All About Andy - tagged with tshirts

Graniph Design Award 09: 1 million Yen up for grabs!

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:00:00 -0800

Graniph may only do one t-shirt design competition a year (I think), but when they do, they do. That million yen (around $9000 US) is just the gold prize, there will also be: 5 Silver winners who get $900 10 Bronze winners who get $450 7 Winners decided by the sponsor companies who also get $450 The list of sponsors is impressive too. T-World magazine, Superfuture, Dazed & Confused magazine, grafik magazine, STUDIOVOICE, XLR8R, and a Japanese one that I can’t read. Pretty prestigious stuff I’m sure you’ll agree. As the graphic above says, 30,000 entries were made to their last couple of competitions, so it’s safe to presume that competition will be stiff this this time around too. Applications/submissions can be made throughout next month. Graniph

Animals with Guns from Graniph [Review-kinda]

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:45:00 -0800

At some point I think I’m just showing off with all these tees that Graniph have sent me and you can’t buy, but I can’t feel too guilty because they weren’t on sale when the package arrived, and because these tees (which won’t fit my ‘comfotable’ frame) have been great Christmas/birthday presents for the ladies in my life! The tee is great quality, as usual. A little thicker than most of the tees we usually deal with here on HYA, and also cut on the more slender side of things.

Gifts from Beautiful/Decay

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:00:00 -0800

I’m fairly used to receiving tees from people, but a magazine is a bit more unusual, and it was really nice to be sent a copy of Beautiful/Decay, as the only way I can usually get a copy is to spend a couple of hours driving to my favourite shop in Manchester. I really like the collage look on this tee, and the ‘eat more’ theme certainly lends itself.to the festive season. One thing I’d note, as this isn’t a real review, is that this tee is an XXL but fits like a fairly slim XL, so you’re going to need to carefully check out the size chart if you’ve never made a purchase from B/D before.

Spongebob x doraemon tee from Wrongwroks

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 18:47:00 -0800

hideyourarms/bigguybigcity posted a photo:

Camera phone upload powered by ShoZu

HYA Presents… Presents!

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 13:37:00 -0800

A few people from the tee world sent me present over the festive period, and as they are gifts I don’t think it would be right for me to review them ‘properly’, but it would be a bit rude of me not to post a few pictures of the goodies. First up, Wrongwroks, Tony sent over a couple of tees and a hat. The only problem with me wearing Wrongwroks is that I have to spend a couple of minutes explaining to everyone that asks me “why does Spongebob look funny?” that it’s a mashup of Spongebob and Doraemon… and then I have to explain who Doaremon is.

SDC10057 (Large)

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:42:00 -0800

hideyourarms/bigguybigcity posted a photo:

Samsung digital camera

Bling Buffet by Gama Go [Rumplo Rocks]

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 07:00:00 -0800

Sorry about having to use a close-up as the main image, but all the other ones that Gama-Go have for this tee are a tad too small. You can (just about) see how it looks on a tee if you check out the gallery. It’s a little unfortunately that there is repitition on the tee, but I guess that a lot of buffet’s are like that, you go up to a buffet thinking there’s going to be lots of different stuff, but then you notice that everything ends up looking and tasting kinda the same… tee still looks nice though. Costiness=$28 Buy Bling Buffet at Gama Go / Rumplo Link

Buy this before George Lucas goes C&D on his ass

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:00:00 -0800

I really hope that the Star Wars people let this one slide, but just in case it might be a good idea to buy it fairly soon. Also, I guess you’d want to buy it fairly soon, because a Christmas themed Star Wars t-shirt will probably look a bit silly in January. Costiness=$16.66 Buy ‘Merry Hothmas’ by Aegis at MySoti

The IT Crowd: S3E4 FAIL!

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:59:00 -0800

I have sad news to report friends, after a few good weeks writing about this seasons IT Crowd episodes, I’m afraid this week is a bit of a failure. After spending a while trying to work out where Roy’s tees came from (which is why this post is a few days late compared to usual), I’ve only managed to find one of the three tees. The first tee worn by Roy in the episode (pic at the top of this post) had a bit of a Japanese feel to it, seeing as it has some Asian looking text on it and what looks like a series of characters beneath it. I don’t even know where I’d start looking for this tee, so I throw myself open to your suggestions.

The second is pretty easy, in theory, it’s a design with a slogan of some kind on it, usually I just have to Google that, and voila, I remain “that guy who find The IT Crowd shirts.” Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to work out what the slogan says, I’m pretty sure that the final word being said by the character is ‘time’, but that isn’t much help without the rest of it. It has the look of a webcomic style t-shirt, so maybe someone out there might be aware of which webcomic it is, and then I’ll have some breadcrumbs to follow and hunt it down.

I’m glad that it was the last tee in the show that I managed to find, because then you’ll go away from this post thinking “sure, that sucked a bit, but at least he found one,” instead of, “dammit Andy, you’re such a loser, and you keep forgetting to link to things in blog posts!” The Overlook Hotel, for those of you who arewondering why Roy would be promoting a hotel instead of his usual geek-chic, is the hotel in The Shining. The tee is available from Last Exit to Nowhere and costs £17.50.

Something else I noticed in the show was that Roy appears to be a fan of a blog called “Why, That’s Delightful” which is of course (of course!) written by the show’s writer and creator Graham Linehan. Except, he was actually looking at something else.

Chinese is not my native language from TopatoCo

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:00:00 -0800

I know that this tee was featured in my “10 Great Tees from 10 Great Webcomics” post, but that was written well over a year ago, and HYA has more than double the amount of readers since then, so hopefully this tee will be fresh to a lot of you. In case you hadn’t worked it out, the text on the tee says “Chinese is not my native language”… in Chinese, presumably. Or perhaps they’re throwing us the old switcheroo, and we think it’s funny because of the tee riffing on designers using Chinese and Japanese symbols because they look cool rather than being necessary, and the tee actually says something like ‘ham sandwich,’ which would actually be kinda funny too. The tee is designed by Dorothy Gambrell, the lady behind the riotously funny webcomic, Cat and Girl. Costiness=$19 Buy the tee at TopatoCo

Mighty Robot by rimo-to

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:00:00 -0800

Putting a toy robot onto a tee is hardly a new idea, but this tee from rimo-to has taken it, and perhaps unintentionally put a really sinister looking robot onto this design. I think it’s something about the face, it doesn’t look pissed off, but you know it wants to do something, right? Costiness=£24.99 Buy the Mighty Robot at rimo-to

Ghost World Stencil Tee by sbariniesto [Flickr Finds]

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:00:00 -0800

I remember watching ghost World a few years back and thinking it was pretty cool, and that this ‘Scarlett Johansson’ woman was quirky and kinda cute, but nothing to special (oh, how times have changed). Some of you may remember that I featured a tee by sbariniesto back in May, and if you did, well done, because there’s been freakin’ hundreds of posts since then, and I think I bookmarked this one at the same time. I really like the creative use of stencilling here, I often associate stencils with simple designs, but this is clearly anything but. I could do with some confirmation from the designers reading this post, would I be right in thinking that the Ghost World ‘text’ is ghosted onto this tee? Or is there another name for the technique being used? The tee is presumably a one-off, but you could always try Flickr messaging sbariniesto to ask if you can buy one. Photo credit: Ghost World by sbariniesto

Machine 56 x Terratag tees and hoodies are kinda badass

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:00:00 -0800

I don’t think that robot t-shirts get much more robot-y than the ones from Terratag. They seem to achieve the zenith of geekdom, there are loads of store dedicated to mecha figures in Akihabara, Tokyo, so they must be geeky, and yet, Terratag manage to flip the potentially otaku subject matter around and make some really cool shirts out of them. Their latest designs are a couple of tees and a hoodie (all of which can be found in the gallery), created in collaboration with an Indonesian artist called Machine 56.

Gotham’s Youth by Glennz

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:00:00 -0800

New Zealand’s finest funny tee designer (if you think I’m wrong, prove it), Glenn Jones, is at it again with this fun design based upon the bat signal. Unless I’ve forgotten something, the Dark Knight was my favourite movie of the year (yes, even beating Wall-E), and I’ve told my family that if I don’t find the Blu-Ray under the Christmas tree that I’m definitely going to have a childish tantrum, so if there’s no posts in the New Year it’s probably because I’m still sulking… or possibly just really hungover. Costiness=$19.95 Buy Gotham’s Youth at Glennz

KosherHam are celebrating Christmas… hmmmm [Coupon Codes]

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:00:00 -0800

Want 20% off at KosherHam? Enter the coupon code PORK at the checkout and it will be applied!

6 New Tees at No Star Clothing

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:00:00 -0800

No Star dropped six new tees at the weekend, and I didn’t think they looked at good when I just looked at the thumbnails on their website (which is what you can see at the top), but then I took a look at the actual tees, and they actually look really cool, and for some reason, seem funnier. Also, use the coupon code BIGUPS to get 40% off when you spend $100 or more, and the coupon code MEDUPS will get you 30% off orders of $40 or more. I’m not sure how long those coupons will work, but I’d be pretty surprised if they still worked after the holidays.

a.mar.illo & siXsiXsiX are making A Better Tomorrow

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 04:00:00 -0800

Andre from A Better Tomorrow got in touch to let me know about a couple of new tees that won their design competition. The one in the top picture of this post is called ‘Night of the Dead’ (way to keep it festive ABT!) and is firmly planted in the burgeoning niche of ’80s puke horror’, a genre that I must thank Alex from Dance Party Massacre for coining, though he’ll get pretty pissed if you lump his tees in with them. The tee marks the first time that ABT have used waterbased ink on their tees, so this will probably be one of their softest tees yet. The lower tee is by that most excellent stalwart of tee design competitions, Sven Palmowski, or a.mar.illo if you want to get all ‘aka’ about this. The tee is a pretty clever take on 50s B-Movies, except for instead of thinly-guised metaphors about Communists invading the US, he’s tackling the much more dangerous, and surely much more real, threat of giant fruits laying waste to the Earth. Close ups in the gallery.

Another tee from Graniph [Review]

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:00:00 -0800

I was about to write up another Graniph t-shirt review from the package they sent me a couple of weeks ago, but then I noticed that it wasn’t actually available on the Graniph website, as far as I can tell, so instead of doing a traditional review, I’m just going to post a few pictures. Rest assured that the quality is superb as always with Graniph tees, and that yes, it is most definitely cut for Japanese people… and I don’t mean the sumos.

Facial Hair Shirt by Wire & Twine

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:00:00 -0800

You know what has been an unusual design meme this year? Mustaches, what’s the deal with them? They’re everywhere at the moment. We all know that I look stupid with a mustache (although I don’t think I’ve smiled so much at my own appearance in a long time), but I think that more people can get away with a beard, especially at a time of the year when you’d rather look like a hobo than be cold. This tee has lots of famous beards from history on it, though has the notable absence of Renate Blauel (ahhh, a reference so obscure that Seth MacFarlane would be proud). It’s a fun tee, and the addition of a beard names key near the hem is pretty cool, but I can’t help but feel that the print should be bigger. Costiness=$20 Buy Facial Hair at Wire & Twine

Chateau Roux’s Amazing Packaging

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:33:00 -0800

I just realised that after telling you I would do it, I never posted the pictures of Chateau Roux’s fantastic packaging that their tees come in. As you’ll be able to tell from the pictures, getting a tee is a pretty special experience. The whole package comes in a large grey bag (not pictured, due to it’s normalness), then inside that there was a large paper bag like the ones that they have in their London store (these bags are due to be replaced by plastic bags for online orders, but instore will keep the paper bags).

Inside that was the cardboard box, much like a shoe box, but rather flatter, which had been branded up and looked really good. I pulled the box top off the box and found… more packaging! The tees had been wrapped up in some logo-branded tissue paper, which gave the tees the feeling of being treated like a dress shirt. I guess that all this packaging is something of an ecologists nightmare, and I’d have to agree with you to a certain extent, but as the packaging is so nice, I haven’t thrown any of it away yet. The box will be re-used for storing HYA related documents, and whilst I don’t know what I’ll do with that lovely bag, but I’m sure I’ll find something to do with it.