps it’s simply because there was a distinct lack of marketing savvy, image branding was something you did to a cow’s rear end, and a spin doctor was more likely busy selling phony medicines and potions from the back of a car in a one-horse town than teaching the future leader of the country how to effectively ‘bend the truth’ to his own advantage. Don’t get me wrong, politicians were always crooked, in fact I prefer the ones who lie about who they bedded and where than those who decide to lead a country up the garden path without a by nor leave, ending their term halfway through a bloody war, recession, political cover-up, or a rather brutal combination of all three.

The truth is no one person is in charge these days, besides the fact we live and die to serve a so-called global market, hence the constant hand-shaking and brow furrowing of just about every leader in the world, but beyond that it’s the corporate world, or rather the few that own the lion share of the remaining profitable corporations in the world. They call the shots. The president of the USA, no matter what his or her name or colour of their skin, and every other president and prime-minister of the democratic world serve the money men, and charge us for the privilege. If there’s money to made then some faceless billionaire or other is sure to back a political (marketing) campaign to the hilt, but always under certain conditions, be it corporate taxes, citizenship, or turning a blind eye to environmental damage, for instance. Still, we always have the soft focus of rose-tinted nostalgia to help us take our minds off the state of the world today, so let’s take a dip back into the corny campaigns of presidents past, and smile at the naivet√© of what was once considered state-of-the-art political coercion. read more

Proletarian Threads – Come The Revolution!

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Anti Bush, anarchist, anarchy, eco tees, fair trade, liberal, liberal tees, political t-shirts, politics, proletarian threads, proletarianthreads.com

Come the revolution there’s only one place I’d recommend buying your t-shirts – if it doesn’t go against your Marxist principles – and that’s ProletarianThreads.com. Now as many of you might have guessed I’m a bit of a lefty myself, an all-round trouble maker and I have always had a soft spot for those with similar leanings. PT tick all the right boxes for me, and then some, they produce and sell some of the snazziest sweatshop-free, political, feminist and generally revolutionary t-shirts this side of The New World Order, and this side being the losing side (for the time being anyway).

If you want to guarantee avoiding being lined up against the nearest wall and shot by a revolutionary firing line, should the day come that the world governments finally lose it and the people rise up and take back everything they can get their hands on, including their human rights, land, and the means of production from the Bourgeoisie then PT is probably a good bet. Although I’m not as hot on Marxist theory as I was in my student days I’m sure that PT count as part of the merchant classes and hence members of the bourgeoisie but I wouldn’t hold that against them, I mean who actually toils in the fields these days, that’s what combine harvesters are for aren’t they?

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There’s a Revolution Going on Down at Ban T-Shirts

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     ban t-shirts, cool tees, organic cotton t-shirts, organic t-shirts, political t-shirt, political t-shirts, political tshirts, politics, revolution

For those who think that politics is boring you’ve got another think coming, it’s your future, nay your destiny; it’s the only way that we the people will ever be able to have a say in our collective lives, and seeing how much of Western political dogma has leant towards the far-right over the past decade or two, you have to make a protest where you can. Because, and keep this between you and me, if you rub the government up the wrong you can and expect at least a four year police operation on your back checking your every move and utterance.

For all the freedom that technology has brought us you have to admit that there have been some massive downsides to our information revolution, including the slow coaches in government catching on to ‘this thing called the Internet’. Essentially CCTV Britain doesn’t let you sneeze without recording it on some secret database or other, and i won’t even start on America, however let’s just say if you mention Iraq or terrorism in a phone call then you’re on their hot list, besides the fact that I very much doubt any of us are about to lay waste to civilisation, the alternative is a barcoded subsistence of mutual fear and conformity.

Now if you’re still with me and are at this very moment fidgeting as you wait for a less ethereal revolution to come your way, you might want to check out the offerings at BanT-Shirts.com, a site that provides a chink of light, a hope of fashionable resistance against the underwhelming moral minority that have little to look forward to except a turnaround in the world economy and their graves.

If you’re not a faceless follower of the mainstream media, and you want to shake up your community with a pithy yet pertinent message, then Ban T-Shirts organic cotton t-shirts have a collection that could help you on your way to becoming a socially acceptable political agitator. Ban T-Shirts offer a range of superb selection of printed on the finest brands of American made sweat shop free T-shirts including American Apparel; Royal Apparel and Organic Apparel. read more

Political T-Shirt Elections at CollarFree.com

admin    T-Shirt News     McCain, Obama, US Elections, collarfree, collarfree.com, crowdsourcing, political t-shirts, us politics, usa

CollarFree.com are on a mission to make politics ‘more friendly’ and I wish them all the luck in the world, but I have a sneaking feeling they will be in a minority. On a commercial level I can completely understand what they’re doing, they don’t want to cut their target audience in half, i.e anyone in the world who both buys t-shirts and has a political opinion, which is quite a few I’d surmise.

However most people with a political opinion don’t particularly like the opposition, I doubt that many Americans out there who’d vote for Obama would have any kind words for McCain and vice-versa. The truth is electoral politics lives and breathes the antagonism of difference, without it the debate becomes stale, although it could be said that parties in power immediately switch to a politics of indifference in an effort to avoid being torn apart by the arguments of an unsatisfied and even angry electorate. I can’t think of a single political campaign that hasn’t sunk to the depths of bickering, sniping, and personal insults that CF obviously want to avoid. read more

Robit – Built by Humans – Powered by Spirits

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Death, US government, cold war, illustration, irony, nostalgia, political t-shirts, political tees, retro, robot t-shirt, robots, terror, vector

T-shirts of a tortured soul? Perhaps not quite, but going on the biography Steve Orlando of Robit Studios is not a happy man, I quote “What is a Robit? A mechanical man with an void in his middle. it’s like a robot only simpler. This particular Robit was created by a four year old. It’s fuelled by distilled spirits.”

I’d venture to say there’s a bitter-sweet theme that runs through all of Steve’s works, a quality I find both reassuringly honest and revealing, especially when put in the context of his fine collection of unique and pithy t-shirt designs. All of his tees are fair trade, 100% cotton American Apparel, hand-printed and highly original for the most part, so it’s well worth taking a gander the next time you’re passing.

Steve’s outlook on life may be on the dour side, but he still has a great sense of humour, I really think he should be British, we’re all like that over here, except the Scottish who are just dour, (I jest, we’re all miserable bleeders over here, especially since we haven’t had a Summer this year (or not one that you’d notice). Talking of the weather… read more

New Designs From The Past at Retro Campaigns

admin    T-Shirt News     JFK, Obama, Reagan, Thatcher, War, political t-shirts, politics tshirts, retro campaigns, retro political tee, retro t-shirts, retrocampaigns.com

RetroCampaigns.com have added new political campaign t-shirt designs to their collection, featuring ex-presidents JFK and Reagan amongst others. Retro Campaigns, Inc. is a small, Los Angeles-based company, whose aim is to recall unique characters from American politics, with style and fun. All of their designs are printed on high-quality, sweat-shop free American Apparel shirts and notably, a portion of their profits are donated to a very worthy cause at SaveDarfur.org.

Again they’re featuring some US political icons from the past, it would be nice to see them expand their horizons and venture beyond the shores of America, perhaps it’s all down to supply and demand, I know that Margaret Thatcher (ex UK PM) has had as much influence on political history as Ronald Reagan, in fact they were close allies and friends for many years, and even Ronnie remarked upon the importance of Britain’s first female Prime Minister on the world stage. Even today, at least in a majority of European political circles, the term ‘Thatcherism‘ is still widely used to describe the trend towards privatisation of most privatisation of public services and infrastructure, entrepreneurialism in a perspective of the aggregation of personal wealth and self-responsibility, be it on an economic level or one’s interaction within society and state.

I grew up through the Reagan/Thatcher years, and learned to hate that time, it was oppressive, materialistic, politically paranoid and filled with grand gesture which in the long run failed to achieve much. The Star Wars Program was one example of Reagan the actor ousting Reagan the politician, another was the Falklands War and in particular the furore surrounding the sinking of the Belgrano overridden by a cult of personality, a more sophisticated circle of political pr experts and high economic forecasts for the UK at the time. But the worst of all must have been the infamous recording of Ronald Reagan announcing the beginning of WW3 for a laugh. Prior to his weekly radio address on August 11 1984, Reagan uttered this on what he assumed was not a live microphone. “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” read more

Obama: Live Long and Prosper

admin    T-Shirt News     Barack Obama, Barack T-Shirt, Live Long and Prosper, Obama T-Shirts, Spock, Star Trek, US Elections, political t-shirts

Obama : Prosper T-Shirt by Paul Baines

Live Long and Prosper With Obama! Yes yet again I am submitting another design to Threadless.com – it’s almost like a lottery to me, taking a punt, a gamble on my own talents. Threadless are asking for political t-shirts whilst the US political elections are running and so I thought I’d chip in. Besides I was inspired by the tees I featured at Thriving Ink and thought what the hell.

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New T-Shirts On The Block – Politicians and Babies.

admin    T-Shirt News     Anti Bush, Democrat T-Shirt, Iraq, McCain, Obama, Obama tees, Threadless, War, babies, political t-shirt contest, political t-shirts, politicians, politicians kissing babies, republican, t-shirt contest, threadless.com

I’ve a rather diverse selection of tee news for you today, starting with a few Barack Obama t-shirts available at ThrivingInk.com. Before you ask, I would feature McCain tee shirts here if they were as funky as Thriving Ink’s, but I somehow doubt that Republicans would want to wear anything as out there as these (first two) beauties. I do lean towards Obama for obvious reasons, the world oil crisis which has worsened so much more since the initial attack on Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and the travesty of the Iraq war as a whole, plus the fact that Obama looks awake! read more