Compete-tee-tion

Shirt.Woot delves deep into their catalog for the Year Two reprint collection, gathering some of the best and most memorable designs from Shirt.Woot’s second year.

Best of the Bunch: James Cho’s Midnight Rider is one of the most finely crafted Woot tees ever printed, and it’s great to see it back on long sleeves.

Nicest Surprise: Sun Wukong is another of Woot’s best illustrations, looking wonderful on a lightweight zip hoodie.

This promotion will only last this week (ending at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday). So if there’s something you like, grab it fast!

Threadless has teamed up with The Onion for a new t-shirt design contest that asks artists to create a design about The Onion Heaadlines, illustrating or interpreting any past headline on The Onion. Just remember to mention what headline your design is based on in the “about your design” section and you’re good to go.

Enter before June 10th, 2013 for your chance to win. One winner will earn $2000 cash, a $500 Threadless.com gift certificate, a $200 TheOnion.com gift code, 2 VIP passes to The Onion’s 2013 AV Fest, framed front page of The Onion with your face on one of the stories (of The Onion’s choosing), your photo used in a future Area Man (or Area Woman) piece, many The Onion books, and a signed and personalized letter of commendation from The Onion’s CEO. Other designs chosen to print will be compensated based on product printed on and quantity produced.

RedBubble delves into the world of design contests once again with their new Tattoos Even a Mother Could Love contest. Naturally, they’re looking for great illustrations and designs in tattoo style.

Enter before May 28th, 2013 for your chance to win. One First Place winner will earn $1000 cash, 25 temporary tattoos of your design, and your design printed on a t-shirt/hoodie style and size of your choice. Second Place gets $500 cash, 25 temporary tattoos of your design, and your design printed on a t-shirt/hoodie style and size of your choice. Third Place receives $100 cash, 25 temporary tattoos of your design, and your design printed on a t-shirt/hoodie style and size of your choice.

Black Romance by WinterArtwork is my favorite print this week. It’s a really great piece of character creation, giving us this awesomely badass lady who grins wildly at the viewer as she gets a new tattoo, cradling a skull the whole time. She reads like a cool, punk-ish villain, dedicated to making the world more interesting through concentrated mayhem. There’s a lot lot to like about the artwork, from the densely packed tats to the swirl of the tattoo gun’s cord and the pained grimace of the skull (love the spurting black ink tears from its eye sockets). Solid work with a distinct mood that starts to tell a story- that’s all the makings of a really great shirt.

Ride It, Kick It by dzeri29 was kind of destined to be a tough sell for me, since it combines a couple of things that I’ve never been too keen on (Rat Fink and the pastel, geometric excess of the 80s). But for those with a sunnier disposition towards those two things, this might be a homerun. The use of a high top shoe as the creature’s hotrod is a smart choice, reminding me of the days when Jordans ruled, insane patterns could be a status symbol, and matching was very much optional. There’s a type of sneakerhead that would eat this design up, because it keys into that spirit of freedom, strange luxuries, and watching brands push the limits.

Panda & Friends by Winardi forwards the theory that penguins would be a natural friend (or at least hiding place) for a panda. It’s a nice hidden in plain sight effect, and I think that even without the benefit of the title most viewers will see the panda relatively quickly (which is a plus). The roundness of his face, and his size, help to make him a natural focal point, and once you see him, you’re charmed- he almost seems to be giggling into his paw, delighted to be found. I think most people tackling a concept like this would succumb to laziness and phone in the penguins, using the same birds over and over again through out the piece. But that’s not the case here, where each bird feels unique and there are even all-black baby penguins scattered throughout. That keeps things fun to look at well beyond how long it takes you to find the panda.

Going Home by wolfinger is a really impressive drawing, placing a grim reaper in his convertible in front of a moody, scenic backdrop of a full moon, dead trees, and an ancient castle. He peeks at the viewer out of the corner of his eye, almost daring you to follow him on the journey. And part of you wants to go, because who knows what’s up in those dark towers? Death’s domain may be eternally night and covered in an unnatural fog, but there are adventures to be had if you hop in that empty seat…

Winners at Design By Humans earn $1000 and six shirts of their victorious design.

Threadless is teaming up with Thorn, an organization that uses technology to battle online predators and sex traffickers, for a new Digital Defenders t-shirt design contest. That might sound a little tough to design for, but Threadless gives some further guidance on what they’re looking for:

Take inspiration from how we can be better digital defenders for children who can’t defend themselves. Create a hopeful design about a predator-free future where kids can just be kids, both online and offline.

Enter before June 6th, 2013 for your chance to win. One winner will earn $2000 cash, a $500 Threadless gift code, and a $500 Airbnb gift certificate. Other designs selected to print will be compensated based on product printed on and quantity produced.

Gravity is a Lie by Randyotter (randyotter3000) is my favorite print this week. It’s a brilliantly silly concept, with Newton’s apple not just passively defying gravity, but being outrageously defiant in his pose, expression and exclamation. You know nothing, Science, you’ve been tricked by an apple! The apple flies off into the air like a superhero, leaving a trail of sparkles behind him. Newton, for his part, can only gaze in wonder and confusion. Picture humanity realizing the lie, and like Wiley Coyote, slowly drifting into space now that they know gravity isn’t real…

Snitches Get Stitches by Jordan Horstman (moosabman) exploits the two meanings of the word snitch, transporting the magical nature of Quidditch into the grittier world of street crime. It’s funny because something child-like becomes very serious, and a pretend game suddenly becomes very brutal. Instead of picturing kids in school uniforms riding broomsticks, the imagination summons images of scarred toughs tackling each other with shivs. The sad face (and teardrop!) of the poor snitch highlights the clash of cultures. Nice to see a Harry Potter shirt that the more grown up fans wouldn’t balk at wearing.

Starry Pattern by Fred Hoffman (FHoffman) feels like the sort of garment you might find in a museum store, heavily referencing famous artwork and using a printing technique (all over print, front and back) that feels a bit upscale. It’s appealing for the same reasons Van Gogh paintings are, the motion and interplay of the colors keeps your eye moving and gives the art a sense of depth. What’s great about the pattern, though, is that while it’s a good shirt, it has the potential to be applied in lots of ways for lots of other products. Imagine a jacket with this as the lining, or an umbrella. Maybe a button-up shirt with this pattern as detail. There’s a lot that can be done, and I’m excited to see where Threadless takes it.

Never Ending by Adam Rajcevich (ADD LTD) puts the spotlight on the infinite nature of the universe. I have a theory that there are two types of people when it comes to thinking about the vastness of space- people who find it comforting (“no matter what mistakes I make, they won’t matter in the great scheme of things, and there’s always the possibility of something amazing out there”) and people who find it utterly terrifying (“no matter what good I do, it won’t make a difference and I won’t leave a mark”). Kind of optimist/pessimist, but with astronomy. This design definitely speaks to the second group, but I think it’s appealing to the first group as well. We’re not built to truly contemplate and understand infinity, and the act of trying could easily induce some existential vertigo.

YOU by Jeremy Pettis (Jeremyhead) has a wonderful retro quality to it, especially in the 70s-infused style of the “Beautiful” typeface. And it’s a smart piece as well, working at every level. From far back quirky smily face intrigues, you wonder if the eye is winking. A closer look reveals the text’s message, and diving even deeper rewards you with these funny doodles in blue of strange, unconventional faces. This is the kind of design that is just plain fun to look at, where you notice something new every time you wear it. And the positive (but still very funny) message just makes the piece even more enticing.

Threadless prints new shirts every week, chosen from the designs submitted by and voted on by site members. Most winners get $2000 cash and $500 in Threadless credit, with the possibility to earn more through Bestee awards, poster prints, and reprints.

Shirt.Woot goes minimal with their latest derby theme, White on Black. The theme is wide open, but the style is set in stone- all designs must use white ink on a black tee. Here’s the full description from Woot:

If your shirt’s in my derby it don’t matter if it’s black or white. Actually, it matters a great deal, because this derby is all about minimalism: white ink on a black shirt. In other words, how many penguins and zebras can get crammed into one design?

No content restrictions. Text and pop culture OK.

Design must be on black shirt and use only white ink. 

The derby opens to submissions at noon on Friday, with submissions continuing until Wednesday at noon. Voting is on-going from Friday at noon until Thursday at noon. Three winners will be printed the following weekend (as chosen by voters and Woot staff), with the printed designers earning $1000 for the first night of sales and a potential $2 per shirt sold on any sales after that date.