Susan Boyle T-Shirts at the Subo Store

I am really happy for her and it’s great that she is making a fortune out of her talent but there is no way you’d catch me in a Susan Boyle t-shirt. Even if the quality were much better than what is on offer (They look like what is made by Cafepress shopkeepers in 2 minutes when trying to capitalize on some event that will be in the public consciousness only for a fleeting moment. (Yes. Been there. Done that.)

You can check out the other t-shirts and items at the Subo Store. When I first heard that her name had been abbreviated to SuBo I thought it was a Japanese thing but I don’t think it started here.

Tees start at $25.

Interview: Jon Haste (KOLB Illustration)

There is a new t-shirt designer on the scene and I have a feeling we are going to see more of him in the near future. His name is Jon Haste and and you can find out more about what he is up to on his website (KOLB). There are only two tees available at the moment but the design work is great.

Actually one of the tees is a band t-shirt for Vib Gyor. I am not going to pretend I knew who they were but I listened to their music on their MySpace page and it is pretty sweet. Right down my alley. The band t-shirt at a glance made be think of popular t-shirt designer and Design by Humans‘ employee Jimmy Bennedict aka Jimiyo but when you take in the details you can see that the style is quite different. This design is quite fun and has a soft warm vibe. You can check it out below.

On Jon’s blog (not updated nearly enough) you can see how this design came about. [With Jon's permission I have posted the images below but for more detail be sure to check out the blog post.] You will also be able to read a but more about it in the interview below. First a line drawing and then two colored versions before settling on on the dark masterpiece that it became.

The Vib Gyor design is available on two tees, black and white and his other tee, Fist of a Thousand Faces is on white.

Well, now let’s get on the the interview because we want to know what what’s going on in Jon Haste’s mind…or at least what he tells us.

It’s always good to see another artist join the t-shirt industry. How long have you been designing?

Why did you decide to start designing t-shirts?

Thanks. It’s really very exciting to be here. I was about 16 when I first started making marks on old blank tees. Mostly very spontaneous and covered in mottos and phrases with nothing tight as far as concepts go. I started illustrating in all seriousness back in 2002, working for a broadsheet newspaper in Brasil, which is where I was living at the time. Since then I have continuously been attracted to richly patterned and highly detailed illustration, looking for techniques from woodcut printers and engravers and bringing that in to my own work. The first time that I looked at an illustration I’d produced and felt that I wanted to apply it to a tee was only last year, so only very recently. I initially submitted the design through Threadless.

No joy there I’m afraid, but the process of design and illustration specifically for the tee left me with a pretty convincing hunger to take it further and keep designing. It’s been a slow process but I’m here now. At the beginning.

Do you have any favorite t-shirt stores or designers?

I love seeing Ray Frenden’s work line work and the wonderful colour palettes he uses. Si Scott’s line control and elegance are awesome and Frank Brabara who I’ve seen a fair bit on threadless has a brilliant mastery of so many different styles of work. I do the majority of my shopping on-line. There’s just no time to put the pencil down and get out of the office!

What would you say are your biggest influences, design-wise?

Probably growing up with a wealth of story telling around me. Nursery rhymes, fairytales, books of poems, song books, were pretty much all accompanied by illustrations of varying styles, but maybe surprisingly nowadays, probably quite adult in their tone and content. Thats given me quite an emotional, maybe darkly sensitive side to my work, so that I really strive to create feeling in the image, and hopefully stir the viewer into the same experience. Its all about narrative for me. On top of that, Gustave Dore, Juarez Machado, Dave McKean, Simon Bisley, James Jean, Tomer Hanuka, and others all knocked me out at how incredible their skill was, and pushed me to go further.

Where are you based?

East London. I’ve been here six or seven years or so and It’s really home, everything I need is banging at the door.

What is your relationship with Vib Gyor? How did you come to design their t-shirt?

I went to secondary school with the drummer so we’ve known each other for a long time. He knew that I was illustrating and designing so he asked me if I could come up with something simple for the tour shirt. No brief or anything, just gave me a lot of freedom to work on something I thought suited them.

The Vib Gyor design is very complex. How did you come up with the original concept?

I’d already had the seed of an idea of an astronaut in space floating without a helmet but somehow alive, but it had never really made itself happen. When I listened to Vib Gyor’s music it that visual popped back and clicked in place. The soundscapes and depth that the music had, demanded that something quite momentous should be taking place, so I took out the glass slipper and popped in a harem of interstellar black-hole sirens!

Fist of a Fousand Faces is your latest t-shirt, right? It is also a very complex piece. Can you tell us about it?

Definitely one of those images that just came together very quickly from nowhere. The idea came all of a sudden and really made me smile. Often that initial inception of the idea is the most exciting part. That skeletal idea can be realized in hundreds of ways! The dynamism of the image was what I was after. A real forced perspective to make the hand-cloud look huge, and then look at defining the shape of the features themselves, so that it would end up looking like a kung-fu master. The work was penned in line work and then scanned and coloured digitally.

Do you have any more t-shirts in the works? If so can we get a sneak preview?

Always! There are lists, sketches and works in progress all around. I know this is really rough, but there’s one piece Ive had knocking around for a bit, only at sketch stage though. There’s going to be a slogan -BEWARE IMPOSTORS! – and I really need to figure out what the thing dressed up as a robot is going to be! A dolphin? Cactus? Its a slow burner. Maybe your readership can help me out?

Thanks Jon! Great answers and good luck!

Incubus T-Shirt Design Winners Announced at DBH

Back on June 16th I told you guys about the Incubus t-shirt design contest being held at Design by Humans and I totally forgot that it had happened. Well, no worries because I was reminded today by the annnoucement at Design by Humans. Of all places! Anyway, it is an excellent illustration and I guess a deserved win. I say ‘guess’ because I haven’t seen the competition. Anyway, as the illustration is a little hard to see on the tee I have included a closeup too.

Britney Spears Tank Top

Britney Spears has added a couple of tank tops to her Zazzle store which previously was selling one calendar. The tank tops are not bad and great if you are a young fan of Britney. They are definitely better than the faux tattoo sleeves tour merch that she was selling before.

k-os T-Shirt Design Contest

I know, it’s hard to believe that there are t-shirt design contests for musicians that are nor done by Design by Humans but it seems that k-os has decided to leave out the middle man. Perhaps they really want the designs to be created by fans rather than just by people who like designing t-shirts. Who knows. Anyway, prizes are pretty cool as you can see below.

Deadlines: Contest Starts June 29, 2009
Contest Ends July 13, 2009

Prizing
valued at approx. $800 (first prize), $400 (second prize), $75 (runner ups)

* 1 (one) T-shirt of the winning design, autographed by k-os
* The T-shirt of the winning design featured on tour and online for sale around the world.
* 2 (two) tickets to one concert of the winner’s choice on k-os’ tour and a chance to meet and hang with k-os (*tickets only, travel NOT provided)

See k-os website for more details.

Design Incubus T-Shirts at Design by Humans

The latest in Design by Humans music series is Incubus and I have a feeling that these are going to be the best t-shirts yet. The prizes are not huge but still pretty darned good and Incubus even made a short video to promote this contest…very cool. From the video I imagine that they will be very hands on about choosing the designs too.

Submissions due by July 5, 2009 by Midnight (PDT).
Voting ends July 12, 2009 by Midnight (PDT).

More details at Design by Humans.

Design KISS T-Shirts at DBH

Wow, this one is a doozy which I am pretty sure wil inspire some really wild artwork and I imagine that some intricate pieces will be selected as the winners. I could tell you more but whiy don’t you just check out the contest page. Take a note of the people’s choice award this time aroun. Smart move DBH.

For those that are not in the know, Design by Humans is an ongoing t-shirt design contest site. Design a great tee and get paid if it is accepted.

Lil Wayne T-Shirts at DBH

Design by Humans announced the winners of the Lil Wayne t-shirt design contest and I’m pretty impressed with the results and they were much more well-received than the winners of the Kings of Leon and Quicksilver design contests. You can check out the winners below.

I like the 4th place winner the best. I think it is a great fan t-shirt and if I were a teen-aged fan of Lil Wayne I would probably love to have this one. The first place winner though, is quite a stunning piece. The complexity of it reminds me of the Bold is Beautiful t-shirt by jfinley. I would say that this type of design is a screen-printers nightmare.

Another TeeFury Preview

A little birdy has told me what the next three TeeFury designs are going to be (including current design). Well, a little more than a glimpse really but I think you can get a fair idea of what they are going to be like.

Last time Teefury gave us a preview of what was going to be printed I surmised that it was a bid to drum up sales and I guess I was right and it seems that it was pretty successful. The Obama zombie design became TeeFury’s best selling t-shirt to date selling 1,325 in one day and what do you know, another preview.

I think that this Saturday’s Thom Yorke caricature should do really well to. I don’t think old Thom would be too happy about TeeFury making a profit off his face but by the time he could do anything about it it’ll be too late as the tee will only be on sale for 24 hours. On the other hand, he might be pretty liberal considering the fact that Radiohead released an album allowing people to pay whatever they wanted for it.

All tees at TeeFury are $9 and, as mentioned before, on sale for only 24 hours. You snooze, you lose.

DBH Music Series Part 3 – Lil Wayne

Design by Humans are onto the next contest in their music series and it has to be their most hip subject yet featuring rapper Lil Wayne. There are no designs yet but expect one of the first to be some idiot doing a live trace of above picture. I will post some examples if and (more than likely) when they happen.

Prizes are as follows:
1st Place
$1,500 cash
$250 DBH Credit
2 Lil Wayne Concert Tickets
2nd Place
$750 cash and $250 DBH Store Credit
3rd Place
$500 cash and $250 DBH Store Credit
4th Place
$500 cash and $250 DBH Store Credit

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