November 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008Derby 70's theme was
"The 7 Deadly Sins". Woot was looking for designs on any of the sins: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, or Pride. This has all the markers of a lousy topic: a difficult theme to chase away a lot of artists, similarity to a previous theme (Greed) to increase the number of resubs, and no text to make the remaining entries completely unrecognizable outside of the derby. That last point was what killed most of the entries -- regardless of how good they looked, nobody was going to "get it" without hearing the title or the theme. That all said, there were a few shirts that managed to fit within the theme as well as work outside it -- here are my favorites. As usual, click on the thumbnail to see the full-size shirt and comments on Shirt.Woot.
The "It's All My Own Hair" Award
TGentry's "Lion's Pride" is a great shirt that communicates with the wonderful character of the balding lion. I love the expression on his face and the hair on the comb. Great textures and colors as well.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008Irrelevant has been quietly and occassionally participating at Woot for a long time. This is his first print.
Shirt.Woot Stats? (first derby / shirts bought / shirts printed)
21 (Winter) / 4 / 1. It was the Christmas theme in 2007. I submitted something I spent less than 5 minutes on the last day of submissions -- and to make it worse it was done in Paint! No template, no nothing. Just trying to get the submission-part down for future derbies. I own "Owl", "the Apathy Monster", "Urban Painter", and "Dusty Keys". This is my first print. I would have never guessed I would be printed -- design is a complete hobby of mine and I do not consider myself that much of one, to be honest.
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008Derby 69's theme was
"Miniature Worlds". Woot was looking for designs that show huge contrasts of size. A very creative theme -- something that caused the artists to create something they otherwise wouldn't have thought of doing. There were plenty of GOOD designs (maybe not so many great ones) to choose from this time -- here are the ones you and I liked best. As usual, click on the thumbnail to see the full-size shirt and comments on Shirt.Woot.
The "Chevy MP3" Award
This week's theme dares you to tell a story. It is very easy to get a little too detailed with that story and lose the clarity required for a design to work on a shirt. DirtDirt's "Music transfer service" does a nice job of keeping things simple. Great clean lines and crisp colors on this.
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Wednesday, November 12, 2008Derby 68 was the
Double-Take Derby #3 where all the shirts that Woot liked but didn't get printed get a second chance. Yesterday, I talked about the top 5 shirts they missed. Today, it will be the top 5 shirts (again in no particular order) that don't look likely to be printed but really should be. In addition, I have predictions for what shirts are likely to be printed next week when Woot picks their Editor's Choices. As usual, click on the thumbnail to see the full-size shirt and comments on Shirt.Woot.
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Tuesday, November 11, 2008We're in the middle of
Double-Take Derby #3 and since not every shirt can come back for a another chance there are a few entries that are sorely missed. This is the top 5 shirts (in no particular order) that I'm sorry aren't here for a second chance -- the Shoulda Been Awards.
Tomorrow instead of the normal Best Loser Awards there will be another top 5 list -- the top 5 shirts that should have printed but were not. You're welcome to try to sway me with your nominations but there will be no award names or write-ups so don't bother sending those.
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Tuesday, November 11, 2008I had several more of my designs printed by
SpreadShirt for myself:
1. An old derby entry, "Sheep Plus Plus". My first print on to a dark shirt. The ink on my first order was too dark so I had to return it, change the colors myself, and reorder. Can't necessarily blame SpreadShirt for that -- when I saw my original design on another monitor, it was definitely too dark. Nevertheless, they paid return shipping and gave me credit to reorder my shirt. As you can see by the reflection, you'll get more shine than you would from a comparable screenprint. The feel is only a little stiffer than a screenprint would be.
2. A fractal print with different subtle shades of color. I'm really happy with the way this came out -- I was afraid the backprint (digital printing requires a layer of white to be printed first for dark shirts) would shine through the complex and tiny details but it came out perfect. Also, when your design doesn't have solid blocks of color like this (all the black in the shirt is transparent), the feel is soft and there isn't a shine -- indistinguishable from screenprint for me.
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Sunday, November 09, 2008Three more artists have alerted me about their
SpreadShirt shops. One of my favorites from
Toe2254's shop is show to the right. Click "continue reading" below to see a couple examples from
HmmxKrazee and
TheInfinityLoop. This time, they're all separate shops but since they're all
SpreadShirt you could still combine orders.
And an extra bonus --
SpreadShirt has free shipping right now for orders over $30. This can be used on any of these stores,
We3Tees, or
my shop.
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Wednesday, November 05, 2008Derby 67's theme was
"Video games through art history". Woot was looking for designs that suggest a certain video game but are drawn in different artistic styles. This looks to be one of the most popular themes ever if the comments and number of nominations is any indication. Since I have so many nominations this time, I'm going to try something new and turn over the picks completely over to you this week. Here are your favorites. As usual, click on the thumbnail to see the full-size shirt and comments on Shirt.Woot.
The "You Can't Do Your Homework Until You Get Past Level 33, Young Man" Award nominated by Toe2254, Illuminator, and CobolIsDead
TheInfinityLoop would have a guaranteed winner here if it was only fellow artists choosing which shirt to print. "Gamer Mother in the style of Whistler" is just such a great parody of the original piece, but modernized for the theme. The way she created the Gamer mother's face, lacy scarf, and hair with such limited colors is just mind blowing. This one just kills me and will definitely sell very well outside of Woot.
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Sunday, November 02, 2008Three accomplished and prolific Woot artists have joined forces to setup their own SpreadShirt shop called
We3Tees. Tgentry, Twalis, and SoothedByRainfall have many designs that didn't quite get printed but generated a lot of interest. Here's your chance to finally buy them. And for a reasonable price -- their prices start at $12.40 for each shirt. I'll be ordering a few of these sometime soon myself.
If you're setting up your own print-to-order shop or your old Woot design is now available for sale or voting on another site, let me know and I can put the word out.
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