Loviu Sale
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.
Tee-Issue
Tee-Issue is a t-shirt community with a difference, they’re guided by a series of values, and noble ones at that. “Love. Freedom. Dreams. Children’s rights. Environmental preservation.” For all those who wear their heart on their sleeve, perhaps its time to consider wearing it on your chest. If you’d like to jump in at the deep end and share Tee-Issue’s love of storytellling and moral highground, have a strong design background and want to get involved then contact them at designs@tee-issue.com.
If you’d rather do a little shopping then check out these shirts, ranging from $35 to $40 each and in various cuts and sizes, there is a naive yet rather charming range of designs on offer.
Swing Not Wii Tee
Get this cutie (for the ladies) in sizes S-L for $35. Funny thing about the Wii, why don’t they just connect it to an exercise machine and get it over with – or at the very least add a few pounds weight to that controller :p
Spring Fling Tee
Is a Spring Fling something like a holiday fling? It seems to be mandatory if you’re a Brit in Ibiza. Ah well, nice tee, cool style too, get this unisex shirt for $35 in sizes S-L.
A Sip of Love Tee
A gorgeous ladies tee, this and the next are printed on both sides hence the price hike. Great value all the same. Rather French in appearance which would probably go down well in St. Tropez, then again you’d probably be wearing a Monokini :0 Ladies can get their sip of love for $40 in sizes S-L.
Mirror Tee
Mirror is very childlike in style and character, but the overall composition leans towards the profound. Something like a Bergman scene painted by a kindergarten Picasso. This and most of the tees at Tee-Issue definitely evoke a more painterly style. Very refreshing! $40 in sizes S-L.
See the rest at www.tee-issue.com.
Loviu Up and Running
Excuse the late news but as you might know, I’ve actually taken a break this Xmas (phew). Loviu have over 200 t-shirt designs up for the voting stages at their brand spanking new t-shirt community based in Slovakia. There are a couple of beauts up for sale two, one for the next 24(ish) hours and the other for a week…
Griffin Tee
The beautifully drawn (almost like an old Mexican woodcut) Griffin Tee by Gaunty is on offer now for $12 each. S-XL for girls and guys.
Mr Myself Tee
A cute and bubbly style shirt by mon’ry is on offer for the week at $18 each. S-XL for girls and guys.
Get voting for the next one at www.loviu.com!
Loviu Tees
admin 
T-Shirt Contests, T-Shirt Reviews 
Loviu, Threadless, t-shirt community, t-shirt contest, t-shirt design, tee competitionLoviu 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).
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 competitionI 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:-
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Launch your design contest
Create a design brief which is simply a clear outline of what you need designed. Post your brief to 99designs and set your prize amount.
Collaborate with the designers
Designers then submit concepts to compete for your prize. Be sure to provide continual feedback to help the designers deliver a concept you love!
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Choose your favorite design
At the completion of your contest, you’ll need to pick your favorite design and award the prize. You’ll then receive the final design along with copyright to the original art work.
There are a whole heap of contests going on now here, if you’re a designer this maybe your chance to make it big, become a regular winner and you’ll be in great demand. Plus the odds on winning are far better than vast crowdsourcing sites like Threadless!
Are T-Shirt Communities A Rip-Off?
admin T-Shirt Articles Design By Humans, T-Shirt Designers, Teextile, Threadless, cafepress, crowdsourcing, spreadshirt, t-shirt communitiesI love t-shirts, that should be pretty much apparent to anyone who reads this blog, and I alongside a vast majority of fans of t-shirt arts was excited by the development of Threadless and other t-shirt communities out there across the world. But, and it’s a big but, as with almost all business sectors, there’s good practice, bad practice, and quite a wide range in between. Now, I know how it feels to be ripped off, we have all, in our lives from time to time, experienced a “poor deal” at the very least, and sometimes downright theft. There are charlatans across the globe, pervading all kinds of product and service based industries, who’s sole intention is to grab your money and run. Fortunately the vast majority of companies realise that without long term customer loyalty there’s little chance of them going on a “rip off” rampage and getting away with it, not including those that have almost sole or shared monopoly of a retail sector, banking being a good example of bad practice.
As with the rest of the business world, the t-shirt sector has its “bad apples”, one of the first to come to my attention following an initially positive review here at Buy Tees was Teextile.com. They still remain the worst offenders in poor if not non-existent customer service, sending out t-shirts late, sometimes never at all, and even neglecting to pay their designers. Today I received another comment at my post Teextile – A Rip Off? which highlights all the crimes and misdemeanours of this relatively young venture into the world of t-shirt crowdsourcing. Here’s what the designer Warren Hart had to say on the matter:
“I let them use one of my designs ( SLF ryu shirt ) (http://www.fourninjas.com/shop/product/1006828) to sell in January of 2010. They have yet to pay me a dime for the amount of shirts they sold. In total they owe me about $300. For months I’ve asked and asked for my money and nothing. Just one sob story after another. They were quite rude to me as well. Now they don’t even respond. P.S. Tanga.com have ripped off my design as well.“
A few days ago I also received a comment from a reader complaining about the French t-shirt community site Wordans.com:
“Wordans has very poor business skills! I ordered shirts for a festival I was attending, their web-site claimed it would take 5-10 days and it took my shirts over 16 business days to reach me. When I cancelled my order they said they would not give my money back and I should have put a rush on my order even though I ordered with more than sufficient time!“
Now, despite the awful example of Teextile, perhaps the most crooked and conceited t-shirt community on record (read these comments to see why!), I might be blowing things out of proportion. Although I have a suspicion that most t-shirt buyers experiencing problems with customer service and shipping times may simply be on the receiving end of companies that are a victim of their own success. For every Threadless, Design By Humans, Cafepress and Spreadshirt out there, obversely there are dozens (if not hundreds) of failing t-shirt companies and ‘Print On Demand’ t-shirt sites, and it’s simply a matter of under-manning and underfunding. Without enough staff and a decent contingency fund there’s little most t-shirt companies, or any company for that matter, can do when demand outstrips supply.
Then again, I’d like to see a single instance of say a car designer, a commercial architect, or a governmental advisor in a quango who hasn’t received monies for their services. The truth is that certain t-shirt communities out there are getting a very bad reputation amongst designers, far worse than they will have garnered through a dissatisfied clientèle. Without design, the lifeblood of all t-shirt communities, there is no community, there are no t-shirts, no customers, no profits, absolutely zilch. It seems extremely short-sighted for any company, no matter what they sell, to cheat their own designers, do they think we are all fools?
The time is at hand, I believe, to stand up against the commercial bullies, the cheats, the crooks and the thieves in the t-shirt industry, and the best place to start is with the current worst offenders, Teextile.com.
Above is a button to include on your own blog, site, or social network page if you want to help stop this ever pervading problem. If you wish you can link to this post or http://buy-tees.net/2010/03/teextile-a-rip-off
or not, the choice is yours. I simply think it would be a good idea to make it clear that we’re not going to take this s*** off any t-shirt community again. In the UK we have something called Trading Standards that to a degree can guarantee customer rights, along with our own Statutory rights. In America the best they can offer is the Better Business Bureau which seems to be something of a voluntary organisation with little legal clout and a tendency to ignore those companies that haven’t signed up to their register. Useless.
What we really need is an independent body, funded by all the major t-shirt sites as mentioned before, i.e Threadless, DBH, Cafepress, Spreadshirt etc. This body would essentially provide a seal of approval for new and old t-shirt communities, including a ratings system that is recognised world-wide by the industry and the buying public. The ball is in their court now, who knows, if we all stand together on this it might just happen.
Digging That Mathiole
admin T-Shirt Designers, T-Shirt Reviews Art Nouveau, Mathiole.Matheus Lopes Castro, Threadless, mucha lucha, t-shirt designer, wrestlingMathiole aka Matheus Lopes Castro has done it yet again and won himself another place of pride at Threadless.com with his latest and rather beautiful t-shirt titled Mucha Lucha. Which is no surprise to those who know of his work, he’s currently has 20 designs in print at Threadless.com which is rather phenomenal in itself. What’s even more impressive is his scope for ideas and styles, many of his tees vary wildly from each other, and for those not in the know it’s not always to tell who the artist behind the design is, perhaps a sign of supreme artistic confidence, but definitely a great habit creatively. If you want to delve into the world of Mathiole I’d recommend his Flickr page which is jam packed with beautiful illustrations. Anyway here’s that latest winning t-shirt design…
Mucha Lucha Tee
Now come on, you have to admit it, this is bloody beautiful! Matheus has taken his inspiration from the work of Alphonse Mucha – a celebrated Czech Art Nouveau painter who became famous for his highly stylized, immensely recognisable illustrations and posters. He spent most of his life based in Paris, and the exposure he received from a series of World’s Fairs meant he was able to showcase his talent for architecture and sculpture too. Mathiole has captured Mucha’s style perfectly in this tee, it’s, dare I say it, almost too good to just wear. This guy should be getting commissions for vast scale murals as far as I am concerned, and yes I mean murals, real murals, made from ceramic tiles. Anyone need any Art Nouveau architecture restoring? This would be the guy to talk to I guess. Now here’s the best twist of all, Mathiole’s mashed things up a little with a hilarious reference to Mexican masked wrestling too! Here you are, seeing as it’s Saturday let’s have a cartoon :D
So there you are, art historical references, retro kitsch culture, and a totally blinding piece of design – get a slice of mondo exuberance in the form of a Mucha Lucha tee for $18 in S-2XL for guys and girls here. Hoodies available too!
Whilst I’m at it, paw over these beauties from the hand of the master tee maker that is Mathiole…
Ecstasy Tee ($19 at design by Humans)
Butterfly Effect Tee ($30 at Imaginary Foundation)
E.x.ecutioner Tee (Sold Out)
Yep I know it’s sold out but I had to include it, this is one of my faves by Mathiole. If you dig this guy’s art check out all these links:
Threadless For Schools?
admin T-Shirt Contests Threadless, high school tees, school tees, t-shirt community, t-shirt contestNow we all know how massively successful the Threadless t-shirt community is as a business model, there have been so many sites that have taken up the t-shirt crowd-sourcing gauntlet it’d be near impossible to compile a full and updated list these days. Nevertheless I still like to keep my ear to the ground, (or should that be eyes to the screen?), when it comes to t-shirt contest sites, especially when they’re aimed at a niche market. If you’re not or have never been in the t-shirt industry it might seem a little dull (O.K very dull) to be talking about business models, but just like any business on the net, capturing a market is essential if you ever want to make it as a major player in the indie t-shirt sector. So I was rather intrigued by an email I received yesterday from James Gallagher at www.wearurschool.com, sure the spelling wouldn’t win a prize but the concept could be big given the right coverage on the net.
I’m going to reserve my judgement for now, I love the idea but it will take a major dedicated server to handle this site if every school participates (which is about 15.5K high schools in the USA), and a factory to print the tees, just as would for instance… Threadless. What I do know is Wear Ur School is going to need a hell of a lot of publicity to spread the word. Perhaps holding competitions and offering prizes at each school would be a start, even a poster campaign for every art class and some charitable donations from the profits to a reputable children’s charity to give it legs. The whole strategy is viral as far as I can see, a student designs a tee and tells their friends at school to vote for it and even buy it. It just might work!
Bainsey @ Threadless
Hey all, yes this is a little cheeky of me but I need your support! If you’re a member of Threadless.com come and show some props for my first submission to the Goliath of t-shirt contest sites. Don’t worry I’m not expecting any miracles, it’d just be nice if I had a few watching my back on this one. Anyway check out my t-shirt design at Threadless simply entitled “Naked Eye“.
It would be great to put my money (if I had any) where my mouth is, but I’m worldly weary enough to know that miracles rarely happen, but if somehow I did make it through with this design you can bet it would put a big smile on my face knowing that I had my readers on my side. After all if I am a t-shirt reviewer I should at least try and prove my worth. What’s more if I make the grade expect some freebies at Buy Tees!
Still expecting egg on face all the same hah… read more
Is It A Bird, A Plane? No It’s Flying Mouse
admin T-Shirt Reviews Chow Hon Lam, Flying Mouse, FlyingMouse365, Threadless, graphic design, graphic tees, illustration
Flying Mouse aka Chow Hon Lam from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is gaining a god-like status in the world of t-shirt design, he’s won tons of contests at Threadless and even if you don’t recognise the name you will surely recognise the work. In fact I have mentioned his work before here, but in all honesty Chow deserves far far more exposure, and it seems that others agree. There’s a great interview with Lam at Threadless which reveals a little of the machinations of this great mind, but I know what you all want, and that’s some eye candy so I promise I’ll get straight to the tees.
One last thing though, in case you haven’t come across his own store yet do check out www.FlyingMouse365.com where you can really get a taste of exactly how prolific the guy is. Every t-shirt at the store is available for just seven days, right now there are seven tees on sale, think about it, he must knock out a design everyday! That is for lack of a better word, incredible. These are not simple illustrations either, he has an amazing graphic style, with the humour of Glennz and the lush line and composition of any winner at sites like Design By Humans. Ok, here’s what’s on offer this week… read more
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