Compete-tee-tion

Teetonic‘s T in the Park winner is Botanica Rockenrolla by Zipperking. It’s definitely a solid concept, and a step above the usual special competition winners at the site. The rock and roll hand gesture is nicely capped off with a tiny bird perched on top, which is a cool detail. I also like that the T of the festival’s name is done up to look like a manicured bush, which is a nice completion of the theme. My only wish is that the rest of the text was better matched to the idea- dotting the I with a flower is a nice start in that direction, but I’d like to see more done to unite the two portions. Overall though, it’s very nice work.

Shirt.Woot‘s newest derby has an Energy theme. Here are the details, direct from Woot:

What does energy mean to you? Is it something that you can buy for $150 a barrel? Is it some ineffable New Agey quality that comes in positive and negative flavors? Is it a scalar physical property often defined as “the ability to do work”? Is it something you get from a can full of sugar and caffeine? Nervous, nuclear, mental, kinetic, potential, surface, green, vacuum, electrical, spiritual, solar, healing, sensible, latent, emotional: choose your energy and make us wear it.

No straight resubmissions from past Derbies, especially including Heat and Light. We’ll be pretty hardline about it this week, and we need your tattles to catch the offenders. But, as always, reworked versions of past submissions are permitted. We’ll be the judge of whether it’s reworked enough.

Incidental text allowed, but no slogan shirts. We’re calling this the Stop Sign Rule. If you need a bit of text here or there to make your design work, that’s OK. You can show somebody reading a newspaper, or the digits on a gas pump, or a label on a package. But if text is the primary focus of your design, it will get the axe. Again, we’ll make these decisions on a shirt-by-shirt basis, so err on the side of caution.

The derby begins accepting submissions Friday at noon, 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 site members), 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.

Uneetee‘s latest winner is Zaal Persian Legend by B. B. Hive. To be honest, I have no idea who Zaal is or why he’s a legend, and it’s just a shirt so I’m not willing to do any research on the matter. I prefer to think of Zaal as the patron saint of sneezes, face formed from the gusts of air that a bout with allergies might produce. And regardless of who this dude is, there’s a really neat style at work- the clouds transition seamlessly to details of the character, and it sits very nicely on the shirt.

Uneetee choses winners from the designs submitted by and voted on by site members. Winners receive $1500, with the chance to earn more through reprints.

Field Study 01 by Rick Crane (The Paper Crane) is my favorite shirt of the week, a slick, colorful collection of birds. It takes advantage of the wildly differing silhouettes of birds to identify specific types and then uses color to unite them all. The specific colors used bring to mind a sunset for me, and that combined with the motion of the birds flying away makes this piece thought-provoking, capturing the fact that some of these birds might not stay around much longer. The only flaw I see is a couple of typos in the names of the birds- which is very unfortunate, I’m surprised no one checks for these things before they’re printed. Still, it’s a minor enough detail that it doesn’t ruin the shirt.

City Of Freaks by Andy Rementer (andyandy) is this week’s select, taking its cues from the underground comics of the seventies. A group of diversely colored and drawn characters walks around the shirt (front and back print), defined with clean lines and solid colors. The real value here is in the creativity of the characters- each one has something interesting and totally unique that draws the eye and ignites the imagination. My favorite is probably the spotted dog with the hat, but there’s a lot to like.

Laundry Monkie by Wenceslao Almazan (walmazan) uses superglow ink to create a shirt with two distinct moods. In daylight, an industrious monkey endeavors to clean up his laundry room, taking a moment to play a bit (he is a monkey, after all). But at night, the scene is silhouetted by the moon and it all takes on a more serious look- instead of posing with a laundry basket, the monkey hangs perilously from the spire of a skyscraper. I love the way the design represents both the reality of play and the way it appears in the imagination.

Where The Heart Is by Chris Thornley (Raid71) is the best implementation of the “home is where the heart is” theme I’ve ever seen, using an artistic dashed line style to convey the warmth and security of home. A couple of details kick the level up even higher- the arterial trees and the van Gogh-inspired sky definitely made me eager to take another look around the composition. Definitely some amazing artistry.

Delimitating Macrocosms by Budi Satria Kwan (radiomode) is a parallel universe cartoon, showing how one scene might exist in other realities. It’s mildly funny, but not really a stand-out. I think the main issue is that this sort of cartoon has been done so many times- nothing about this particular version makes the joke feel fresh. A more stylized approach or a different (non-panel) format might have made it seem more unique. Beyond this, it’s very rectangular, not something that I think looks too great when worn. You have to be up close and personal before the jokes are clear, and even once there it’s not that humorous.

Le Romantique by Matheus Lopes (mathiole) is a gorgeous watercolor-influenced shirt, perfectly expressing the anticipation and hope of the moment. It’s also a great use of the shirt, with the flowers beginning on one side and the figure on the opposite side. What especially makes this work is the feeling of discovery as you view the entire design- your experience starts to mirror that of the protagonist. I also like the addition of the hummingbird, which is a nice bit of semi-reality in an imaginative scene.

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

The Hunter by a_mar_illo is to me clearly the best shirt of the week. At first glance it’s a well-done and straight-forward portrait of a hunter. A closer look, though reveals a lot of added value. The hunter’s feet and gun are firmly planted in the ground like tree trunks and the text treatment of the shirt’s title is unusual (the piecemeal collection of letter styles reinforces the rural and old-fashioned feel of the piece).

Big Heart by collisiontheory is, for me, a disappointment. The shirt itself is nothing but a piece of clip art enlarged to cover the entire torso. It’s not a choice that I find to be particularly interesting or attractive, and in general I just wish a more imaginative approach had been taken. It would have been a much more successful design for me if the artist had altered the clip art to include some sort of detail- maybe introducing another color, some text, anything that might make this unique. Huge isn’t interesting to me, there needed to be more going on here.

Shiva & Parvathi by vespamike1 is a good-looking piece with some really great coloring. It’s also got a nice retro vibe and a clean, crisp style. Overall, a very nice shirt- though I admit I have some hangups about wearing a shirt featuring the gods of a religion I’m not that familiar with. It might just be me, but I’m a little uncomfortable wearing images that people literally worship in a purely decorative way. I mean, I doubt anyone would mind, I’d just feel weird about it.

Pollution Effect by goenz is another skull shirt, yes, but with a difference. It uses a fun color palette and a collection of icons and creatures to communicate the damage that pollution causes. I’m especially a fan of the grumpy faces on the vehicles- it’s definitely funny to think of the cars as polluting against their own wishes.

Feelin’ Lucky by ianleino is a heap of lucky items. While it’s been done on a shirt before, the particular items included in this collection are funnier than what I’ve seen done previously- in particular, the inclusion of Kentucky cracked me up. On the men’s shirt, the placement feels strange to me- the way it occupies the upper right quadrant of the shirt so precisely kind of kills the motion of the objects. I feel the larger placement on the girls shirt is more successful.

Design By Humans is an on-going t-shirt design contest that prints new shirts every weekday. Prints are chosen from the shirts submitted by and voted on by DBH members. Shirt of the Day winners receive $500 cash and $250 DBH credit. Shirt of the Week winners get $1000 cash. Shirt of the Month gets $1500 cash and $250 credit. Winners also have an opportunity to earn residuals through the Rockstar Awards Program.

No, it’s not a t-shirt, but it’s definitely a cool chance to design some apparel. Hathead is looking for cool hat designs, and winners stand to make $250. There are a variety of templates available, so you can design anything from a traditional cap to a visor to a military-style hat.