If “grotesque erotica” is your thing, then this latest design by eskimokiss will be right up your alley.

It’s not utterly ribald, however, as the image is actually based upon Aubrey Beardsley’s work The Black Cape. A superb job was done emulating the original artist’s style and the result is a trendy update to a classic work.

It’s far too risqué for my personal taste, but I can see Art Nouveau lovers (and lovers of other… um, things…) sporting this design proudly.

Verdict: 5 (View Submission)

Thanks to Tropical Storm Ernesto, classes were cancelled yesterday and today. (The storm turned out to produce nothing more than some rain and minor winds in my area… much to the chagrin of everyone but the happy students.) Because of my unexpected bout of free time, I’m taking a moment to post on the seven sexy new shirts which hit the Threadless stock charts on Monday. Steve does a nice job critiquing each design in his weekly inPrint editorials, so I’ll just stick with a quick overview and links to the product pages.

First things first, Threadless adds Good Blood, Bad Hands by Olly Moss to the Select Line. Although Creme wouldn’t have been my first shirt color of choice, it works well as a ‘canvas’ for the arty design.

For Sale by Parents, the newest Type Tee, may not appeal much to the “grown up” shoppers but it most certainly is a great addition to the Kids line. And speaking of children’s sizes, Threadless parents will be pleased to know that Funkalicious is now available for the little ones along with this week’s new print Big Fish Wins.

And Without Further Ado,
The Five Competition Winners:
Poet-Trees
Big Fish Wins
Made of Money
Recycling
Fake Pandas Have More Fun

Don’t forget reprints, either. The Communist Party makes another comeback by popular demand as well as a Glennz favorite, Dark Side of the Garden.

I think it’s a nice collection of shirts this week… it offers a little something for everyone whether you prefer cutesy or sophisticated. So if you’re not entirely broke from the recent sale, be sure to check ‘em all out.

I have to admit that I was tired after the big sale, too. Threadless t-shirts shipped late; Threadless InPrint turns out to have shipped late, too. I don’t have a shirt-centered excuse the way they do: it’s more that my new job consumes a whole lot of my time, and then I’m about to fly away to Malaysia to give six talks at TechEd with my friend Clemens Vasters. If any of you see me there in Kuala Lumpur, please come up and say hi, OK?

BananaPhone and I have started to write about early Threadless over on the main site at our joint account on Threadless. We decided to do it over there because he disliked here more than I disliked there. I hope that series attracts the attention of people interested in the historical Threadless, and then causes them to link back over here.

Five xtra-large 12-month shirts from 2005 came onto eBay last week. I won. I’m especially looking forward to wearing glennz’s Potato head is dead. Woo-hoo.

Meanwhile, let’s play a little ketchup here….

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Quickly, apologies in order for the absence of several LT personalities. Everyone seems to have been completely swamped with actual life all at once. These things happen.

Now then, Threadless is asking for people to bounce back what you think about them in their customer satisfaction survey. It’s important for them to stay hip, and boy do that know that. I do wonder if it’s not partly a response to some of the vitriol we’ve seen on the blogs to the latest print choices.

To which, I say Threadless is well overdo for a passed-over print week. 5-8 shirts from more than 2-3 months ago that rocked out hard but didn’t make the cut for whatever reason. My list starts with My Dog, The Lion.

Next up has to be Don’t Take Treasure Maps From Strangers. And you get the idea.

What’s on your list? What amazing shirts got the cruel, cold shoulder? Who should be honored posthumously, so to speak? Let us know.

I think I must be a sucker for swirly clouds since normally I wouldn’t find myself so drawn to a design of this sort. The subtle little details also helped to capture (and keep) my interest.

The only thing I can’t stand are the hideous colors. The red is obviously meant to stand out, but it just seems to clash in an unappealing way with that particular shade of teal. (Or perhaps I’m just biased, I really don’t care for teal at all.)

I’m too exhausted to form any other coherent thoughts. I apologize for the lack of posts around here lately… hopefully my fellow bloggers will start picking up the slack soon. hint hint.

Verdict: 4 (View Submission)

This is a truly wonderful design in terms of both art quality and concept. (The green on natural version is especially striking.)

I don’t have time for further comments, but nothing else really needs saying. Vote five for the love of robots and superb art.

Verdict: 5 (View Submission)

A few months back I reviewed a submission for a Banana Nut Bread tee (check out the original entry here). Although it ended up with a 2.72 average score, it didn’t quite beat out the other designs entered in the Threadless Loves Threadless competition.

The artist recently informed me, however, that the shirt is now available elsewhere for purchase. Because it was so popular among the voters (and posting about other vendors in the Threadless blogs is now forbidden) I thought it was worth mentioning here.

The delicious design sports itself on yellow and athletic gold American Apparel tees in men and women’s sizes for a mere fifteen bucks each. Click here for a direct link to the product page, or check out the entire Zenorschnitzel store for other unique hand-printed designs.

Monday brought us a plethora of new prints over at Threadless (well, five, to be exact). Unfortunately, Monday was also the start of the fall semester for me and it’s been a bit stressful and hectic on my end. Apparently the rest of the Loves Threadless crew has been equally busy with the “real world” and commenting on the new prints just slipped our minds.

If you’re not the only one out of the loop this week, here’s a handy list of links to the newest available tees:

The Fantastic Five:
Mob Musicians (another Glennz winner)
My Hopes and Dreams (delightfully freaky)
Sticks of Shame (deliciously adorable)
Mapple vs Apy (in Kids sizes, too)
UFOnky Gulf Breeze Sightings (disco fever!)

Make the most of your last few care-free days of summer and enjoy some leisurely shopping.

I want to thank those who commented on my previous entry. The discussion was especially lively in the Threadless blog I created about it, and Jake himself shed light on some important issues (click here to hop on over there and read for yourself). I wish more people would comment here at Loves Threadless, not only on editorials but shirt reviews and everything else we post about. I value opinions… they’re important because hearing how other people view situations and ideas can help to evolve my own way of thinking.

All thoughtfulness aside, don’t forget there’s still a massive sale going on. This is your last chance to snag yourself a $10 tee (or two, or three…) because the sale ends tomorrow morning. What time exactly, I’m not for sure since I don’t believe it was ever specified. Probably before the upcoming week’s new prints are posted.

Plenty of other designs, however, are still ripe for the picking (er, buying?) so view the full catalog for a complete look at the available shirts or check out the stock chart and see what’s left in your size. So get shopping while you have the chance! And remember, the coupon code STAY CLASSY saves three dollars per order (not per shirt, unfortunately).

As Steve mentioned in his latest entry, there certainly is a lot of negativity spewing from the Threadless blog forums these days. Obviously, you can’t please everyone and when it concerns art and clothing, people can become quite disgruntled fairly quickly. Complaints and occasional discontent have no doubt been an integral part of the blogs for as long as they’ve existed. But even Steve can’t deny that it appears to be somewhat of an epidemic at late.

Apparently one of the reasons Threadless users are becoming seemingly more annoyed and discontent is due to the shift in the types of designs being printed. A week of new prints hasn’t gone by in recent memory where at least a handful of users aren’t saying something to the effect of “What has happened to the old Threadless?! I hate all of these designs! They’re crazy for printing this type of crap!”.

The change is subtle, but noticeable. Let me be quick to say that there’s nothing at all wrong with change and with a company attempting to reach a broader audience. (It’s true that if you’re not growing, you’re dying.) The problem seems to be, however, that nobody really knows if this is what Threadless is really trying to do. Are they attempting to broaden the appeal of Threadless and reach other clientele? Will they sacrifice the interests of their current members, or are they seeking to find a common ground and a balance of old and new? Or, are voting patterns simply evolving with the current trends and wave of new users? Read the rest of this entry »

When I visit the Threadless blog site these days, I’m constantly struck by the amount of negative energy on display. I have to imagine that everyone on the site likes some of the shirts and dislikes others. It may just be me, but people seem much more inclined to communicate their dislike than their like.

Once it starts, it’s a cyclone. Folks who like playful-cutsy shirts love to rail away at the selects and their artisticly-oriented designs. People quite interested in design as design love to rant at the “cutsy illustrations” on the site. People who get lower scores than they think they deserve misinterpret the votes as an aethetic judgment, forgetting that the voting is nothing more than a popularity contest. People who want to get printed diss threadless’s judgment rather than pay attention to what they’re looking for and try to design something that fits the vibe. And on and on and on…

I’m left wondering where the fun is in all that, for everybody.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just as Threadless goes crazy 18 (rather disappointing, so it’s a good thing they’re $10 bucks $7 bucks with the STAY CLASSY coupon) with us, I’m hitting up full-time, on-site client work. Which leaves precious little time for all things fun. Perfect timing, that.

Oh, but definitely give a look at what’s new and crazy in the Select shirt printing process. Craziness ensues, but at least it’s your chance to own something completely unique and valuable. (Like the Treskilling Yellow. Only not worth $72 Billion/kilogram. So, not like the Treskilling, really, at all.)

C’est la vie:
Prepare For Fight
Funkalicious
Water Tower

Que Sera, Sera:
99 Luftballons
Flowers in the Attic
Ctrl + Z

I was off to the opera last night. My wife and I saw Der Rosenkavalier. The music was remarkable, dissonant and surprising but not far enough into the 20th century to be off-putting. The 40-something guy chasing the 15 year old rich girl eventually embarrasses himself and falls, not so much because of the foolishness of his quest as because he doesn’t let go when the letting go is obviously needed. The 40-something girl bonking the 17 year old titled boy eventually wins because she lets him settle into his relationship with the 15 year old girl in a graceful accepting way. If you know you’re going to end up losing somebody or something, says this opera, the highest attainment is to lose them gracefully rather than boorishly. One cool twist in the opera was that the young boy was played by a woman. That was musically unfortunate (the best songs would have been more interesting if there was a tenor/soprano difference going on), but it was fun seeing girls kiss girls up there on the stage.

Whatever the artistic merits of the night were, it set me back on shirt writing during a week when I can ill afford the loss of time. I’ll get these comments in today, then write up the last six shirts in the extravaganza tomorrow.

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	STOP DESTROYING OUR PLANET. (IT’S WHERE I KEEP ALL MY STUFF)

Six more shirts. Ten bucks. Use coupon code STAY CLASSY and they’re $7.00. How can you not buy shirts? They’re cheaper than fast food.

Four Score And Seven Shirts Ago:
Some College Somewhere (Great for college drop-outs like me.)
Myopia Utopia (Great for people with +500 prescriptions… like me.)
Smooth Criminal (Great for people who have cop buddies. Like me.)
A is for Jerks! (How the hell is this not a Kids Tee?)

One For The Road:
Stop destroying our planet. It’s where I keep all my stuff. (It’s a Type Tee, see?)

Country Roads And Radios:
Radios

It’s the second day of the Satanic Sale and my initial optimism is waning. There still aren’t any shirts that have me running for my credit card, although I guess there’s still tomorrow. For now, here’s another submission subjected to my musings:

I have a thing for monochromatic designs, particularly in blue. The strong 70’s feel also works to the advantage of this image thanks to the whole resurgence of all things retro in the fashion world. (If you’re into that sort of thing, that is. Otherwise I guess it kind of turns you off to this design.)

Unfortunately, silhouettes aren’t new to Threadless. I realize it does differ by using a quaint farm scene rather than a cityscape, but that minor variation just doesn’t feel original enough.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s lovely nonetheless. My deep affection for the color blue certainly compels me to vote highly, but the lack of creative pizzaz won’t allow for more than a conservative three. I think perhaps it needs cows at the very least.

Agree? Disagree? Don’t be timid about leaving comments, they’re always welcomed here at Loves Threadless. We don’t [usually] bite.

Verdict: 3 (View Submission)