The good folks at Pause Design have a great photograph on their home page showing just how that printing technique is accomplished. I wanted to share that with you so you could visualize how the magic is done.

Once the color palette is laid down on the screen, the printer runs the squeegee horizontally as opposed to the typical vertical pass. Of course it can be done vertically as well but that wouldn’t be right for the image above. Voila! Some of the colors mix, most stay solid and you have one beautiful design in the end.

Special thanks to Pause Design for having such cool images.

These three tees are strikingly similar, is this really a design trend or is it too close to call? Each one is pretty cool in its own right but are they inspired by each other? Which came first? Are they completely different? I’ll you decide:

Keep Buying by Disturbia Clothing

Heavy Is The Head by Famous Nobody

I’m Tweeting This by Regal Clothing

I am going to have to go with design trend because the messages are so different. What do you think?

Many of the designs featured a rainbow print pattern that is hard to consistently do. Apparently ExcessIsOk has figured it out and are going to ride it until the wheels fall off. Bright colors are hot right now anyway. Peep some of these prints:

One-liner t-shirts are getting hard to pull off these days because there is so much saturation. He either had to be really clever or connect to a niche. All the universal sayings have just about been used up. The two I really liked on their site were - “Til Death Do Us Party” and “I Believe in the Loch Ness Monster”.

I think these tees are pretty tight. They are officially getting put on the radar to be watched.

The Autobones tee is now available online beginning today at the JC site.

And in the same vein, I bring to you the TMNT inspired pizza cupcake t-shirt. These guys just don’t quit do they?

One of the entries that was very cool to see yesterday was via a designer named Shalimar Luis called Nebula. I instantly recognized it as an entry into the Incubus design contest at Design by Humans. The design is pretty sick, and I love to see Shalimar campaigning for votes through social media. He’s inspired me to post about it on Color Overload.

If you like the design as much as I do, head over to DBH and give it a little love.

Inspired Magazine has been pretty consistent in coming out with great lists over a wide variety of topics. I really perked up my ears on this one because they featured 55 fresh t-shirts for the creative community. You know I have a little something for tees. 

Here’s two screenshots with examples from the list. You can click on either one to go to the original article.

Here are the questions again with his response in italics below:

1. Will there still be sales in the states?
   Yes. Currently, the plan is to continue production in the states and sell these products to the US, UK, and elsewhere while opening up Chinese production of my line to be sold specifically in China.
   
2. Is the new website you’re setting up for a Chinese specific domain or to replace the current .com?
   It will be a separate domain, but I plan to have the two sites link to one another.
   
3. Is the motivation to branch out into different products, increase quantity per t-shirt print run, or lower the per shirt pricing?
   Neither, actually. The primary goal is to experiment with my line in China, and see if it sells!

And there you have it, straight from LF. You can continue to watch Linty Fresh’s every move by tuning into their blog.

The plans at Linty Fresh are still a little unclear according to the blog but they definitely seem very exciting. Eric Terry, the founder, recently did a three month stint in China and set up production partners to take his wears across the Pacific pond.

He’s going even further to set up branding in China and warehousing. That all indicates less of a production/sourcing/importing to the United States set-up and more of a physical presence in China for sales set-up.

I guess the questions I have now are:

1. Will there still be sales in the states?
2. Is the new website you’re setting up for a Chinese specific domain or to replace the current .com?
3. Is the motivation to branch out into different products, increase quantity per t-shirt print run, or lower the per shirt pricing?

I have been involved with overseas apparel production and outsourcing and while there are many advantages, there can be just as many disadvantages. I have a feeling with a sharp guy like Eric, he is aware of the pitfalls and has found a way to make them work for him.

Good luck Linty, we’re looking forward to watching your future success.

While I’m not an affiliate for any products or services, I feel like I should help do my part to spread the word for Go Media’s latest announcement.  These guys have done such a great job of improving the t-shirt industry through tutorials, artwork, and trendsetting.

The concept of affiliate networks on the internet has been around as long as e-commerce.  The affiliate sales process has been improving over the years and PepperJam (their network provider) has been experiencing explosive growth in the affiliate network space. Pairing them up with Go Media is a match made in internet sales heaven.

Go Media continually puts out new products on a regular basis and they stay in front of the curve with cutting-edge designs.  Sounds like a win-win situation for everyone.  Click on the image below to head over to the sign-up page.

He’s not afraid to spend some time on a design and create a lot of characters for one single print. The complexity and volume of the artwork isn’t always synonymous with good design. He is able to do both but is also able to keep it simple. That is a talent that many t-shirt designers wish they had but can’t be taught. It’s just one of those things where you either have it or you don’t.

Rubens Scarelli has it.

The brand I am referring to is The Hundreds and they are straight fire right now.  The L.A. Times recently interviewed the two founders and the focus of the article was about getting bigger, but still staying underground.  It’s a dilemma where you have to walk the line by trying to sell to the masses without diluting your brand.  The main example of “what not to do to stay street” was of Ed Hardy and I that’s a pretty fair assertion .

There’s a couple more Easter eggs hidden in the article that I don’t want to give away because I want you to read it. Be sure and look for those revenue amounts I mentioned earlier because their growth rate is phenomenal.  It will be fun to see what the future holds for these guys.

They busted out with an embroidered pocket tee featuring an OriginalFake character climbing out of the pocket. A little clever and very much their style, this one has a chance to be a conversation piece. Enjoy the tee and enjoy your weekend!

First off, his design style is not typically what I would buy or wear. With that said, I am completely drawn to his artwork because of the consistency in theme and the color schemes. He has a look that is all his own, and it has completely changed my taste. I have an appreciation for his work because you can see that he isn’t cloning the current trends. He creates simplistic characters and gives them a distinct appearance of being from their own little world.

Do you see the hot 80’scolors in his portfolio? No, he stays true with subdued earthy tones and soft beach colors. The colors perfectly match the characters.

Originality cannot be faked. In this case, Abbott’s work apparently only exists in one other place aside from his designs. That would be his head.

Pause Designs out of Ontario, Canada had written something so clever that I had to check out their shirts to see if they were THAT good.  Before I get to the shirts, let me just say that you can immediately see their humor is apparent throughout the site.

Their product shots are fun and their designs are funny without being cheesy.  The color combinations used for the print and the actual shirt are pretty refreshing too. Funny email = nice shirts = good job for standing out from the rest.

Before I get to the pics, I want it to be known that this is not a question of a brand’s quality or their printer’s ability. In fact, the example I’m about to show you could just be an issue of a poor photograph. The example just served as a reminder to me to caution you the next time you’re creating artwork for both light and dark colored shirts. Here’s the beautiful, colorful design on a white t-shirt brought to you by Phenomenon.

Here is that same design on a black t-shirt:

The reason I suspect the design has become dull on a black t-shirt is the same problem that has plagued the printing industry for a long time. The print on a black t-shirt requires a white underbase printed underneath all of the artwork. The purpose this serves is to be a brand new white canvas so the black fabric isn’t invisible through the ink. This actual design probably had a bunch of halftones incorporated to make the color gradients and those halftones allowed the white underbase to come through. This appears to have somewhat washed out the design.

Again, I’ll reiterate that it could just be the photograph making the tee appear washed out. Even if that is the case, it’s a good example of what could possibly happen if the artwork isn’t prepared properly for a dark tee. Regardless, I want the shirt anyway!