Compete-tee-tion

Explorer Egg 2 by Popcornpunk is my favorite Threadless print this week. The pun is fun, but for me it’s the details that make this piece so charming. I love the way the yellow yolk is made into a smiley face, a symbol of happiness and contentment. That lets the egg white become a large backpack, very much the size and proportion that a real hiker might sport. And although the egg stays friendly and cartoony, the landscape he inhabits is given more of a realistic look, calling out every craggy bit of rock and tuft of grass. That creates a neat contrast between the character and the setting (and ensures that the egg stands out), while also providing and environment that makes the viewer want to hop right in and explore. Neat!

Threadless prints new shirts every week, chosen from the designs submitted by and voted on by site members. Most winners earn $1 to $7 per item sold.

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Burgers are one of the most iconic foods of our era, the foundation of numerous successful chain restaurants and also a classic food that most people enjoy spending the warm months grilling at home. From its mountains of toppings to its familiar circular shape to concerns about its healthiness, there’s a lot in this delicious dinner to inspire artists! Here’s a look at 15 of the best shirts about burgers…

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See You Tomorrow by kooky love is my favorite Threadless print this week. This is an excellent of minimalism in typography, pairing a clean, unadorned sans serif font with simple geometric shapes to create a clear and evocative image. Taking advantage of the frequency of Os in this phrase, they’ve all been lined up vertically and made into solid orange shapes. As the art continues down the shirt, the circles start to disappear behind a black horizon line, fading away like a sunset. I love the way this leaves the design literally showing the transition to the tomorrow it references, a very complete and well-executed idea. The subtle distressing is a nice finishing touch, adding a bit of vintage charm to a timeless concept.

Threadless prints new shirts every week, chosen from the designs submitted by and voted on by site members. Most winners earn $1 to $7 per item sold.

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In partnership with The Trevor Project, Threadless‘s new Mental Health Awareness t-shirt design competition aims to inspire others. Here’s what they’re looking for…

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time when we focus on destigmatizing the conversation around mental health and urge folks to seek out the services they need, especially when they’re struggling. This is an issue that greatly impacts the LGBTQ community. According to research by The Trevor Project, more than 1.8 million LGBTQ young people in the US seriously consider suicide every year.

Knowing the statistics, how can we as an Artist Community make a difference in their lives? We can start by doing what we do best—make art. For your next challenge benefiting The Trevor Project, we’re asking artists to make new designs that are inspirational, spread mental health awareness, and let LGBTQ young people in crisis know they are not alone. While brainstorming, think of symbols of love, acceptance, and community. As always, it’s entirely up to you which creative path you choose, whether you express your message through bold typography, deep symbolism, or tasteful humor.

Submissions open on May 9th, 2023. Enter before June 6th, 2023 for your chance to win. First place wins $1250 cash and a $250 gift code. Second place earns $500 cash and a $250 gift code. Third place gets $250 cash and a $250 gift code. All designers printed will earn up to $20 per item sold (learn more about Threadless artist payments).

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Bird Booth by Glennz is my favorite Threadless print this week. I love the way it uses the classic, blocky shape of the Polaroid camera to transform it into another famously chunky construction, the homemade birdhouse. In this rendition, a simple perch sits below a large hole where the lens would be, a perfect merging of camera and birdhouse. The large photo portrait of a bird emerging from the bottom feels wonderful and whimsical, like a bit of technology that is very nearly possible, but just barely out of reach. It’s the kind of thing you see and wish was real, a product of a better reality- and one that the clean, precise lines of the vector drawing style illustrate really well. Leaving those chunky lines off the photo is a great way to make the photo seem more real, and different from the birdhouse itself. Great work!

Threadless prints new shirts every week, chosen from the designs submitted by and voted on by site members. Most winners earn $1 to $7 per item sold.

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Whether you know him as Bowser or King Koopa, Mario and Luigi’s legendary enemy has earned his place in the annals of pop culture. A fearsome turtle-y monster armed with fireballs and a brooding cinematic crooner at the same time, this villain contains multitudes. Maybe you know him from gaming, or cartoons, or even the movie screens… but odds are, he left a big impression! Here’s a look at 15 different ways artists interpreted Bowser in t-shirt design…

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Food Mountains by Popcornpunk is my favorite Threadless print this week. It’s a neat concept, making the sun a hungry face and transforming a mountain range into a series of triangular foods. But to me it’s the fun style clash that really makes this idea sing. The foods are heavily detailed, the clear stars of the piece with strong shading, texture, and every contour represented right down to the divots of the cake’s frosting and crunchy bumps of the tortilla chip. Meanwhile, the sun is just a simple circle, with arms and expression loosely doodled on top of it like a child’s marker sketch. This keeps the food the focus, and makes the sun a relatable character whose pure joy and hunger make him a joy to encounter. Plus, the variety of foods shown means everyone has at least one snack they’d love to get a taste of (I’m drawn to that lovely, fluffy-looking piece of cake).

Threadless prints new shirts every week, chosen from the designs submitted by and voted on by site members. Most winners earn $1 to $7 per item sold.

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