Another Hole In One By Glennz

If you want a chance of winning a $30 gift certificate from the awesome t-shirt designer Glennz, purchase one of his tees and take a pic of you wearing it. Upload the photo here and you’ll be entered into the monthly draw! Make sure it’s in landscape format so Glenn Jones, (Glenn from New Zealand = Glennz) can feature it on one of his product pages. Hey you could be famous and get yourself a few more tees to boot.

Anyway, here’s the latest fab tee from Glennz called ‘Puzzled Putter’. I’m not too keen on golf but I do love the M.C Escher twist in this design… Read more

Free Your Mind at the Imaginary Foundation

ImaginaryFoundation.com’s concepts rock, a lot of them remind me of my own work at college. In the 90’s, at arts school, I was heavily influenced by the Dada movement, we didn’t just paint, make videos, installations, print etc., we also had to read (at least a few shelves of art history literature and a couple of boxes of art critique on the side). I was always into photo-montage, I started at school, at the time it was almost unheard of in South East England’s suburbia. Still, it grabbed me an ‘O’ and an ‘A’ level so I must’ve been doing something right. I have a suspicion they’re using sublimated (heat press) printing which can do wonders in the right hands, but in my heart of hearts I’d always prefer a screen printed tee (it’s merely the texture of the ink on a t-shirt that influences me). Asides that I’m rather bowled over by their incredible collection.

The greatest coup in the t-shirt world is hidden away at IF’s site, if you read their ‘about page‘ you’ll find the briefest mention of their mysterious “Director”, a 70 something über intellectual, supposedly the son of the founder of the Dadaist movement. Now without a name it’s quite tricky working out exactly who they mean, there’s still some debate about that. Checking it up at the UK’s Online Tate Gallery Archive and I quote “The founder of Dada was a writer, Hugo Ball. In 1916 he started a satirical night-club in Zürich, the Cabaret Voltaire, and a magazine which, wrote Ball, ‘will bear the name ‘Dada’. Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada.’ This was the first of many Dada publications. Dada became an international movement and eventually formed the basis of Surrealism in Paris after the war.” He did also create the Dada Manifesto. So I’m guessing it’s Mr. Ball they’re referring to. Read more

Weather Girl T-Shirt

Weather Girl T-Shirt by Paul Baines

Weather Girl is the most popular women’s t-shirt I’ve designed (so far!). I suppose I realised early on in my t-shirt design that a lot of my designs appealed to both sexes when I first started to receive comments on my work, thankfully the majority is positive, and after a while I noticed the sales for certain t-shirts including Weather Girl, Speak to the Hand and Barbie Queue were beginning to outstrip sales (especially at CafePress.com) way beyond the usual.

I hardly sell any t-shirts at RedBubble.com as with most of their members, but I’ll keep the faith and continue to promote them because they produce very high quality work and besides the community there are very supportive, if not a little brassic in the deep pockets department. Fair enough, I never entered this industry with unrealistic expectations. What Weather Girl made me realise soon is that I am creating more than a string of t-shirt designs, I’m actually building a brand. The only problem with brands is that atypically a new label will always take some hefty financing to truly make it a profitable business. Some of the major labels have taken years to get into the black. However one can always hope.

If I ever do find the right people, a decent screen-printer, a fantastic marketing wizard, I’d use examples like Weather Girl to show what a great brand we could build together. In the meantime I’ll just keep working hard to replicate the success of t-shirts like this, and hopefully for both sexes!

Weather Girl. Rain is an emotive thing. I was probably staring at the rain pouring down outside the window when I came up with this idea. That and subconscious memories of cartoons as a child, more than likely a Tex Avery piece. It’s a simple way of projecting the idea of sadness, a grey and hovering cloud over an unhappy character. I simply took the idea one step further, and in my own skewed logic felt an umbrella was more appropriate. Some have commented how French this piece looks, which still makes me wonder, does the girl look French, or the rain, or is it simply feeling blue?

Weather Girl T-Shirts from only $9.99!

Weather Girl T-Shirts T-Shirts at CafePress.com only $9.99! There are plenty of
other items available organic tees, sweatshirts and hoodies too.

Weather Girl T-Shirt at RedBubble.com available
from GBP £11.94 - USD $23.94

Get Weather Girl printed on any item
at SpreadShirt.net

Available at SpreadShirt.net for European customers and even have it printed on your choice of t-shirt here

Technorati Tags: weather girl, rain, t-shirt, art

Option-G and Cole Gerst - T-Shirts to Perfect Life’s Imperfections.

Option-G Apparel is an extension of the design firm Option-G based in Los Angeles and headed by artist extraordinaire Cole Gerst. You may have heard of him already, or seen one of his many designs on posters, paintings or prints. He has been particularly successful in the music world, where you’ll most likely recognize his works. Gerst even produces his own monthly comic strip in the LA Weekly called “LaLa Land” which features his two dogs roaming the streets of Hollywood.

Gerst has a prestigious arts background with a string of successful art shows behind him, having shown his work across had shows all over the USA as well as a retrospective show in Glasgow, Scotland of his rock posters. The t-shirt line was started as a mere sideline, simply another medium to explore his unique view of the world, and experiment with different ideas, whilst having fun with his audience. The instant feedback provided by t-shirt fans helps many creative minds in their quest to hone their skills and find perfection in their art. Option-G’s started selling to the public 4 years and since expanded into a variety of products, even wallpaper would you believe? Cole has a truly unique style, I’d describe him as the Jasper Johns of the T-Shirt World, take this design as a clear example:-

Ghetto Signage

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