Threadless posted seven lovely new tees, two reprints, and three toasty hoodies yesterday. To sweeten our week, they also announced a “Sweetheart Sale“.

Purchase any two of the same tee designs, whatever sizes, and you’ll save ten bucks.

Are you single? Make a tote bag or pillow out of the second tee! Is your honey a same sex partner? No problem there either, the deal works even if you buy two guys tees or two girlie tees. (Threadless does not discriminate!)

It makes the perfect Valentine’s Day gift idea if you don’t mind being one of those couples who dress alike. Head over to Threadless and start shopping now to take advantage of the savings. The sale ends next Monday morning on February 5th.

In other news, the Threadless blogs received a little makeover today along with two new sections on the way. (Including a very exciting “critique” forum especially for pre-subbing designs.) Submission pages also feature a new addition: they can now be tagged with a “watch this” command to help keep track of those wayward comments. Very nice.

This design brings up some interesting issues. It depicts a bunch of white kids (and a bear) labeled as “all my friends”. Some find the exclusion of other races a bit short sighted. I wouldn’t go so far to consider it racist, because obviously that was not the intention of the artist.

This creates a new problem, however. The number of people this design will appeal to is much narrower by only showing one race. Now, simply adding different people from various ethnic backgrounds doesn’t wave a magic wand of anti-racism. It also doesn’t make a design instantly more appealing to more people just because it represents them. Even so, it never hurts to present a little diversity whenever possible. If there’s a chance at making a design more wearable to even a few more people, I think it’s worth the effort.

I also feel that a great opportunity was overlooked. As it is, the design has a one-dimensional kind of concept. It’s a bunch of generic “friends” with common names… that’s cute, but not very thought provoking. The design could have conveyed a very powerful message in addition to the cuteness if it had shown many types of people from various races to imply that all kinds of people can be friends.

My vote will remain conservative on this design. Not only for missing what I believe to be a potentially powerful message, but also because of the wearablity issue. I may be white, but I still don’t have any friends who resemble any the characters in the design (except for the bear, maybe) so I can’t see myself ever desiring to wear it.

Verdict: 3 (View Submission)

Here’s a design from LovesThreadless’ very own Bree, one that I was delighted to find in my scoring queue, even more so once I saw who designed it.

It works very well on either red or burgundy, and the sketchy element both reminds me of the 1UP days of old and the tasty artichoke heart/mushroom/sun-dried tomato pizza it inspired for tonight’s dinner.

Great job!

Verdict: 5$ (View Submission)

The idea of this frightens me to no end, yet I’m loving the superb artwork.

I’ve wracked my brain trying to find the words for a lengthier critique… but there’s really no way to appropriately describe an anglerfish-flower-root-monster. You just have to see it to truly appreciate it.

Verdict: 4 (View Submission)

Let’s see what the chances are that WordPress will eat itself on an upgrade to 2.1…

Ready, go.

Hello all, it is my honour to introduce to you the newest member of the LovesThreadless team—me.

I’m Ryan Biesemeyer, Creative Director at Bies Design Studio in Portland, Oregon and an avid Threadless lurker since I found it in July of ‘06. You can also find me on last.fm, LiveJournal and AIM.

There’s not much more to say for now, but you’ll see my posts from time to time, and I hope you enjoy my contribution.

Plenty of new tees (plus a hoody) hit the Threadless shelves yesterday. Here’s a quick look at what’s what and links to get you up to speed:

Threadless Select:
- Cowichan (back and front printing)

New Tees:
- Merit Badge (Pop 5 Loves Threadless winner)
- Freedom Call (also as a hoody)
- Limb
- Home Sweet Home
- Advisors

Reprints:
- Bunnies
- Mission Listen

Have a wonderful week, everybody. And remember to save $3 on your Threadless order using the coupon code RUBBERDANPANTS! Peace out.

Ladykat (aka Kate) is hosting a “Pin-Up Model Contest” over in the Threadless blogs. I thought I’d notify our readers about the event because it sounds like some super sexy fun. Here’s a quick look at what it’s all about:

Enter yourself, or enter a photo of a fellow blogger! There will be two categories:

Category 1: Actual photographs (only some minor airbrushing allowed, no major Photoshopping please!)
Category 2: Photoshopped images (Go crazy! Get creative! Photoshop a bathing suit on an existing picture, exchange body parts, add in a tropical beach-paradise scene - whatever you need to do to make a sexy image!)

This is about HAVING FUN and CAPTURING THE PIN-UP SPIRIT! It’s NOT a beauty contest!

For complete rules, deadlines, current entries, etc. be sure to read through ladykat’s contest blog by clicking here. The prizes look pretty sweet and include plenty of Gift Card goodness and some STP lovin’. Also, we’ve offered to feature the winning entries right here on Loves Threadless. (Just for clarification, however, we are not otherwise involved… entries are accepted through ladykat’s blog only.)

Meanwhile, I’m still planning our own fantastic contest. All I’m going to say for now is that you might want to start brushing up on you haiku skills.

The first word that came to mind when I saw this design was “pelvis”. That’s definitely less appealing and witty as a hip bone.

It’s not really my type of thing, but it will definitely please anyone who’s into abstract anatomical art.

If you stare at it long enough, it also resembles a butterfly. Hmm.

Verdict: 3 (View Submission)

You know, this design is simple, sad and understated. But I think it would be *so* much more powerful if it were just the shadows.

Verdict: 2 (View Submission)

There’s some peculiar imagery going down at Threadless this week: Tree sailing, clumped crabs, birds in a vase, mathematical sheep, shredded paper, and a lunar kite.

I apologize that I don’t have time to go into further detail at the moment. You can check all the newness out for yourself (along with two reprints) with the links above, via Threadless’ home page, or by browsing the full catalog.

And remember, use the coupon code RUBBERDANPANTS during checkout to save $3 on your order. Happy shopping!

I really enjoy this soothing design. I especially love the style… it’s simplistic without sacrificing quality.

Very nice indeed.

Verdict: 4 + Would Buy (View Submission)

I’m finally heading home today, so I’ll be able to actually post next week. Thanks again to Bree for keeping things active.

I’ve noticed that a number of Threadless users offer explanations on how or why they vote the way they do (either through comments on submission pages, within the blog forum, or even listed in their profile). As basic as Threadless’ scoring system is, I’ve realized that no two scores are really quite the same. A vote of “3″ may mean something completely different to one person than it does to another.

Just for fun, I’ve jotted down my own basic voting method and what the different scores mean to me. I admit that I’m not above casting the occasional bias vote (sometimes in favor of a design, sometimes not) and at times I make exceptions. For the most part, however, I adhere to this mentality:

$ - I would definitely buy this for myself or someone I know.
5 - I find this both conceptually and artistically superb. A wonderful design, I wouldn’t change a thing.
4 - A lot of great qualities. Overall I like it, maybe just a few minor areas that could use improvement.
3 - I could go either way on this. A decent design with several good qualities, but some aspects may be holding back its true potential.
2 - Not my thing. The art or concept just aren’t working.
1 - A pity vote. I really dislike this, but it’s not quite bad enough to deserve a zero.
0 - This should never have seen the light of day. A vote reserved for the most hideous, offensive, and downright ugliest designs.

So how do you vote? If you’d like to share, leave a comment.

What do you get when huebucket and lorem_ipsum collaborate? An incredible design. Yes, that’s right, the two artists have combined forces to further awe (and shame) us with their talent by creating a shared account called “Hupsum“.

Needless to say, I’m doubly in love with this first offering. Huebucket’s attention to detail and his stylistic characters + lorem_ipsum’s flowing ghosts and lovely colors = a must buy for me.

Verdict: 5 + Would Buy (View submission)