TeeFury Has a Cool One (0)
Published on December 2nd, 2008. By Derek, under TeeFury.
I can imagine how difficult it is to come up with good artwork for the sites that produce a new t-shirt every day. The competitive side of you always wants to see something a little bit better than the day before. That is just about an impossible task with artwork like today’s. In my opinion, the design for today’s TeeFury t-shirt is pretty sick.
Where else can you get an Obey style/quality t-shirt for $9?
TeeFury T-Shirt
BBC/Ice Cream Store One Year Anniversary Tee (0)
Published on December 1st, 2008. By Derek, under T-Shirt Lines.
I know that we have all seen our fair share of long lines during the Black Friday madness, but I had to post about this one because it is primarily t-shirt related. The Billionaire Boys Club/Ice Cream flagship store in New York City had a line as long as a city block. Much of this was in anticipation of the one-year anniversary t-shirt that they sold out of shortly after opening.
Check out the line that they commanded on Black Friday:
BBC/Ice Cream Flagship Store
Here’s a picture of the one-year anniversary t-shirt on none other than the creator, Pharrell Williams:
BBC/Ice Cream 1-Year Anniversary Tee
INSA X A Tribe Called Next (0)
Published on November 30th, 2008. By Derek, under T-Shirt Lines.
A very advanced artist with extreme skills for quite a few different mediums has just introduced a new t-shirt design. London-based Insa produced this design for the folks at A Tribe Called Next and the colorways really set it off.
Insa X ATCN
Johnny Cupcakes Thanksgiving Coupon (0)
Published on November 28th, 2008. By Derek, under Coupons and Deals.
Just a little something from me to you to spread a little holiday cheer:
Johnny Cupcakes Thanksgiving Coupon
T-Shirt Designer Spotlight: Robbie Lee (0)
Published on November 27th, 2008. By Derek, under Designer Spotlight.
We got another t-shirt designer spotlight and this guy is a good one. Take a second to learn what makes Robbie Lee tick…
What is your favorite part of design?
The initial sketch is my favorite part of design, but I like the revision part, too. Those are the phases where decisions are made, and art is all about making decisions.
Also, if putting faces on things is part of design, I like that, too.
Robbie Lee - T-Shirt Designer
How would you describe your style?
Little stories that are sweet, funny, and/or sad.
What inspires your work?
Other people’s art: I really like Keita Takahashi, the sculptor and mastermind of the video game Katamari Damacy, who wants to make art that makes people happy. So I try to do that, but much of my work involves happiness despite the fact that we live in an imperfect world.
Seeing other people do great work inspires me, too. For example, I just started reading Isaac Asimov’s robot stories. Last night I read that he actually coined the term “robotics” in one of his stories, and I got really pumped up to work hard. I also get the same feeling when I watch Stop Making Sense, read about Warren Buffett, or look at a comic book illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz or David Mack.
What are five websites that you can’t live without?
Nothing too inspirational here- I check college basketball sports sites and the news and the fake news at CNN and The Onion. Also, Emusic is a great resource I visit monthly for my music needs. I HIGHLY recommend it if you haven’t tried it- everything from new indie stuff like Animal Collective to “older” indie stuff like Pavement. But mostly I just visit the sites where I have shirt designs submitted to see if I have comments, etc. (woot, uneetee, threadless, springleap, teefury) or to see what’s printing that day/week.
What trends do you see developing in the future of t-shirt design?
I see the ability to draw well become less and less important in art and design, which is both thrilling and frustrating. I also see more and more upcoming artists flocking to tee shirt design- it’s incredibly rewarding to have such exposure. Finally, I imagine at some point tee shirt sales will slow down because after everyone already has 20 shirts, the average collector will grow more selective.
URL: http://www.robbielee-illustrator.com/
Portfolio: http://www.robbielee-illustrator.com/tshirtstuff/tshirtpage1.html
CafePress Does Not Raise More Money (0)
Published on November 25th, 2008. By Derek, under T-Shirt News.
What kind of title for a blog post is that? Well, let me explain. TechCrunch, the premier internet/tech news blog, mistakenly reported that CafePress raised their third round of funding from Sequoia Capital to the tune of $8 million. CafePress quickly responded saying that the news article was incorrect. TechCrunch did the noble thing and blamed it on their source - PEHub.
The funny thing about all of this is that TechCrunch speculated and elaborated on all the reasons why CafePress secured another round of funding in the original article. They went on to say there was international expansion and a need for cash reserves to weather the recession storm. They even went a step further and questioned CafePress’ claims of profitability.
Let me sum it up for you….Egg on Face. 
CafePress Does Not Raise Money
Geeks and T-Shirts Go Together (3)
Published on November 25th, 2008. By Derek, under T-Shirt News.
Saying geeks and t-shirts go together is just like saying anything and t-shirts go together. It is hard to find anyone that doesn’t appreciate a nice soft t-shirt. T-shirt popularity has grown so large nowadays that even the geeks have their own niche market. I recently came across to popular blog posts centered around geeks and t-shirts. And since everyone is a fan of lists, it’s easy to enjoy these.
The first is called 15 Awesome T-Shirt Websites for Geeks by Lee Munroe. Lee is a freelance web designer from Ireland, and a self-proclaimed geek who loves t-shirts. In his world, being called a geek is the same thing called cool. Good for you Lee, and here’s a screenshot of his post.
15 Awesome T-Shirt Websites for Geeks
The other post is an oldie but goodie, and comes from the t-shirt industry blog by You Design It. I first found this one on the homepage of Digg back in February and it inspired me to be a list master for my shot at being Dugg. Quite a few comments on this one with the last number at 44.
11 of the Nerdiest T-Shirts Only Geeks Would Wear
Go Media and the 47 Essential Resources (0)
Published on November 24th, 2008. By Derek, under T-Shirt Design.
Most of you are familiar with Go Media and their design blog - GoMediaZine. They burst onto the scene a few years ago and have really set the pace at being a premier design agency. One of their fortes is t-shirt design, as they are regular winners at t-shirt design contests and provide design for some of the biggest bands and brands. They regularly blog about t-shirt related subjects and provide templates for independent designers, along with multiple, useful vector packs.
In a nutshell, if you haven’t read between the lines yet, they are at the forefront of the t-shirt community. Undoubtedly, this was a major linkbait piece, but a very useful one nonetheless. They have certainly earned a link and referral for this one. Click on the screenshot below to go to the article, 47 Essential Resources for T-Shirt Designers.
47 Essential Resources for T-Shirt Designers
Dale Murray Wins at Threadless (0)
Published on November 24th, 2008. By Derek, under Designer Spotlight.
One of our favorite T-shirt designers that we have featured in an interview and pushed his artwork for Design by Humans, just won a print at Threadless. Dale Murray is definitely making a name for himself in the t-shirt design world. There is almost nothing else we can say about him because we have covered him so many times before and that is one of the highest compliments we can give.
Take a second to give it a looksy and go ahead and buy one while you are there. Remember…..”scared money don’t win”.
Dale Murray - Winning T-Shirt Design At Threadless
Sell You and Your Brand Sells Too (1)
Published on November 21st, 2008. By Derek, under T-Shirt Lines.
In our previous post about The Hundreds doing something radical and gaining a cult following in doing so, we illustrated an example of a brand’s reflection of its employees/founder. We wanted to follow up and provide another real world example of a growing t-shirt line, Linty Fresh, doing some pretty cool things as well.
Linty Fresh
The interesting thing about our idea to put them in the spotlight is the founder, Eric Terry, did the thing again that we were going to talk about. He posted another video about himself and his company in response to an e-mailed question that was sent to him. The video series that he is creating is the example that we were going to give about selling your brand by selling yourself.
Producing clever videos really put a face to his clothing line and it helps build up his fan base. It is a platform for him to show his likable personality and provide yet another reason for people to purchase his t-shirts. All he has to lose in creating these videos is time, and you can tell he enjoys what he does. Check out his videos, and buy a t-shirt or two while you’re there.
*While we were preparing this post, we came across another t-shirt blog post referring to the Linty Fresh video #5. It was by way of the You Design It blog and they were not only giving props to Linty fresh, but also trying to offer some help. Something as cool as that would have never happened had he not put himself out there and created a video.
This is a great example of the t-shirt industry coming together to help each other out. You can check that out at their t-shirt design blog, or you can design t-shirts at their website.
