The Bestee Categories have been announced! These awards highlight the most active contributors to the Threadless community in several different fashions.

Personally, I’m hoping Threadcakes makes it in the running for the Best Indepenent Blog Contest! It had over 45,000 people visit its site and was featured on Fuse TV and Digg.com!

Here they are:

**** $10,000 BESTEE ****

Design of the Year: The best overall printed design in 2007.

Designer of the Year: The best overall printed designer of 2007.

Most Printed Designer of the Year: Designer with the most prints in 2007.

People’s Choice: The overall favorite printed design of 2007, as chosen by YOU! Voting to take place in the next few weeks!

Groundbreaking Design of the Year: The most original and innovative
design of 2007.

**** $7,000 BESTEE ****

Collaboration of the Year: The best overall collaborative effort
chosen for print in 2007.

**** $5,000 BESTEE ****

Newcomer of the Year: The best designer first chosen for print in 2007.

Independent Blog Contest of the Year: The best community run contest of 2007.

Best Use of Critique: The most effective and constructive use of the
Critique section in a design chosen for print in 2007.

Select of the Year: The overall best Threadless Select design of 2007.

Kid Friendly Design of the Year: The overall best kid friendly design of 2007.

Best Unprinted Designer: The overall best as-yet-unprinted designer
with submissions in 2007. Design will be chosen for print!

**** $1,000 BESTEE ****

Gallery Photo of the Year: The overall best gallery photo submitted in 2007.

Dedicated Blogger of the Year: The most loyal and devoted blogger on
the Threadless Forum in 2007.

Best 12 Club Tee: The overall best design chosen as a Threadless 12
Club Tee in 2007.

Loves Design of the Year: The overall best and on-theme design chosen
as part of a Loves promotion.

Design Title of the Year: The overall best title for a printed design in 2007.

Best Use of Multiple Colors: The overall best use of multiple colors
for a printed design in 2007.

Best Use of One Color: The overall best use of one color in a printed design.

Best Submission Presentation: The overall best presentation of a
design submission in 2007.

Most Controversial Design of the Year: The overall most controversial
design based on community reaction chosen for print in 2007.

Best Technical Design: The overall best design chosen for print in
2007 showcasing technical achievement.

Slogan of the Year: The overall best slogan chosen for print in 2007.

Best Concept for Design: The overall best concept for a design chosen
for print in 2007.

Best Abstract Design: The overall best abstract design chosen for print in 2007.

Today is a bumper crop day for amazing designs!  Nearly every design up for sale today is incredible, but, even better, three of my personal favorites and one I love but feel guilty about loving are up!

Sure, the sale is over and the coupon codes don’t work, but it doesn’t matter.  These shirts are 
worth paying full price for!

Best food in the shape of a mythological creature shirt ever. Ever. I’ve been waiting, salivating at the thought of owning this shirt and the day has finally arrived. I have no idea how Flying Mouse does it, but I’ve got to hand it to him. He knows how to turn noodles into art through some strange process of alchemy that I don’t even pretend to understand. I defy you to look at this shirt and not feel the overwhelming urge to put it in your shopping cart and buy it to wear on your naked, Threadless-loving body.

I’ve been waiting for this one to be printed and the fact that I’m buying it when it’s on orange (one of my most hated of all colors) should tell you something. Namely that it’s awesome. Check out the look on the sumo wrestler’s faces. Pure gold, my friend, pure gold. And who doesn’t love sushi? I don’t eat it any more because I’ve sworn off meat and haven’t yet found anywhere to buy vegetarian unagi, but that’s not the point. The point is that that tiny little piece of sushi adds even more coolness to an already mindblowingly cool shirt. Buy it, you know you want to.

Sure, this design is on another color that I generally avoid these days (Creme), but I’ve been waiting for this one to be printed. Sure, I take issue with the dual personality “schizophrenic” (it’s a pet peeve of mine and, I’m sure, psychologists and psychiatrists the world over), but that’s a minor quibble. The comic book-style use of halftones and the gangster puppet make up for it. Wearing it, you can indulge your inner comic book nerd while simultaneously thumbing your nose at the hopelessly repetitive and unimaginative supervillians that populate said books. And you can do it in style.

Hands down the most adorable cats with a hand grenade design to ever grace Threadless or any tee manufacturing site. Look at those adorable little faces. Feast your eyes upon the playful way that they’re pawing at the very thing that’s soon going to be their undoing. Imagine them getting a Darwin Award for doing something so ridiculously dumb. But they’re kittens, they don’t know any better. If you love kittens and hand grenades, the fates have finally conspired to get this shirt reprinted so that you can proclaim your love whenever you choose.

Happy shopping, all!

P.S. Congrats once again to Flying Mouse for another double win! You deserve it!

Merry belated Christmas (or other winter holiday of your choice), everyone!

Once again, a great many of the subs up for your (and my) voting pleasure have a hefty dose of awesomeness thrown in and deserve your stamp of approval so that I (and you) can wear them on my (our) Threadless-loving bodies.  A few of my favorites from the current submissions (my apologies to the amazing artists whose work I didn’t include here; there’s too many to choose from to get you all up here):

Who doesn’t love a robot in a bowler hat? Not I. But this isn’t a robot. It’s a gentleman. A gentleman in a bowler hat who only appears to be made from riveted metal and one long, cylindrical laser beam eye. After all, how many robots do you know who look like Charlie Chaplin? Not many, I’d be willing to wager. This is clearly a gentleman. All he needs is a cup of Earl Grey tea in one of those fancy blue and white teacups and some scones. And maybe a (robotic) hunting dog at his feet. This guy’s got class. My only criticism is that I’m not completely sold on the fancy, non-handwritten font that “I am a Gentleman” is written in. It doesn’t quite jive with the rest of the design (I prefer the original, myself), but it’s a small nitpick of an otherwise awesome design.

My verdict: $5 (View submission)

Everyone needs a dinosaur shirt. Admit it, the four-year-old inside of you is wide-eyed in wonder when you contemplate this sub in all its glow-in-the-dark glory. It’s got dinosaurs (really nicely executed, adorable dinosaurs) with glowing bones. Glowing bones. If that doesn’t scream “awesome,” then I don’t know what does. Sure, it’s reminiscent of something you might find in a museum gift shop, only a million times better. Museum gift shop shirts wish they could be as awesome as this design. They weep tears of bitter jealousy when comparing their own mediocreness to Steggy Pop. True story.

My verdict: $5 (View submission)

I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t ever actually read all of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in spite of being an avid and incrurable bookworm (or even seen the movie for that matter, because I’d rather read the book if I’m going to find out the entire story), but I love this design anyway. Whether or not it’ll be acceptable, copyright-wise, I have no idea (I’m not, nor do I have any desire to be, a copyright lawyer), but it still gets my $5 vote. The linework is incredible (clean but elegant), the design itself is beautifully composed and the characters have character. It looks like a page right out of a children’s fantasy book and that’s not a bad thing by any means. Plus, we, the Threadless buyers, need more shirts this color. Do you hear me, Threadless? I demand more dark red shirts! Don’t make me shake my fist at you.

My verdict: $5 (View submission)

Until next time, go forth and vote!

BHey kids. 3Have a BMerry Christmas 7today. BWith any luck, 7I’m stuffing 2myself with 6an ungodly 4amount of 6amazing ribs 2at a place Ecalled The FMining Camp. 6My family Eand I have been going on Christmas day Afor more than ten years now, 8usually with an enormous group of close friends and others Fwithout extended family in the area. It’s probably my favorite tradition. Plus, mmm, ribs.

Now dear faithful reader, a very Merry Christmas to you indeed.

You may still be able to get a fresh bit of Threadlessy love at your doorstep by Christmas Eve if you perhaps pick Next Day Air within, say, the next four hours. I wouldn’t count on it, though.

Barring that, why not give the gift that gives the best? Gift Certificates. A Threadless Gift Certificate has the neat effect of being a declining balance account. You (or your giftee) don’t have to use it all at once, which is great if only one available shirt catches their fancy at a given moment.

They arrive hot and fresh in your recipient’s mailbox (um, after you forward them and such) ready for spending.

And in the end, you know that they’ll pick what they want better than you would. Threadless tastes are varied and eclectic like that.

Gift Certs! Cheap! (Okay, well… face value.)

It’s nearly midnight and I really need to go to bed or else I’m going to be falling asleep at work tomorrow, but I just had to jump on here real quick and post a couple of quick mini reviews of 2 of the many (and I do mean many) amazing subs up for your voting pleasure right now:

This is, quite possibly, one of the most strangely awesome designs to be submitted to Threadless in recent memory, at least in my humble opinion, which, apparently, doesn’t always agree with what most people think (PBJ Zombie voters, I’m looking at you), but that’s beside the point. The point is that this sub is incredible. And bizarre. Incredibly bizarre. And incredibly well executed, I might add.  All the awesome bizareness in the world means nothing without the technical chutzpah to back it up.  And boy was it backed up.  I love all the questions this particular design raises and the fact that the answers don’t matter.  Why does the deer only have three legs? How did his antlers grow like that? Does he shed them every year and have them grow back into the same pattern? What in the hell is with that crazy-eyed bird in the middle that looks like he’s about to lose an eyeball to increased cranial pressure?  Doesn’t matter.  Answers are irrelevant and, honestly, would take away from my love of this design.  I like the mystery.

 My verdict: $5 (View submission)

In keeping with the wildlife theme, here we have another awesome sub featuring a deer (and a bear, and a boar and what appears to be a wolf or some such thing). Even if you’re not like me and don’t think hunting is barbaric, pointless and cruel (and you’re welcome to your opinion, I’m not going to argue the point or force my opinions on you), you have to admit that there’s something really appealing about the idea of payback. I like to imagine the owner of the gun to be something like Sarah Winchester, doomed to be tormented by the ghosts of the animals whose lives were taken by it and forced to do some sort of wacky, oddball, never-ending animal rights project to appease their spirits. But that’s just me.

My verdict: 5 (View submission)

That’s right, Threadless has EXTENDED their $10 sale for another three days! This means that you can continue to buy cheap shirts, even if they won’t necessarily make it in time for Christmas.

You still have a chance if you start shopping RIGHT NOW though. Lots of goodies and easy by-size shopping.

Get shopping!

It’s that time again. Time for reviews of a few (very few as I’ve got a lot on my plate right now and not much time to spare) more of my favorite picks from the current batch of subs on Threadless.

Magical, psychadelic, flying dragons are great on shirts. And they’re even better when they wrap around the sides of said shirts. Does it matter that this colorful fella’s arms appear that they might be on backwards or that he has no back legs and, therefore, must either drag himself along the ground with his stumpy front legs or fly all the time. Without wings. Because he’s magic. I have to admit that I’m not much of a dragon fan myself, but I like the style of this one and the color scheme seals the deal. Although, I’d rather not see another shirt printed on Creme, to be perfectly honest. It’s the t-shirt equivalent of oatmeal: bland, boring and not terribly tasteful.

My verdict: 4 (View submission)

Who doesn’t love koalas? They’re cute, they’re fuzzy and, apparently, when we’re not looking, they don crazy novelty sunglasses so they can pretend to be awake during those 22 hours a day when they’re sleeping off a eucalyptus binge. Who knew? Even if you don’t love koalas (in which case you’re clearly not human), you have to admit that this shirt is instant sunshine. Look at that sweet little face. Look at home endearingly funny he looks with those glasses on, like a toddler who put his bowl of cereal on his head. Isn’t it adorable how he’s hugging that tree? Admit it. It is. And you love koalas, koala lover.

My verdict: 5 (View submission)

Collateral Damage violates one of my major clothing rules–no bombs or other weapons of war–and I love it.  The style is reminiscent of all of those old-fashioned kid’s books that I loved so much when I was younger, complete with singing bluebirds, dancing sunflowers, happy butterflies, a kindly old tree and a cheerful, smiling sun.  And a giant nuclear bomb heading right towards the stars of the show: the two sickeningly adorable frolicking bunnies at center stage.  I like to imagine what the resulting explosion would look like, drawn in this adorable style and retro colors.  Does that make me a twisted person?  Probably.  But I would buy this shirt (even on yellow, which I very rarely wear) and wear it with pride on the few days a week that I’m not at work, because this would be blatantly outside our dresscode for some inexplicable reason.

My verdict: $5 (View submission)

I love cats and I love ninjas.  I wouldn’t love a ninja stealing my cat, but this design still makes me laugh.  Another retro style design with an unexpected color scheme (no cliche black attire for these ninjas), clean linework and an apparently braindead cat, this design isn’t the flashiest or the most widely appealing to be submitted to Threadless (no food with faces or cheerful, smiling appliances here), but the ninja-loving Threadless voting contingent ought to come out in full force in support of this one.

My verdict: $4 (View submission)

Who doesn’t love a squirrel? Even better, this squirrel is either a gem-cutter or a jewel thief. I’m leaning towards jewel thief, myself.  He probably stole those acorns, too, the sneaky little rodent.  As if the mesmerizing awesomeness of the adorable little furball eyeing his prize isn’t enough, the diamond glows in the dark!  Who cares if diamonds don’t glow?  That’s not the point. Glow ink gives any design an extra dash of awesomeness. Combine that with an already endearingly oddball design and you’ve got yourself a winner.

My verdict: $5 (View submission)

Let me first say that, honestly, I don’t expect this design to score terribly well. Not because the art is bad, but because it just doesn’t strike me as something that a great many people are going to love. But, that aside, I personally really like this design. Love the color scheme, the retro sci-fi mag feel to the design and the complete and utter randomness of it all. Why does the old lady have man hands? How is she breathing in space? Has she adapted to a lack of oxygen through her chain smoking? Why would robots be flying spaceships? Why doesn’t she look more worried about the impending invasion? None of that matters because this design is awesome just for the very reason that it doesn’t make sense. The world needs more randomness.

My verdict: 5 (View submission)

Go forth and vote, fellow Threadless lovers!

Let’s start things off right: Beasts of England (pictured) is a brilliant allusion to Animal Farm, one of my favorite books by one George Orwell. This is both artfully done and perfectly expressive. I would buy it in a heartbeat if I wore natural, but alas I don’t and that makes me so very sad. If you do, you should buy this shirt forthwith. And read Animal Farm while you’re at it. It’s only about 100 pages and it reminds you why every animal is equal, but some are just more equal than others.

What else? The whimsy of A Is For Arrow, B Is For Bomb, the Radios-esqueness of Ways Of Making You Talk, and the Think Geek amusement of The Internet Was Closed….

Tack on Let’s Go Parasoling for more whimsy, Beelzebub for a dark and expressive piece and Number 7, the latest Faesthetic piece, complete with the latest issue of crazy art and curious perspective. Oh, and a ton more.

Almost everything is STILL $10 bucks. Do you know how cheap that is? Skip a meal and you’re there. AND warmer, with style.

Get shopping and you can still get delivery by Jesusday. You know you want to.

There’s a strange and wonderful assortment of designs up for your voting pleasure on Threadless right at the moment.  A few of the designs I’m rooting for:

While PBJ Zombie lacks the sheer amount of detail in The Escape or Crown of Life, it makes up for it in sheer awesomeness. I hate peanut butter, but would sport this awesome design with pride and not a smidgen of ill-will towards the peanutty evil contained within. It’s odd, it’s non-sensical, it’s got a zombie! It manages to convey the undeadness of a piece of bread slathered in peanut butter and grape jelly without getting mired down in fussy details or the dreaded explanatory text. I need no other reasons to proudly vote $5 on this design and hope and pray that my fellow voters see fit to give it a similar vote, thus (hopefully) ensuring that I can buy my very own PBJ Monster shirt and wear it on my peanut butter-hating body.

My verdict: $5 (View submission)

I AM! is a wintery design that manages to fall in neither the uber cutesy, G-rated category or the vaguely dirty/juvenile humor category and fits in a Fight Club reference to boot.  Feast your eyes on the naked, macrocephalic snowflake person.  Notice the anguished cheeriness in his eyes (he literally looks like his Christmas cheer is causing him physical pain), the hopelessly big and heavy head putting him precariously off balance as he strikes his superstar pose, the strange rounded teeth and tell me that this isn’t a winning design.  It’s bizarre but cute, horrifying and yet strangely alluring.

My verdict: $5 (View submission) 

I love a design that’s aesthetically pleasing without having to make sense and Crown of Life falls squarely in that category.  Why is the deer sporting antlers reminiscent of Wonder Woman’s invisible plane?  Why does he have lilac streamers draped over them?  Where did he get the grass he’s chewing when he appears to be either standing in the middle of an entirely snow-covered forest or an alternate dimension where everything is white?  Does it even matter?  No.  He’s beautiful and it doesn’t have to make sense.  I almost never wear white shirts and I would make an exception for this design in a heartbeat.  It’s simultaneously strange, whimsical, dreamy and aesthetically pleasing.

My verdict: $5 (View submission)

A great many submissions on Threadless are either very simple (which isn’t inherently a bad thing and can, without a doubt, be a good thing) or look as though they were cobbled together in 5 minutes with only a minimum of work.  The Escape is not one of those designs.  Even a cursory glance will show you that a lot of work went into this, producing the meticulous texturing that makes this design stand out from the competition.  Yes, it’s fussy.  Yes, it’s busy.  But it’s also beautiful.  Even if you don’t care for the subject matter or think it’s better suited to being an art print than a t-shirt, you have to admit that it’s exceptionally well-executed, beautifully done and clearly a labor of love.

My verdict: $5 (View submission)

Not Everything Is Black And White proves that you don’t need a gazillion colors or fancy gradients to make a stellar design. This incredibly awesome design uses just one color of ink (either black or white depending on the color of shirt it’s on; for once, and you’ll almost never hear me say this, I prefer the white shirt) for the entire design. This version stars Charlie Chaplin in place of the briefly seen man in blackface to the right of the mime (personally I think that might have been a smart move, but I loved the original version just as much). Building on the simple theme (to match the simple color scheme) of black and white things, there’s a weird and wonderful assortment of animals, objects and people, including a zebra with a pirate flag draped over its back (surely intended to please me, no doubt…leave me alone with my delusional beliefs, I’m happy this way), a wolverine staring wide-eyed (and a bit wildly) at a row of dominoes, a panda with a soccer ball and a cow on a grand piano to name a few. It takes real talent to successfully pull off a crowded design like this with only two colors (the shirt color and the ink color), but fatheed has done it. And no, I won’t say he passed with flying colors, even if he did.

My verdict: $5 (View submission)

I hate orange. Let me get that out of the way right off the bat, because the sheer fact that I adore this design and would happily fork over the cash to buy it even on orange should tell you how much I love this. Not only is it beautifully illustrated, but I have to admit that I love the idea of the fox turning the tables on the hunters. But the beauty of this isn’t necessarily in the statement that it’s making, it’s in the sheer skill that went into this and the aesthetics of the final result. Witness the hunter whose head is being smashed by the ginormous fox’s paw. Cower in terror as it flosses its teeth with another ill-fated sportsman. Admire the beautiful linework. I laughed, I cried, I voted $5.

My verdict: $5 (View submission)

FlyingMouse, whose Dragon Flavor sub I’m eagerly awaiting the inevitable (at least in my mind and I’ll lose faith in the universe itself if doesn’t turn out that way) printing of, has hit it out of the park today with 2 brand spankin’ new shirts in today’s lineup!  Congrats, FM, you deserve it!

Hot off the presses: 

Really Exist is the standout design of today’s update for me. It has a bunny. It has a gigantic bunny. Even better, it leads to the question of what, exactly, “Really Exist”: gigantic, fuzzy bunnies that lurk behind regular-sized trees (to attack young girls who chase their “normal” counterparts or just to sit and look adorable, yet menacing?) or tiny little lilliputian girls, ant-sized bunnies and itty-bitty dandelion-sized trees. And, it completely bypasses the boring neutral color schemes so popular for designs like this (and the neutral shirt colors that seem to be all over Threadless lately - Creme, I’m looking at you). If I do say so myself, this is quite possibly the most adorable gigantic bunny shirt ever printed in the history of Threadless designs

And for another FlyingMouse winner, check out Connect It!  Who doesn’t want a giant, multi-colored Simon-esque brain on their shirt? Buy one for your mom for Christmas!

If that’s not reason enough for you, then the fact that FM put a significant amount of work into making this shirt what it is (look at all those whorls and ridges and crevices and the way it really looks like a brain and not a misshapen football with wrinkles!) should be enough to sway you.  Reward the diligent efforts of a designer who actually researched his subject matter (no penguins at the North Pole here).  You know you want to.

And don’t forget to vote on FlyingMouse’s adorable gigantic kitty sub, another study in questionable proportions (what’s off scale: the cat or its catch?):

The fun’s not stopping with twelve brand new designs. Designs like Really Exist (to your left) featuring an adorable bunny, to Puppet In Love, scrawled pen hearts, and so much more.

I’m sure Mojie will be along to give a bit more in depth review, but I really hearted this bunny shirt.

I also just received Decay in the mail and zomg, it’s so great.

You’re running out of Christmas (or Hanukkah) shopping days, so get shopping. They’re still seriously $10.00!

New Shirts!