November 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007Derby 17's theme was consumerism. It seems the Woot lawyers don't have enough work. Not only did they avoid rejecting the logo parody shirts, they went ahead and printed Shmeedle's
Five Bucks shirt and my
multiple offending Dissipate.
The wear-it-with-your-leather-jacket- to-Arnold's Award
"Tastes like Fonzie" has a nice '50s packaging style and good color choices. I can never get enough Fonzie so I'm sold.
The Brazilian-wax Award
Great message with multiple meanings humorously portrayed in "they want us to be spineless". Cute hand-drawn style.
The available-for-a-limited-time Award
The "100% disposable" shirt pokes fun at our disposable culture and indirectly at the dirt-cheap prices we're paying for t-shirts. Love all the instructions and warnings ala'
Happy Fun Ball.
The even-more-logo-parodies Awards
Since there were so many logo parodies in this derby, I wanted to highlight a couple more. "Always low wages. Always." has already infected my mind. I try to avoid shopping at Walmart but was stuck there this weekend and couldn't help translating their slogan into this every time I saw it. "For the ladies" does a nice job slightly changing the Oil of Olay logo to be a bit more truthful.
Monday, November 19, 2007Derby 16's theme was infographics. Woot was looking for diagrams of all types (except street signs). Lots of impressive entries this week but not very many made it into the fog. Here's a few of my favorites.
The carpal-tunnel Award
JamesCho84 tried to test the limits of the rule that you have to enter by Monday morning at the latest to have a chance. He entered Monday afternoon and had a very impressive run up the ranks but still only made it into 6th place. Beautiful and painstaking work here with the heavy stippling. Also one of his more humorous ideas. Sounds like it won't be a loser for long according to James -- look for this to be printed by Woot soon.
The save-the-cheerleader-save-the- chopsticks Award
If you carefully follow these instructions, you too can celebrate when you successfully teleport yourself for the first time. Or separate your chopsticks. Whichever. They're both pretty cool. Cute graphics and retro colors on this makes this one a winner.
The Timmy-was-really-into-science Award
"Fig 7b Plant Cell" shows us what makes those little plant cells tick. Nice subtle visual joke. Great color choices. Good stuff.
The back-to-school Awards
Ah, school memories. "School assembly" brings to mind the prison-like buildings and the torturous all-school meetings all in one shirt. And "Failed anatomy test" reminds us of the embarassing failures on our exams that affected the rest of our lives. Good times. Anyway, regardless of all that, these shirts are cool. I've always wanted to do a blueprint-style shirt but didn't have the skill and/or patience. And the anatomy shirt does a great job with the colors making it look like you really have masking tape and string on your shirt.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007Derby 15's theme was time travel souvenirs. Woot was looking for a shirt that you might actually pick up as a tourist through time. As expected, that led to text-heavy and joke-heavy shirts. I've tried to pick a few shirts here that were a little different than the pack.
The Martian-trail-mix Award
In a contest overwhelmed with subtle and not-so-subtle jokes, Jack31081 goes for the straight shot and has a very believable Mars hiking shirt. Nice simple single-color design with great color choices make this a class act.
The as-big-a-deal-as-the-grammaphone Award
"Seg Waaay Back" shows us one of the very early prototypes of
"Ginger". Great old-timey look and color choices.
The you-might-need-a-wide-load-sign- for-that Award
JamesCho84 sneaks back under his sister's ID with his entry, "Bring back history". Very refreshing to see an almost textless design in a text-heavy derby. The kind of amazingly detailed illustrations you only get from him.
Monday, November 12, 2007
You've probably noticed a few of CheeseSandwich's owls and a whole lotta kaleidoscopes since s/he (or as s/he prefers to be called, "it") started participating in the derbies. Now it has just the right combination of great idea and great execution with "Ain't No Party Like a Boston Party" and it got it a derby win! Here's more about it (the person not the shirt).
Woot Stats? (first derby / years on woot / # bags of crap)
#9 (Summer into fall) / n00b / 0. I found out about woot from some co-workers a few months ago. I wooted right away and I haven’t stopped since. I guess it was love at first woot. I have nary a Blinged-Out Cabbage. To be honest, I already own so much crap that I am probably better off.
What are you tools of choice?
I currently like to use
Illustrator and
Photoshop, but I started with MacPaint when I was four or five.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
My design process can be summed up in five steps.
1. Brainstorm by searching the most obscure parts of my brain.
2. Roughly sketch out ideas for designs and placement.
3. Stare at the computer screen for between 10 minutes & 2 hours.
4. Digitize my phenomenal ideas.
5. Put the design on a beefy shirt model and never look back.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
I majored in graphic design in college and I have been working in design full-time for 6 years (on and off).
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
I would and I do! It’s great to be able to turn your hobby into your career. My dream job would either be a designer for Apple or an astronaut/space cowboy.
Any plans to sell your designs outside woot?
I am in the process of starting a website which will offer original designs, but currently only have shirts available on woot.
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
I really wouldn’t have any advice on how to win because the shirt.woot audience has pretty diverse tastes. I just try to design shirts that I like and find to be funny or clever. New derby artists should remember not to take peoples’ criticism too personally. People can be harsh, but if you are proud of what you are doing, that should be all that matters.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007Derby 14's theme was nutrition and since making a nutrition shirt
artistic is probably a stretch, this competition really came down to who had the cleverest shirt.
The cost-of-fuel-is-artificially-inflated-by- the-Swiss-cartel Award
I'm still amazed that "powered by cheese" didn't win after being in the fog almost the whole derby. A nice simple concept with an unobtrusive layout and colors. Also one of the few examples where text doesn't mar the joke or design. Great work.
The runner-a-day-keeps-the-doctor- away Award
"Eating healthy" is another shirt with clean lines that makes the design look effortless but actually has a great deal of detail. I love the way the buildings in the background are slightly warped by the blob's semi-translucent body. I also love the way I was able to use the phrase "semi-translucent body". I don't get to say that much.
The pink-frosting-is-very-slimming Award
Great joke and a nice hand-drawn style give the donut in "donut self-esteem" a lot of character. He should feel pretty good about himself -- everyone still wants him more than the banana.
The everybody-loves-bacon Award
And I mean EVERYBODY. "Guilty pleasures" is a great illustration and really captures the bliss on the pig's face. The size is a little odd on the shirt -- smaller with a pocket placement would be more effective I think.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
FableFire is another new artist who has caught the collective fancy of the derby voters. Her "Afterlife nap" and similar "All hallow's sleep" in the last 2 derbies placed very well. Now she has her first derby win with "Say no to scurvy". Here's our interview with her.
Woot Stats? (first derby / years on woot / # bags of crap)
#11 (Cryptozoology) / n00b / 0. My brother had been trying to get me to enter for a few weeks and I finally gave it a go. That was back when I was a young, naive derby-ist, as I submitted it late Monday night. Oops. Now Thursday nights are officially "Derby Night" for me.
What are you tools of choice?
I'm a big fan of pen, pencil, and paper (usually on the back of homework). On the digital side I use a
Wacom Intuos2 (6x8) with
Photoshop and
Open Canvas. Currently working on a Dell XPS2 laptop, but slowly switching over to a custom tower of power. I'm sad to report that the laptop is in some serious need of repair and TLC.
What is your typical process for going about a design?
Regardless of what type of design, I think about what I'd like to see as a consumer - unique, witty, stylish, etc. I mean, if I wouldn't want it, I definitely don't expect anyone else to. For the derby shirts in particular, I try to think of a design that will both stand out and capitalize on my artwork. I like to marry cute design with morbid ideas, which is how "Say no to scurvy" came about. After that I quickly sketch out the idea before it escapes into the dark recesses of my brain, and work on the details from there.
What design or art experience do you have outside the derby?
My design experience is summed up by about seven years of web design. As for the art, I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. It started out by copying illustrations in children's books, and grew into more complex illustrations of photos and real life. Eventually I got into anime, and my art skills degraded from there. I'm entirely self-taught.
Would you like to do art/design full-time? If so, what is your dream job?
I wouldn't mind doing art/design full time, provided the material was something that I was interested in - preferably something music or video game related.
Any plans to sell your designs outside woot?
I plan to sell some of my losing t-shirt designs after the 60 day limit is over, though I haven't decided on a vendor yet.
What advice do you have for new derby artists?
1) Design what you like and have fun with it. Even if the design loses, at least you had fun. If you liked it, you can always sell it elsewhere after 60 days. Trying to design specifically for the woot market is tough, stressful, and usually a fruitless venture.
2) Take critiques as a gift and don't feed the forum trolls.
3) Submit your design(s) as early as you can. This maximizes the exposure for your designs, and also gives plenty of time for feedback.
Sunday, November 04, 2007I have been recommending GoodStorm for some time now as the print-to-order store of choice based simply on price. Unfortunately, GoodStorm is a startup company and is having growing pains. I have spoken with the Manager of Operations and she can prioritize orders that have been delayed. So if you've been waiting and would like your order expedited, please email me your order number and I will request this for all of our orders at once. I'll be making the request on Monday morning so please contact me immediately.
newer |
older
