December 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
Riffmaster18 wins another derby. Since I've
interviewed him before, here's his updated stats and a link so you can buy his sold-out derby shirt when it goes back on sale tomorrow.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
#4 (maps) / 8 / 6. I've bought about 8 shirts, and hoping to buy some good "best of" shirts next week. This was my 6th shirt print (4th derby print).
Thursday, December 27, 2007Derby 22's theme was based on the list of
Merriam-Webster's words of the year. Plus no words allowed. That and the holidays made for a thin derby both in terms of votes and entries. Here's a few of the ones I liked.
The "Gamera" Award
"Monster Movie" is RobbGlenn's resubmit that was rejected in the Patterns Derby. It makes more sense here as a Sardoodledom entry. Cool shirt that summarizes a Japanese monster movie plot without using any words. Clean bold graphics.
The "how much muck could a woodchuck upchuck" Award
AdderXYU has been steadily improving since he started participating in the derbies. This is his best so far -- a straightforward take on Conundrum, clean lines, and a cute woodchuck. Now if only this could start a repeating woodchuck meme, I'd be truly happy.
The "even more Fonzie" Award
Somebody heard I go for the Fonzie shirts I guess. "Jumping the Sardoodledom (Spinoff)" is the cleaner version of HalfBee's shark jumping shirt. Simple and funny. Great work.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007Derby 21's theme was winter. Woot wanted to see snow and cold without any holiday specific themes. Here's a few of the underlooked cool shirts in this derby.
The "in a better place" Award
"Sad Revelations" imagines how we're freaking out the real snowmen with out giant lawn ornaments. Cute idea nicely executed.
The "where did your brother go?" Award
I really expected to see a lot more "whiteout" style shirts like this in this derby with just a few details showing up on a blizzard-white background. "Polar Winter" does a nice job with it and has just enough detail to pull it off. It's tough to get votes for white shirts these days though.
The "Madame Butterfly" Award
"Waiting... Winter" shows the girl waiting forever as she becomes one with the landscape. Great colors and patterns. Aegis72 turned this into a theme and has made versions for the other three seasons as well. Last I heard it might still be printed by Woot in a daily.
p.s. Despite the message Aegis72 left on this 240x detail shot, clicking on it will do you no good.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007Here's your reminder. Use code DBHFAM to save 35% through December 31st at
DesignByHumans.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
JamesCho84 probably doesn't need an introduction to most of you. He's been participating since the 1st derby, is prolific and talented, and is a frequent contributor on the forums. Here's a few things you might not have know about him.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
#1 (one) / 1 / 7. My first derby was the .. first derby. (my design was absolutely horrible). I'm embarrassed to say I've only bought one shirt. But hey, I give Woot a lot of money by being the creator. I've won 5 derbies (3 1st, 2 2nd) and have had 2 printed as daily shirts.
What are you tools of choice?
Photoshop,
Illustrator,
Intuos2 9x12 tablet, a
scanner,
GettyImages, a camera, and
a small wooden mannequin (artists figurine). I also use people in my house to do all sorts of poses.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
I'll sit in my chair and smoke a couple of cigarettes while I get the idea. Then i'll quickly sketch it out (either on computer or paper) - and see how the composition would work, and if it does - do a more final sketch before putting it into Illustrator.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
I've been drawing for fun most of my life. I worked as an interactive designer at an agency in boston for a couple of years - but now I work at home.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
I do it full-time already. but I would've opted for pornstar if the opportunity was there.
Any plans to sell your designs outside woot?
Yup, but they're secret!
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
Besides the obvious (get it in early, etc.), get inspiration from great designers out there right now (check sites like
StyleBoost). Check and see what's won, and what's done well, and get an idea of what the standard is.
Friday, December 21, 2007Use code DBHFAM to save 35% from December 26th through December 31st at
DesignByHumans. This is too good to pass up. I'll remind you again after Christmas...
Wednesday, December 19, 2007Derby 20's theme was "create your own holiday". A bit too reminiscent of the "anything but pirates" in that it is way too open-ended. Just like with the pirates theme, this led to lots of half-baked shirts and random rejections. Also like the pirate theme, it led to a lot of shirts that might fit the theme but the joke or cleverness fell apart on their own. All that said, I did find a few designs that raised above the fray.
The "Smokey vs. Rocky and Bullwinkle" Award
"Angry Day" makes vicious angry animals cute again. Great chalky sketchy look. Love the "GRRRRRR".
The "does anyone know where Flick is?" Award
"Do a triple dog dare day" has a simple bold design of a great pop culture reference. I like that it has a slightly Rolling Stones feel too. I don't think those are Flick's lips though...
The "magically delicious" Award
I'm tired of seeing JamesCho84 in the Best Losers instead of my closet. Like some of his other recent great shirt designs, this one was entered a bit late so missed some of the early run up. As usual, his "mythical creatures day" has amazing details. Love the almost invisible fairies.
The "read between the lines" Award
"National
National Day Awareness Day" is the shirt in this derby I'd most like to wear. It has a dozen better shirt ideas hidden in the brown-on-brown text than most anything else in the running. Good choices on colors to not overwhelm the viewer with high contrast text. I think the vote count was probably affected by people being confused about the double "National" in the title.
Monday, December 17, 2007How would you like free breadsticks -- on me? That's right, I'm giving away $20 in
OliveGarden gift cards to the lucky artist who uploads our 100th derby loser.
Last time I looked we had maybe 70 shirts uploaded so far. I know I haven't refreshed my stuff lately. So we should hit 100 pretty fast -- get busy and upload those shirts!
Here's a few more details:
- Prize consists of 2 $10 gift cards to any Darden Restaurant (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, etc.).
- All standard uploading rules apply. Click here to see the rules and upload.
- I will be checking time stamps to determine who is the exact 100th uploader and will announce the winner here.
Please email me (address in sidebar) if any of this is unclear.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
InitialSam has been Wooting for more than a year and Derbying since Derby 11. Here's a few more things about him.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
#11 (Cryptozology) / 3 / 1st
My first derby entry was a
crow with antlers, it is still one of my favorite entries to date. I also entered my winning shirt two days before my first Woot birthday.
What are your tools of choice?
Photoshop. I asked Santa for a
Tablet and
Illustrator...we’ll see.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
I usually read the theme right at Noon on Thursday and immediately start complaining about how stupid the theme is and how I’m not participating this week....twenty minutes later I have about 5 or 6 ideas sketched out. I pick my favorite one and spend most of my time on that one. If I have time and energy when I’m done that I’ll work on a second one.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
My original college major was Graphic Design. I used to manually design and screen shirts out of my friends walk-in closet(you need a completely dark room). It is a very tedious messy process but it can be insanely fun and rewarding.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
I would love to work as a Graphic Designer but reality is that the jobs are hard to come by. My dream design job would be with the NFL or Volkswagen.
Any plans to sell your designs outside woot?
Maybe...I’ll see how “Dependence Day” sells...
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
Be positive, Don’t get mixed up in the forum drama, and just keep trying...Sometimes you work all night on a shirt and it gets fourteen votes and sometimes you think your shirt won’t last and it gets 520 votes.
Friday, December 14, 2007I've updated the
FAQ with better information on print-to-order shops. Also, good news about
Zazzle. I guess it's always been a rumor that you lose the rights to your shirts. Just like everywhere else, you keep the rights forever. More details on this blog
here with comments posted by somebody from Zazzle.
Friday, December 14, 2007
New artist Keyser520 scores a #1 win almost on his first try. Here's more about this new guy.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
#17 (pirates) / 7 / 1. My first derby was back when I was in Cub Scouts, and my pinewood derby car--you'll be happy to know--made it the regional finals. The details are a bit fuzzy, as almost two decades have passed since then, but my car took either first or second place... oh, what's that? You meant my first shirt.woot Derby? My apologies. My first Derby was #17: Consumerism. I submitted one design to that derby, didn't submit one to #18, and then submitted "When I Was Your Age.." to #19.
Just one shirt printed so far, which has currently sold over 1500 t-shirts. I'm going to do my best to increase the number of printed Keyser520 designs. That has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? "Keyser520 designs" I may have to start my own clothing line. Today, shirt.woot. Tomorrow, the fashion world. Move over Gucci, Keyser520 is coming down the runway.
What are you tools of choice?
My imagination, which is extraordinairely chaotic and off the wall. Once a design emerges from that convoluted maze, that difficult part begins: translating the image from brainwave into psd. My current tool of choice for this is
Photoshop, though I am thinking of buying a
Wacom Tablet and/or a
scanner.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
There's a process for this sort of thing?
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
I used to do a lot of painting and drawing and sculpting and...but that was years and years ago. My recent life decisions (and by recent, I mean the past 15 years) have brought me away from drawing, so I've temporarily lost much of my freehand artistic abilities. They are ssnort!y coming back.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
I would love a job that allowed me to be creative full-time, ranging from graphic design to writing (I've finished one children's book and am working on a novel) to dancing.
Any plans to sell your designs outside woot?
Exploit the public, coercing them to shell out their hard-earned cash for my doodlings? Sounds like a good plan to me.
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
Just give it a shot. You never know what could happen. I had no idea that "When I Was Your Age..." would actually win. In fact, I submitted Friday, left for the weekend, and hoped to make it into the top 20. On Monday, I was pleasantly shocked to see that the design had made it into the fog over the weekend. It may have just been a fluke, though, because my current designs aren't anywhere close to the mist. Ah well, there's always next week...
Thursday, December 13, 2007You might notice things looking a little different around here. Everything should work the same but I might have missed something. Please email me (address in the sidebar) if you see anything that doesn't look right.
Monday, December 10, 2007Derby 19's theme was travel -- not to be confused with derby 4's maps. With it being similar to that derby you'd think there'd be some resubmissions from way back then but Woot was specifically excluding maps and instead looking for planes, trains, and automobiles. There were a couple of obvious resubmissions from other recent derbies though. Cho's time travel t-rex and FableFire's consumer alien (now on a bicycle) came back and got some good numbers.
A fuel-and-his-money-are-soon-parted Award
"Pay more tomorrow at the pump" has a crisp look and bold colors. This is the first I've noticed from relatively-new artist RobbMad. I hope to see more.
The sometimes-first-class-isn't-the-best Award
Nice roomy seats there but is it worth sitting next to that annoying little kid? JamesCho84's "when you really need to change seats" has his consistently amazing detail and a cute premise. I especially love the "tiptoeing" tail coming across the armrest.
The after-you-have-secured-your-own- oxygen-you-can-assist-your- paramecium Award
"Our tiny travelling companions" obviously have to travel as cramped as we do. Great idea nicely done. I love the all the extra details that give the bacteria personalities.
Sunday, December 09, 2007Derby 18's theme was patterns. Mostly that meant a lot of copy-and-pasting in the entries. Not that much grabbed me with this topic so these awards will be short and sweet.
The must-love-patterned-dogs Award
GeekFactor12 has outdid herself with "matched pair". Great implementation of the theme, great color choices, and a nice story implied in the design. Very stylish. Hope to see this somewhere after the 60 days are up.
In-case-of-fire-do-not-wear-this-shirt Award
"Exploding shirt" implies a pattern without being repetitive. I love the 3-d blocks in the foreground. It gives the whole thing more interest.
The not-from-around-here Award
Cute hand-drawn style of a collection of interesting looking aliens show up on blah's "a lot of aliens" shirt. Bright color choices. I think it would've gotten more votes with more of the shirt shown at the detail (240x) level.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Catching up with old interviews today. Shigwarm won derby 13 with his pacman-esque "Pumpkin and ghost". Here's a bit more about him. He's been on Woot for 2 years and started entering derbies almost from the beginning. Nice to have an old-timer win!
Woot Stats? (first derby / years on woot / # bags of crap)
#2 (Heat) / 2 years / 0. The first derby I entered was "Heat". My entry was one that depicted a blob of wasabi. It took me about 5 minutes to make. Mostly I entered the derby to learn how the whole submission process worked.
What are you tools of choice?
I am currently using
Inkscape because I am a poor poor student. But, after winning a derby, I'm considering using the extra cash to upgrade to
Adobe Illustrator. I do like working with my hand drawn images, although I haven't submitted any to the derby.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
I like to sit down with the new design topic and brainstorm. I write down all the ideas that come to my head. I reread the list and highlight the ones that make me laugh or that I think are unique. And then, if I have enough time, I'll actually make one of them.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
Not much. I've had a few art and illustration classes here and there. Other than that I mostly just draw in my spare time as a hobby.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
I would love to be able to draw and make art full-time! Then there's little thing I call reality that bursts my bubble and makes me realize I'd probably starve as an artist. My dream job would be to travel the U.S. painting landscapes and murals.
Any plans to sell your designs outside woot?
No plans at the moment. Anyone want to be my agent?
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
Have fun. Make entries that you like. Originality is always a plus. Otherwise, be really familiar with the rules of parody.
Monday, December 03, 2007
If you take a look at
ShirtDerbyStats you can see that RobGlenn has been very busy submitting dozens of shirts since he started in derby 11. And he isn't slowing down just because he won. This illustrates something I realized recently in that you're probably more likely to win with multiple entries than you are in spending a lot of time perfecting one entry.
Woot Stats? (first derby / years on woot / # bags of crap)
#11 (Cryptozoological) / n00b / 0. My first woot purchase was just a couple weeks ago, a remote control helicopter. I couldn't even vote for my own designs in the first few derbies I entered.
What are you tools of choice?
Adobe Illustrator with a little
Photoshop thrown in. Mac and mouse.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
I really like the setup of the woot derby because you get the theme 24 hours before you can submit anything. It gives me time to think of something before I sit down in front the computer. I do better with some sort of constraints to work within, so the theme and deadline work for me. I'll usually sketch out some ideas at work and fire up Illustrator when I get home. I try to post entries as soon as the bell rings on Friday.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
I've been gainfully employed as a graphic designer for almost 20 years.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
The design stuff pays the bills, but my dream job would have to be professional poker player.
Any plans to sell your designs outside woot?
It's fun to daydream about... but the realistic return keeps me from doing anything like that.
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
In a lot of cases the cleverness of the design is more important than the actually quality of the work... at least that's true for me. Also enter early and often.
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