September 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Derby 9's theme was about the transition from summer to fall. Which we all translated to "please design a shirt with leaves or trees on it". This theme was very likely inspired by the overwhelming success of the "Cool Breeze" shirt from 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, no sign that any of the shirts that won this week will be anywhere near that popular. But trees and leaves can make for some nice shirts. Lets take a look at some.
The don't-you-give-me-that-look- young-lady Award
I love how this shirt communicates so much with so little. With just silhouettes and talk/thought baloons that look like leaves you have a family story. Jane walks away from mom and dad, mumbling under her breath. Very clever.
The I'll-rake-your-leaves-for-a-quarter Award
I love 8-bit style graphics and this one is unusually clever in replacing all the elements of Space Invaders with leaf related items. So, do the leaves coming down add to the pile or detract from it? When is someone going to write this in Flash so I can try it out? Nice to have a non-brown shirt in this derby too.
Flora's-revenge-on-fauna Award
Plants, tired of being stepped on and eaten by animals for so long get a little bit of revenge every fall. Ms. Maple slips a few leaves toward the pond and Mr. Koi swims up to discover, "nope, just a leaf again" and the tree laughs and laughs. Fantastic perspective and good use of limited colors on this shirt.
The sure-it-looks-like-a-leaf Award
But it's not. It's many leaves! Or a tree! These shirts look good from a distance and have interesting detail up close. Nice detail work from these artists.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
You probably first noticed Goelzjs when he submitted "Take It Back" (shown on right) in Derby #3. Since then he has won twice, coming in first with his "Pirate Penguin" on the last derby. Here's more about him and how he creates his cool shirts.
Woot Stats? (first derby / years on woot / # bags of crap)
3rd / n00b / 0. Shirt.woot was brought to my attention during the first derby, which was “One.” I loved the idea and knew I would want to be a part of the submission craze. I made and entry for the following derby, “Heat” but my incomplete dead polar bear was never submitted, although other similar ideas surfaced later that week. My first official submission was “Roadmap For Peace” during the “Maps” derby, and it was instantly rejected for being off topic. Later that week I submitted my first entry that would make the new hotness list: “Circuit Board USA.” (It’s official name was “Take It Back.”)
What are you tools of choice?
Photoshop,
Illustrator, Lightwave 3D. I have a
Wacom tablet, but it only helps with carpal tunnel.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
My designs are usually concept heavy and less artistic, so the hardest step for me is brainstorming. I usually talk though my ideas with co-workers or my girlfriend and they help me focus my inspiration into something more tangible. I then do most of my work in Illustrator and use Photoshop as a finishing tool.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
I got my undergrad degree in Media Art and Design and minored in 3D animation. I currently work as a Broadcast Artist / Multimedia Designer for a television production company.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
I DO love to do art/design full-time. My dream job includes any job that favors a creative environment. Where else can I capture my co-workers on hidden camera embarrassing themselves?
Any plans to sell your designs outside woot?
Yes. I am currently in talks with another online vendor who is interesting in publishing and selling my designs.
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
Never get comfortable. Always challenge yourself to stay creative, and surround yourself with inspiration.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Today's interview is a little different than the derby winner interviews we've been doing. Today we're talking to MJ from
Compete-tee-tion, the blog about shirt competitions all over the web. Instead of a personal interview, we'll be stepping through what it takes for a designer to create a shirt. MJ's shirt,
"Sore Thumbs", was the very first shirt sold at Shirt.Woot after the launch t-shirt. Let's talk to MJ.
What was your inspiration for this design?
I was dog-sitting and bored. I'd been trying to think of a good drawing project, and happened to look at my Xbox 360. I did a sketch of the controller, and thought it would be neat to do some more.
What did you research for your design?
I started out by drawing all the controllers that I could think of off the top of my head, and then I filled in the gaps by doing some Google searches.
How did you get started? What were your first steps?
I usually start out by doing some loose drawings with Non-Photo Blue colored pencil. I ordered some of those from ebay awhile back and they're pretty cool -- they don't show up much in scans, so it's easy to separate out from the finalized drawing.
After the sketch with blue pencil, I go back in with a pen and trace over the most accurate blue lines. After I looked at the drawings I had on the page, I decided that a strong black and white iconic treatment would look cool, so I got out some tracing paper and drew my black shapes directly over the original drawing. From there, it was all computer work.
I rearranged the controller icons in Photoshop into what I thought was an interesting configuration. Then I plopped it on a shirt and sent it to Woot to see if they were interested. They were, so I redid the icon drawings as a vector file in Illustrator. That made it a lot easier for Woot to set up the print files and ensure that the lines stayed crisp and accurate. Now that Shirt.Woot is fully up and running, though, I usually wait until I have a vector file before I submit anything. It just helps to streamline the process and get things moving more quickly.
How do you decide which colors to use?
Originally, I thought it would be neat to use a silver foil for the icons. But after talking to Woot, we determined that the quality of the foil would probably get destroyed pretty quickly. So we went with more of a dark grey. I'm happy with how that turned out.
What were some of the decisions you made along the way?
The biggest decision I made was when I had my sketches in the icon stage -- that's when I decided to use my images for a t-shirt (up until then I was thinking in terms of computer icons or some kind of collage). So I took my tracing paper scans and started moving the individual controllers around into a bunch of different configurations. The one I liked the most looked a bit like a giant sore thumb to me, so I made a few changes to exaggerate it more in that direction. My goal was to have a shape that resembled a thumb if you knew the name (kind of like an in-joke) but was still kind of a cool looking shape even if that connection was unknown to the viewer.
What do you like about the final result? What do you not like?
I'm very happy with how the shirt turned out. It looks a heck of a lot nicer on a shirt than it did on my computer screen, so that was cool to see. If I had another crack at this design, I'd probably play more with color -- it might have been interesting to have icons that each had two colors, for instance, or maybe to vary color from controller to controller. I'm not sure that any of those options would look better than the current shirt, but it might have been fun to try.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Ouch. I'm sure everyone is glad Derby 8 is over. Maybe nobody wants to see any more "not a pirate" entries but I'm going to have to do my job here. This will be over with quickly. I will apologize ahead of time for the 40% ninja content. Sorry!
The too-good-to-be-a-shirt Award
As concept art for an upcoming
anime series about the lives and loves of
Vietcong assassins, this is perfect. It's serious and scary and makes you wonder about the girl (it is a girl, isn't it?) behind the mask, sneaking through the swamp. I can't wait for it be available on DVD.
The Austin-Powers:Ninja-Swinger Award
By mixing a hip 70s background with the silhouette of a ninja, "Ninja Groove" takes us back to a more innocent age when ninjas were still cool. The background is so sweet, I'd actually buy and wear a ninja shirt. Now that's amazing. Awesome details in the depth of the design, making it look 3D without gradients and only 6 colors. Putting everything in the bottom-right corner only makes it nicer.
The-how-to-discipline-a-viking Award
"Viking in the corner". What could a viking have done out of character that you'd have to punish him by putting him in the corner? Be nice? And will he really stay there? Oh, it refers to the position on the shirt. Great! Nice position and size. Enough people have complained about giant and centered images and the message is starting to get across in this derby. Thank you everyone!
The thank-you-for-not-being-a-ninja Award
Cool retro robots. Monster hand-to-hand combat. How can you go wrong? "Robot Revival" has some really clean lines and coloring and a nice iconic look. "Monster Mash" shows some incredible artistic skill. Is it just me, or does the Frankenstein look like
Ronald Reagan? I'd love to see more from this artist.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Annie22 won 2 derbies in a row with her "Jellyfishalicious" and "Zombie Season" and is clearly a force to be reckoned with in the derbies. Here's what she has to say for herself.
Woot Stats? (first derby / years on woot / # bags of crap)
5th (light) / n00b / 0: Zero BOCs unfortunately. But luckily no real bags left on fire in front of my door.
What are you tools of choice?
For software I prefer
Photoshop. I only use
Illustrator as an easy way to drop my colors down to 6. The file size of a .AI file is much nicer than a .PSD file too. I LOVE
Corel Painter but for detailed artwork that allows for more than six colors. I do have an
Intuos 2 Wacom tablet. I find myself using the mouse for a lot of things though. "Jellyfishalicious" was done almost entirely with the mouse since it was a lot of lines and paths. "Zombie Season" was done more with the tablet since I had to draw out the zombies. The photoshop brushes I use are created by me. A few years back I was obsessed with making brush sets. So I've got quite a few.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
HA! Process. I'm pretty scatterbrained so I'm not sure if I really have a process. Usually I'll try and try to research an idea for hours, spend more hours drawing things I hate, then something will just hit me out of the blue while I'm at work or trying to sleep. After I get an idea of what I want it usually comes together pretty quick. I think every shirt process is different though. I found reference images of jellyfish for "Jellyfishalicious". I tried to find some good zombie pictures for reference on "Zombie Season", but to no avail. I just did my best at drawing figures. I have the hardest time deciding what color the design or shirt should be so I can spend an hour or so making up my mind on that alone. Rise Against and The Faint usually keep me entertained while I'm zoning in my design.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
Where I work my title is "Graphic Designer" but it's a glorified monkey job. I work putting together grocery ads. The ads are laid out already so good design isn't really a requirement. I just re-arrange things. Like switching apples for pears. That sort of thing. I was really into art in high school but always felt like I'd be a starving artist if I bothered with it. So right now I'm enrolled in a drafting program at the community college in my town. I don't like it. But I figure it'll pay the bills some day.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
Hell yeah! Hmm... dream job... I used to have big plans of going to an art institute and studying computer animation. But I think now I'd be happy with any "graphic design" job other than the one I've got now.
Any plans to sell your designs outside woot?
I've thought about it, but really I don't know if I have the time to come up with derby entries AND additional entries. I may submit some directly to shirt.woot.com here within the next month. But with school and work I don't know if I'll have time I'll let you know if I do though!
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
One thing I've been noticing is someone will have a fantastic entry but then they will submit it twice. There will only be a slight variation in the designs and it seems to me that it would just cause votes to be split. Half the voters might like it on asphalt gray and the other half might like it on heather gray. I think new artists should also ask themselves, "Would I wear this? Would I actually want to buy this?" because if the answer is no, then it's probably no for many of the voters too. Most of all don't get discouraged by lack of votes or rude comments. Anyone can win and even if you don't win the first derby you enter, there's always another shot! Plus you gain skills from the experience.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
This is the 1st of hopefully many interviews with derby winners. This time it's Discodancing, the artist who designed the beautiful and enormously popular, "Cool Breeze".
Woot Stats? (# derbies / years on woot / # bags of crap)
1st/.5/0: No BOCs yet. Some close calls though. I did get a screaming woot monkey. You get two of those little beasts in a minivan and you’re just begging for an accident. I don’t even want to talk about what happens when you add chicken nuggets into the mix.
What are your tools of choice?
I’m not much of a freehand artist. By that I mean I can’t draw…at all. I use Photoshop and Illustrator primarily for design – for this entry I used Illustrator exclusively.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
That’s a difficult question to answer. I think it varies by project. It always starts with a lot of brainstorming. I often start a project first by picking a color palette – and then spend time in
Photoshop or
Illustrator establishing a style. After that, it’s slowly starting with a general layout and working my way down to the details. I tend to eat a lot of chocolate along the way. That helps. Chocolate is amazing. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t eat chocolate.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
I graduated from college with a multimedia design degree. I’ve also worked professionally in interactive design for roughly 10 years. I have experience with new media, broadcast design, and photography. My expertise is definitely with interactive development using Flash. Among my biggest accomplishments was serving as the Director of Animation for a broadcast animation series. A close second is the development of a small aardvark character that I’ve been able to work into countless designs.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
I’m actually lucky enough to have a full time design job. I’m the Director of Multimedia at a major post production facility in Washington, DC. I work with an extremely talented group that has actually had three shirts printed out of the last two derbies. The biggest woot fan of the group hasn’t won yet. If he doesn’t submit an entry soon, I’ll link you all to some amazing
YouTube videos of him. They involves his pants and a crazy spiky rubber ball animal contraption.
Any plans to sell your designs outside Woot?
Yes, I am actually in discussions with another web site that focuses on t-shirt design.
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
It’s never too late to submit. My shirt received a record 955 votes despite not being posted until Sunday afternoon. I have no idea how. Finally, try not to get discouraged by the forum. It’s a brutal battleground. Quite entertaining though.
Also, I just wanted to thank everyone who voted for my shirt. Over the last week there have been many flattering comments on the forum and I very much appreciate them all. Thank you so much.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Derby 7's theme was sound but the entries were overwhelmingly focused on music with many entries with musical notation. However, the loser awards will have zero grams of notation per serving today.
The incestuous-media Award
I'm pretty sure reel-to-reel and vinyl records weren't first cousins so I guess it's OK. Removing all the text from the original entry ("Evolution of Sound") was a big improvement but I miss the nice linear layout. Maybe there's some compromise. Either way, I like the stylized depictions of the media and the sharp color contrasts.
The take-me-to-your-lead-singer Award
I'm not usually one to go for the big diorama shirts but "Audio Invaders" is clever and not too busy. Great textures and colors. I can't decide if the added MP3 player is a jarring extra on the scene or needed to keep it from looking too peaceful. They are invaders after all. I also think the number of votes was hurt by showing the shirt along with a generous border at the 240x size.
The gratuitous-monkey Award
Thank you, derekfilley, for giving your shirt a hilarious name, "why we can't have nice things", but showing the restraint not to print it on the shirt. I'm not usually a monkey shirt fan but this is cute, stylized, and small. I'd really like this shirt for my toddler so that extra size option is a little hint/request for Derek as he looks for a print shop.
The 45-rpm-adapter Awards
Can you really have too many 45-rpm adapter shirts? I don't think so. Nice to see "Music Burn" back from derby #2. I liked it then and I like it now. I love that "get your groove on" leaves so much black in the picture, even making the edges disappear on the sides. Since I like things small, I'd prefer both of these with the image shrunk a bit more.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007In going through the derby entries in preparation for the next Loser Awards, I have a few suggestions for the Derbyists:
- Actually show a shirt in your shirt comp view (the 600x one). The position and size of the image can make or break a design -- if you don't show it, we don't know, and I for one, won't vote.
- Speaking of size, please consider something besides stretch-to-the-limits of 16x20. I really prefer subtle shirts with lots of white space. Big and bold might make the most sense for some designs but not all of them.
- Give the voter some credit -- we can probably figure out your shirt without you adding a bunch of text. Keep it simple.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007I know some of the other derby winners have had trouble getting their 3 free shirts that come with every win. If that's you, contact shirt@woot.com and address it to Joel and he'll set you up.
For commissioned artists (i.e, non-derby daily shirts) who really love their shirt and want to own it long-term, Woot will give you the option of less money ($100 and $1/shirt) but return rights to you 1 year after they stop printing. Nice if you're a pro and want to use your design again. Unfortunately, this is not offered for derby winners to keep the process streamlined and less confusing.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Derby 6 was all about fake shirts and fake sports teams. I was completely at a loss and didn't submit an entry this time. I was very impressed with the great ideas and excellent quality from the people who entered. Great job everyone!
The you-can't-use-it-for-pants-but- could-use-it-for-a-towel-if-you-had-to Award
I like
HGTTG but am not a rabid fan by any means. This is subtle enough to not scare away the average person and geeky enough that a fan would appreciate it. Nice. Hopefully for sale someday.
The modestly-dressed-thumb Award
Clever idea nicely executed. I truly believe the reason it did not do better is because of the limitations of the thumbnail (already small at 240x but shrunk down to 120x for most of us) and the laziness of the average voter making it possible that people don't realize what that odd shaped "thing" is. A thumb wearing a
Mawashi is pretty hard to make out at any resolution.
The Mr-Wayne-is-our-team-owner Award
I like shirts with a logo look and with simple straightforward design. I would wear this regardless of what it says but a
Batman reference sure doesn't hurt. Now, how can I get an
Ironman "Hi, my name is Tony Stark and I'm an Alcoholic" shirt?
The fake-sports-association Awards
There were many sports association entries. I think these were the best for the combination of ridiculousness and nice execution.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Not much to say about this shirt but it is obvious that it is not well liked. Guessing from the percentage sales per hour, I predict it will end up selling less than the "Green Space" of last week. Hey Woot, how about we have 7 winners in the derby each week and we skip trying to fill the rest of the week? We can have a "top 10" fog-of-war and watch the 7 entries get printed for the rest of the week. As the derby entries get better every week, the other weekly entries seem to be falling off in sales so this seems like a natural progression and will probably be easier for Woot to manage.
UPDATE: Skatetown sold 152 vs. 183 for Green Space. Looks like we'll be seeing a lot of Skatetown in our upcoming BOCs!
Thursday, September 06, 2007
With a name like Loser Awards, what kind of prize will our winners be getting? Absolutely nothing!
Getting a late start here with the first Loser Awards. We have a new week of entries almost ready to judge so let's get going on last week's.
The almost-nonexistent-niche award
Congratulations to Inglekott for going with his heart and making the shirt he really wants that almost nobody else gets. An obscure reference to They Might Be Giants', "Birdhouse In Your Soul" with a tiny bird nightlight watching over your sleep. If only he could have worked in some screaming argonauts...
The goes-great-with-my-tats award
This shirt would look good with that giant tiger tatoo on your arm. This is a shirt you have to be willing to back up. I think the reason this shirt didn't win is that most of the wooters don't have the guts to wear it. I don't. Anyway, nice positioning and very effective use of the background color -- as it is designed it looks better on this color than it probably would on any other.
The can't-wait-for-60-days-to-be-up award
I voted for this shirt the first second I saw it. James Cho did an awesome job of keeping the lines clean and subtle and picking a great foreground color to go with the unfortunate background color Woot insisted on. Hopefully, if and when James offers this for sale on his own, we can get a darker background color.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007I talked to Woot and it seems you really do give up any rights to your t-shirt FOREVER. I'm not really concerned about it since I don't have any plans for the design, but this is a good thing to keep in mind if you're a professional designer.
Also, there is an additional perk from winning the derby -- 3 free shirts delivered overnight. Very nice!
Monday, September 03, 2007
Today's shirt is just a Grass Green shirt with nothing on it. As expected, they didn't sell many of these -- only 184. I think it's great that the silkscreening staff got a 3-day weekend but next time you want a holiday, how about something a little more interesting like a sale on existing shirts? Maybe $12?
Sunday, September 02, 2007
I came in 3rd for derby #5 with my shirt Sunset Tree. I am pleasantly shocked since I thought my shirt was a little plain. I also made a mistake and designed on the wrong color. I wrote Woot and gave them several suggestions on how we could handle the boo-boo but they ignored me and changed the colors to work with Kelly Green instead of the Grass Green I used. I'm still psyched that I won but a little worried about what the end result will look like since the shades of green they chose looked a little random. That's the original Grass Green on the right and the new Kelley Green below.
Also, a question for Woot that I'll be probably asking them soon. When you win, do the rights of the shirt ever return to you? Maybe 60 days after you're kicked out on a day of reckoning? The Terms and Agreements might imply that Woot keeps the rights forever.
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