Loviu Sale

admin    T-Shirt Discounts, T-Shirts     Loviu, Threadless, graphic tees, t-shirt design, vote t-shirts

Tee community Loviu are holding a sale all next week, all their winning tees will be reduced from $18 to $15 beginning Midnight Sunday. Here’s a selection to give you a taster.

Music – Since The Earth Formed An Atmosphere Tee

Is it me or are t-shirt titles getting longer and longer? Nice Fairey style print designed by Lucas de Alcântara. $15 each in next week’s sale in sizes S-XL for guys and girls.

Donald F#%k Tee

Mickey’s famous stooge having the last laugh just as the bomb drops. Nicely nasty. $15 each in next week’s sale in sizes S-XL for guys and girls. Designed by Diogo Machado.

WingedNaut Tee

I love astronaut art, I’m actually working on an astronaut piece myself at the mo’. This is so cool, they’ve sold out of small sizes for guys otherwise all other sizes available. Designed by SABAS.

Whilst I’m at it I thought I’d try and see if my controversial We Heart You Tee could even last a day at Loviu. If you fancy helping me out (got a quid for a cuppa’ mister?) then a vote for my submission would be lurverly!

We Heart You Tee

Here’s my own design submission – it’s all about the sweat trade. Vote for it here.

More?

Loviu Tees

admin    T-Shirt Contests, T-Shirt Reviews     Loviu, Threadless, t-shirt community, t-shirt contest, t-shirt design, tee competition

Loviu is another new t-shirt community that’s well worth checking out, especially if you’re a designer or artist! Check these juicy prizes out for starters:

• €5K total in prizes!
• €3K Grand Prize (wowzers!)
• €1K 1st Runner Up
• €500 2nd Runner Up
• €500 3nd Runner Up
• As you can guess by the Euros it’s a European company (Slovakia as it happens!), the site is in beta right now and the first winner will be announced in 5th March 2011 (which gives you tons of time for tons of submissions), they plan to print one unique limited edition screen printed tee collection every 24 hours and sell them at 12 Euros each. Here’s a few designs in the running right now:

Dancing Goblin Tee by Cryface

HELLevision Tee by adamg

CRUSH Tee by Jason Byron Nelson

Harry Rotter Tee by Wilzon

They’re the best right now, but damn, that’s still a really high standard (gulp).

Luuk

admin    T-Shirt Designers     Australian tees, Luke Chiswell, Luuk, art shirts, art t-shirts, t-shirt design

Luuk aka Luke Chiswell is an Australian artist and tee designer as well as a rather elusive character. There’s very little info out there on Luuk but his t-shirts really caught my eye and so I thought I’d share. First off the featured shirts are only available at a few Australian and NZ retail outlets (which I’ll list at the end of the post) but even if you’re not an Antipodean it’s still a little eye candy for you all. I love the style, beautifully simplistic and off-the-wall humour combine to create a rather outstanding selection of novel t-shirt designs.

However much I love elaborate illustration the truth is Luuk really has got the knack of what t-shirt design should be about. Immediate, eye-catching, solid design with a strong visual impact that lingers somewhat in the memory. Take a look at these, and if you do know of any more retail outlets outside of Oz and NZ then let me know and I will add them to the list!

Here are the stockists:

Host Your Own T-Shirt Design Contest?

admin    T-Shirt Articles, T-Shirt Contests, T-Shirt News     99designs, T-Shirt Contests, Threadless, t-shirt design, t-shirt design competition

I received a rather exciting email from Eddie Miles at 99designs.com yesterday and it didn’t take me long to clock what all the commotion is about. 99designs is offering anyone the chance to hold their own t-shirt design contest starting at the very reasonable price of $211 per project. 99designs.com is already big on the net, they’re way up there in traffic ratings, but even they’ve noticed a massive spike since introducing the service.

“We’ve been having several tee designers and tee stores crowdsourcing their ideas and inspiration through our design community instead of doing it themselves. ..now that anyone with a general idea of business (not creativity) can start a tee line.”

There’s the beauty of the service, anyone can start a highly popular t-shirt brand, no more begging to commission top designers from sites like Threadless, now they will come to you! 99designs will help you host a “design contest” where thousands of designers compete to create a design you love, or your money back! Here’s how it all works:-

Any T-Shirt You Want For $5!

admin    T-Shirt Designers, T-Shirt News     cheap t-shirts, fiverr, freelance t-shirt designers, t-shirt design, t-shirt printing

Here’s a great offer from Babble Tees (a t-shirt focused art collective based in Hennepin, IL.), I found it on this superb site called Fiverr.com where anyone and everyone in the world can get just about any online service or product you could imagine for $5 including postage (guess that’s to the USA and Canada though). I’ve bought a few links and a little bit of social marketing for my art already, so I know it’s worth it. But as you’d expect the first thing I searched when I got to Fiverr was, you guessed it, “T-Shirts”, and I came up with this blinding offer.

Babbletees: I will make a print of your original drawing on a t-shirt and mail it to you for $5

There are plenty more at Fiverr.com including these…

jonard12: I will make a TSHIRT Design for $5

aa45: I will design a tshirt for you for $5

Imsaschalove: I will design professional cd artwork/ tshirt design for $5

vixinvin: I will design a tshirt for you or your business for $5

hillthread: I will create a screen print t-shirt design for you in Adobe Photoshop/Adobe Illustrator for $5
Justin0101: I will design a t-shirt for you, tailored to your event, cause, business, etc. for $5
tjanebutler: I will design a tshirt for you! for $5
dragao: I will print a tshirt for $5

Check out all the rest of the t-shirt offers at Fiverr.com.

This T-Shirt Sucks

admin    T-Shirt News     employment, funny t-shirt, graphic design, jobs, t-shirt design, working in the t-shirt industry

Here’s a funny little addition to the Buy Tees archives. Nikols Kurobasa contacted me yesterday and asked for some advice regarding what I gather is a t-shirt design job (or maybe a graphic design position – never got the full lowdown), basically a little confidence boosting was in order and for good reason. Nikols attached a rather hilarious design proposal and I had to share it with you.

This was the second of two designs, the first being illustrative, this one was created in order to show Nikols’ conceptual prowess and it really hits the mark when it comes to the humour department. Check out ‘This T-Shirt Sucks’ by Nikols Kurobasa. read more

T-Shirt Mash Ups @ Nonsek

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Ames Bros., Nonsek, limited edition t-shirt, nonsek machine, nonsek.com, remixing t-shirts, t-shirt design, t-shirt wysiwyg, unique tees

Life is getting more interactive every day, more and more companies are fighting hard to allay the fears of the recession, offering customised and personalised products to relieve the consumer doldrums. You name it someone somewhere can offer you that something little extra, gold plated and monogrammed iPods, pick your own toppings and sauces at a string of high street restaurants, cars with all the accessories and upgrades imaginable, if you can buy it, someone is selling a better version out there.

The t-shirt industry has gone through a similar reinvention over the last decade, with more and more people adept at graphic design, mainly down to advances in all sorts of software, sites like Cafepress and Spreadshirt have turned their attention to personalised tees. Essentially giving you a chance to upload your own images to almost anything, be it tees, sweats, hoodies, even cups and mouse-mats. But there’s a problem, rather a big problem in fact, and that is that the vast majority of people out there neither have the inclination or the time to both create and design their own t-shirts, they’d like to have some input, mixing like a DJ, rather than performing like a singer-songwriter. The truth is most people want to have a little fun, experience a more entertaining shopping experience, and as a result create and buy an original shirt they’d be proud to wear. Not spend hours on end scribbling out their ideas and hoping for the best.

This third way, an interactive t-shirt design and shopping experience without the tedium of using graphic design software, which is on offer at Nonsek.com. Their unique service, and I mean, there really is no other like it out there right now, draws on a vast resource of great t-shirt ideas, art by artists with a true sense of imagination, and lets you mix them up, again and again if needed, until you’ve created the perfect tee for that gig, club, vacation or simply to lounge around and impress the other half.

Nonsek offers a very simple navigational system, there’s a choice of artist channels, or for the more adventurous the Nonsek Machine which in essence remixes your favourite designs and artists into something truly special. This site offers a great opportunity for both t-shirt artists and fans to really have some fun, and don’t worry, you won’t be trawling through pages of junk (as you might at say Cafepress) to find something you like!

Instead of the usual Buy Tees review, I’m going to show you through the process of remixing your own tee at Nonsek, let’s get mashing! read more

Matthew Skiff @ Randr Tees

admin    T-Shirt News     Matthew Skiff, RANDR, Randrtees.com, Skiff, T-Shirt Designers, limited edition t-shirts, t-shirt design

You may remember our post about a RandrTees.com sale back in June, well it seems that Randr have been taking the leap into the world of limited edition t-shirt production. What’s most exciting about their new direction is that the first artist they’ve teamed up with for the project is the celebrated t-shirt designer and illustrator Matthew Skiff. Teehunter.com who specialise in interviews with the greats in the teedustry conducted a great interview with Skiff back in June that’s well worth reading!

Skiff has worked with many notable bands and t-shirt brands such as Panic At The Disco, 410 BC, Family Force 5, Electric Zombie and many others, his skills are well renowned amongst those in the know, both within the business and fans alike. His influences range from kid’s cartoons to horror, the skater culture, in fact you name it it’s probably in there, but always with that slight classic Stan Lee style you’d more expect to see in a vintage X-Men issue.

Now Randr Tees have managed to get Skiff to work his magic for them, and as you’d rightly expect, with some stunning results. What’s more right now Randr are giving away a free matching belt (designed by Skiff) with each and every limited edition tee and are even holding a freebie contest. A grand give away for a top prize of each shirt from their upcoming Series (7 shirts in total). Plus two second prize winners will also receive 3 shirts each, selected randomly from the series. To be eligible, order before 10/18/09 for your chance to win! Winners to be announced on 10/25. read more

My Designs For Antiphrase

admin    T-Shirt News     Body Electric, Paul Baines, Viral Society, art shirts, graffiti, new tees, t-shirt design, t-shirt designs

In case you’re interested in what I do asides blog my heart out then check out these two designs I have completed for Antiphrase, a French art shirt label with a fair share of artistic credence when it comes to the European graffiti scene. I’m supposed to create 3 designs for them (at the very least), they’ll be setting up my own sub-store on completion of the 3rd and will also begin selling my work via their retail boutique in France, which will be opening in September.

As you might expect, my designs aren’t going to be your run-of-the-mill t-shirts, I am after all an all out weirdo, artistically I probably hark from another dimension, still they seem to think there will be a market for my work. Still here’s a preview of what’s to come at Antiphrase.fr in the near future! read more

The Temperature’s Rising At Hotlife

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Frankie Says, MikeC, band tees, emptees, funny t shirts, hotlife, illustration, livingthehotlife.com, punk, skater, skater tees, t-shirt design

Recently MikeC of www.LivingTheHotlife.com contacted me and demanded to send me a couple of sample tees, as you might or might know I am one of the few t-shirt reviewers who doesn’t require freebies, but he was pretty insistent, he wanted to make sure I knew first hand exactly how high the quality of his products stands up, and I’m telling you, it’s up there with the best. It’s not just the100% organic fair trade tees he prints on, which are incredibly soft by the way, but the designs themselves are incredibly well drawn and fantastically ‘clean’. Mike is obviously an old hand at illustration, I took a peek at his biography on his rather hilarious FAQ page and found a few gems to help warm you to this relatively underground label:-

So HOTLIFE is designed exclusively by MCHC Art/Designs? Absolutely, 100% hand drawn by MikeC himself.That way you know you’ve got an 100% original design. Lots of “designers” like to take clip art and add a photo shop filter and pass it off as a design…we would rather make something thats unique and rad.

I’m pretty sure 90% of my wardrobe is made up of designs by MCHC already, what bands and such has he worked with? Thousands of bands, too many to mention, but Thinkfast! Records, Victory Records, Acacia Strain, A Day to Remember, Hawthorne Heights, Madball, All Shall Perish, Mychildren Mybride, Between the Buried and Me, Salt The Wound, Bishop, Emmure, Catch 22, & Kill Your Idols, just to name a few.

Now that’s a lot of bands! Hotlife have a strong connection with the music scene, if you fancy upping the stakes and making your own band’s image a little more hardcore then you can commission Mike’s talent as a t-shirt designer via his Myspace page. He even helps promote the bands he works with by graciously featuring their latest gigs at Hotlife’s news page.

It’s difficult to categorize Mike’s style, his illustrative style is strong, very strong, and even though there are reminders for me of punk and thrash, biker and tattoo imagery, there are two distinct qualities to his work that makes it rise above the competition. Firstly, as mentioned earlier, his drawing technique is fabulously clean, he actually draws everything by hand as you can tell, his line is fluid and flowing, the compositions spot on, I’m sure this guy must have been doodling throughout every spare minute of his life. Apart from the trained eye and hand co-ordination, there’s the humour, his sense of fun is infectious, one of the first tees to jump out at me was his interpretation of Frankenstein’s Monster in Frankie Says Relax. Which for me is hilarious, as was the original band that came up with that tune, although the latter wasn’t entirely intentional.

I’ll start by reviewing the tees Mike sent me, I’d have got my cute GF to pose but she’s up to her neck in work today, so I’m afraid you get the ugly guy instead of the babe. Still the designs should more than compensate!

read more