Zigelstyle Tees

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Zigel, Zigelstyle, illsutrated tees, retro t-shirts, screen printed t-shirts, screen printed tees

Zigel is a nickname for Gideon, a budding entrepreneur and t-shirt designer behind the label Zigelstyle which itself was thought up during a bus ride in 2006. After a period of in-house designs the label decided to hook up all of its t-shirt connections and create a showcase of indie tee designs and accessories arranged in a series of themes. Zigelstyle covers a broad church of artistic influences including technology, biology, fantasy, sci-fi and pop.They’ve a few themed collections on offer now including “T-shirts with a Story” and “T-Shirts for Thinking People”. Every tee is made of 100% combed cotton, and all are screen printed.

I’d say the site needs some work, but nonetheless there are some great designs on offer, all available in sizes S-XL, prices ranging between $18 and $30. Here are a few of my favourites:

Heart of Darkness Tee

I’m not sure what the book “Heart of Darkness” which inspired the Vietnam classic Appocalypse Now has to do with Tiki heads, but still a nice comic style rendition all the same.

Rib Cage Tee

I’m not sure if this is an original drawing, it could be an illustrated plate from an antique, either way it’s a great image for a t-shirt. Nice little twist too, although I’d have probably called it the “X-ray Tee”. Still, cool.

3D Popcorn Tee

Eye-boggling. A real nice retro feel to this one. Probably not the best shirt to wear during a hangover, but great fun all the same.

Old Fisherman Tee

A really nice composition, rather simple for my taste but the concept is totally sound. I always appreciate designs that try and “break out of the box” which you used to find on a lot of mainstream tees. I’d have like to have seen a great big fish on the back though ;)

I’d say the label has promise but it still needs some work, I’d cut the vector designs with a lot more detail, remove all the backgrounds from the product images at the store, clean up the site design and work on some stronger branding. On the positive side there’s definitely some talent lurking around at Zigelstyle, plus the prints are of good quality (I always prefer screen printed shirts).

See all the tees at www.zigelstyle.com.

Frog Faced Souply

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     British tees, Frog Faced Souply, Scottish t-shirts, fair trade, original, screen printed tees

Here’s another new kid on the block, Frog  Faced Souply, straight off you know they’re serious about their tees, the site is smart, the name is mad, and the designs are hot to trot. In case you’re still scratching your head about the name well… ‘souply’ is an old colloquialism for the word ‘supply in a supple manner’ (I’m none the wiser either) and the frog face, well that could be anyone. Still, who cares, it’s a cool name for a brand and that’s all that matters.

So, they’ve decided to launch at the very end of the summer, not the best time to do it but with the 24/7 365 days a year online world at their fingertips it shouldn’t hold them back too much. It’s run by a talented and very friendly couple Gary and Louise from their base in Hamilton, Scotland, a true cottage industry indeed, or should that be croft? They’re probably working from a spanking new industrial unit but it’s nice to dream of them weaving their own cloth by a loch with deer tapping at the door for a little bread and gravy. Sorry, Chris is away for a few days at Bestival in I.O.W so I’m feeling a little poetic and forlorn today.

Anyway, on with the tees, there are three available right now and they are, I promise you, blinding designs, definitely a great start to what could be a rather exciting collection. Every tee is fair trade and is screen printed by hand and they’re offering an amazingly competitive shipping rate, a flat fee of £3 anywhere in the world. Wow.

Crash! Boom! Blat! Tee

There’s definitely a cultural/age crossover going on between Gary and myself. I too read the Beano in my most formative years, although I quickly defected to Marvel and DC, comics like Viz definitely revived the British “funnies” tradition in the world of comics. The Crash! Boom! Blat! Tee celebrates the under appreciated art of the comic book sound effect. When something does it’s job well, most people ignore it, it feels so natural you don’t think twice about it. This is one of those instances. I for one have always recognised the powerful iconography of this near “invisible” art form. A nostalgic graphic bonanza available for £22 in all sizes at the store.

Diamonds Tee

I was born a year after the release of the legendary Beatles album ‘Sergeant Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band’, my parents were very very young and my earliest memories are of SPLHCB being played over and over again. I did something very similar with Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ in my teens, although that involved consuming something stronger than Farley’s Rusks. FFS (the brand’s acronym explains everything) offer up a very appealing semi-abstract design influenced by the classic tripper tune ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’, John denied the association with acid (L.S.D) but come on, just listen to it and tell me it isn’t. The Diamonds Tee does two things I love, and at the same time, it’s the ultimate visual mash up printed on a cotton tee. Taking inspiration from the tripped out hippy culture and mixing it up with vector graphics synonymous with arcade games of the early 80′s (a la Asteroids, Tempest etc.). This t-shirt rocks, and then some. Get it for £22 in all sizes here.

Girls Girls Girls Tee

Nothing to do with the awful Mötley Crüe hit this sexy number offers more than first meets the eye. Ooh cheeky. If you want to shock your mum, once she’s found her reading glasses and inspected your washing, then this is the tee for you. It might not help you pull on the dance floor but you will earn the respect of other drunken pervs at the bar :p Seriously well drawn, beautifully in fact, it looks like this was originally an ink ‘n’ wash drawing. Far classier than the subject implies… Get it for £22 in all sizes here.

Keep up to date with all the goings on at Frog Faced Souply at their blog, Facebook and Twitter.

Win An Oliver Hibert Ouroboros Box Set

admin    T-Shirt News     LTD TEE, Oliver Hibert, art shirts, box set, contest, limited edition t-shirts, limited editions, screen printed tees

This is the second box set I’ve written about in a week, and to be honest I think it’s a great leap forward. I’ve always upheld the notion that t-shirts are art, and involving more and more prominent artists for commissioned art and t-shirts is a great combo. If we love to wear it why wouldn’t we want it on our walls? LTD Tee have collaborated with the fabulous psychedelic artist Oliver Hibert for their latest offer, an outstanding box set entitled Ouroboros. Based on the mythical self-consuming creature that is Ouroboros or Uroborus, a fantastic vintage pop design that extends this Ancient Greek symbol into something trippier than ever before.

What’s really exciting about this release is that you can enter enter to win an Oliver Hibert ORIGINAL Sketch, and will receive a set of free LTD Tee stickers and t-shirts. Yes, you read right, to celebrate their launch LTD Tee is giving away a free box set which includes an original sketch by Oliver Hibert!  Everyone who enters to win the set will also receive free stickers by JThree Concepts, MCA / Evil Design and Oliver Hibert and will be entered into their weekly drawing for free t-shirts! Even better than that you can get a generous 10% off the full price by including the code “buy-tees” at the checkout!!!

Ouroboros T-Shirt

Even the custom screen-printed box is gorgeous

The Ourobros box set includes the following:

• High quality, screen printed t-shirt
• 8” x 10” art print
• Custom screen printed box
• Artist bio on both the box and neck label
• Sticker pack

It is available for men and women in all sizes at $24.99, which I have to admit looks like a major bargain to me considering all the work that has gone into it! You will have to hurry though, it’s first come first served as far as LTD Tee are concerned and the offer ends in just another 12 days.

LTD Tee is a brand new online pop art clothing company which pays a great deal of care and attention to its products. They feel very much as I do that t-shirts are a medium for artistic expression and inspiration and they have backed up their ideology by handpicking only the best in contemporary artists including future design releases by the likes of David Flores, Camilla D’Errico, MCA / Evil Design, JThree Concepts and MW. This is most certainly a label to keep an eye out for, exciting times are ahead.

The countdown is ticking, if you fancy owning an Oliver Hibert tee, print and sticker set rush on over to www.ltdtee.net today.

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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