Compete-tee-tion

This week’s Derby theme is a doozy: Cryptozoology! Head over to Shirt.Woot and post your best shirt design featuring non-existent animals. Submissions and voting will open up Friday at noon, so start getting your designs ready now- fortune favors the quick.

The prize was upped last week and now stands at $250 for any winner that sells up to 500 units, or $500 for any winner that sells 501 units or more. As always, designers can earn more (in the form of $2 per shirt) when their design sells at the higher $15 price on the days following the first day of sales. As always, the three most popular Derby winners will be printed next weekend, and they’ll all be getting paid as described above.

Designers who are capable of setting up print-ready vector files of their t-shirt designs have the opportunity to bypass the derby and submit shirt designs of any theme directly to Woot. Check out the What is Woot? page for details. If selected, you’ll be getting paid the same $250 or $500 (plus $2 per shirt for shirts sold after the first day of sales) as the Derby winners receive.

If you’re a fan of the Derby, make sure you check out the Derby statistics page and the Derby fan blog Best Losers.

Continue Reading

Shirt.Woot‘s 9th Derby will begin tomorrow at noon, with the theme City Without Words. Woot has a couple of limitations for submissions: no words or letters of any kind can be used, and no previously entered designs can be used.

Here’s how the Derby works: Participants can enter their designs any time from Friday at noon until Wednesday at noon. Early submitters have an advantage, because voting is continuous from Friday at noon until Thursday at noon.

Each week, the top three designs (according to Woot member voting) are printed and sold that weekend. There’s been a substantial prize increase, so winners (and those who submit non-derby work directly to Woot) are now set to receive $250 if their shirt sells up to 500 units or a whopping $500 if their shirt sells 501 or more units. The sum of $2 per shirt remains for all shirts sold after the first day, as well, so designers could be looking at quite a windfall.

Continue Reading

The image above is not related to the Derby. It was today’s designer-created shirt on Shirt.Woot, and I love it. Regular t-shirt design competition fans probably recognize the style- it was created by Nicolas Marcon (Monsieur Pimpant), one of the most original and unique artists in the t-shirt contest game. If you’ve seen Pimpant shirts for sale anywhere else, let me know. I love this guy’s style!

Anyway, on to the Derby: The theme is Summer into Fall, and they’re looking for designs that express the changing of the seasons. If you’ve got a shirt concept, submit it before Wednesday at noon. Community members will vote and the top three favorites will be printed next weekend. Winners get $200, plus an additional $2 per shirt ordered after the first day of sales.

As always, professional designers can submit any kind of t-shirt work to Shirt.Woot at any time and bypass the Derby entirely. If printed, they’ll receive $200 and an extra $2 per shirt ordered after the first day.

Derby fans, take note: the Derby blog Best Losers has an interview up with Annie22, a two-time Derby winner. Check it out to learn more about her design process, and to hear the advice she has for Derby entrants.

Continue Reading

There’s a new Derby on at Shirt.Woot and this week’s theme is “Blank is the New Pirate.” They’re looking for shirts with a new, cool historical archetype that people could replace pirates with. Listed examples include vikings, gauchos, centurions, samurai, Foreign Legionnaires, monks and Cossacks, if that gets your imagination running.

Submit your work before Wednesday at noon. Sooner is better than later, because voting is on-going until Thursday at noon. The top three designs will be printed next weekend, with the winning designers getting $200 (as well as $2 per shirt sold after the first day of sales).

If you’ve got a great design that doesn’t fit the theme, Woot is still interested. E-mail Woot with details of your previous design experience and some samples of your work. If printed, you’ll be picking up $200 per design (and the customary $2 per shirt sold after the first day).

This Shirt.Woot thing must really be taking off, because there are already a couple of new websites built to assist the Derby fanatics. One member has set up a statistics page so that designers can see how voting patterns affected their work (and when they gained or lost votes). Another site, Best Losers, is dedicated to the great designs that didn’t quite have what it takes to win the Derby.

Continue Reading

The newest Derby theme at Shirt.Woot has been announced: Visually Sound. Basically, they’re just looking for any kind of visual representation of sound. Which seems like a pretty awesome topic to me, though I fear an onslaught of shirts covering in comic book-style sound effects done in MS Paint.

As always, submissions can be made from Friday at noon until Wednesday at noon. Voters will determine the top three shirts, which will be sold over the weekend. Designers who win will earn $200 for the first night of sales and $2 per shirt for every shirt sold after the first day.

Designers with some t-shirt experience can bypass this process entirely if they choose and submit shirts of any theme directly to Woot. Check out the What is Woot link for details.

Continue Reading

The theme has been announced for the next Shirt.Woot Derby: Fake Me Out To The Ballgame. The description is a little odd, so I’m just going to quote the whole thing in the interest of clarity:

“With the NFL, NHL, and college football seasons starting and the baseball pennant races tightening up, September is a helluva time to be a sports fan. But what if your team stinks? What if you don’t like any actual sports? Make up your own. And then show us what you picked up at the imaginary team store. Remember: don’t use somebody else’s logo, don’t submit a two-sided design, and do NOT design a shirt for a Woot-themed team. Otherwise, game on.”

So I guess the theme is pretend and sports? I would guess that imaginary team logos, depictions of non-existent sports and things of that nature would work. I’m tempted to try a logo out…

Submissions for this contest are due between Friday at noon and Wednesday at noon. The top three will be printed and sold over the weekend, earning their creators $200 and an additional $2 per shirt sold after the first day.

The last derby had a number of really nice designs, so I expect this week to be even better.

Continue Reading

Shirt.Woot‘s Derbies have produced some pretty great shirts, but the best looking designs don’t always win. This was further exaggerated by the fact that Wooters often added and subtracted votes at the last minute (with the goal of causing a tie, leading to a 2 shirts for $10 sale), possibly leading to winners that didn’t reflect the true preference of most voters.

Both of these issues have been corrected by a rules change: as of this week, vote totals for the top four are hidden. And, even better, the top three will all be printed and sold (Friday, Saturday and Sunday at midnight).

And really, this couldn’t have happened at a better time- currently, three of the top four are well-drawn and well-suited to a shirt (which is much better than the competition’s average). As the new voting system attracts new artists, I expect the quality level to rise even higher in future weeks.

As always, derby winners (and those who submit work without entering the derby) will receive $200 for the first day of sales. Every sale after that point will earn the artist an additional $2 per shirt, which is typically a substantial windfall.

Continue Reading