I used to think that SpongeBob Squarepants was two separate characters. Until recently really. Well now I know better.

If you are a fan of the show, or even if you are not actually, there is a pretty cool t-shirt design contest over at Threadless at the moment with some very cool prizes, financial and otherwise:

• $2500 cash
• $500 Threadless gift certificate
• A trip to Universal Studios Hollywood, including hotel and a stipend toward airfare
• A signed, limited edition SpongeBob animation cell
• Set of five Funko vinyl toys
• Three artists will be invited to participate in the SpongeBob Art Tribute Show at Gallery Nucleus
• Other designs chosen for print from this challenge will receive compensation based on the product printed on & the quantity printed.

Submissions close at 11:59:59 CST May 30, 2013.

Link: Threadless

SpongeBob SquarePants T-Shirt Design Contest

I don’t often post about Kickstarter on Tee Reviewer and that is not because I have anything against Kickstarter. To the contrary, I think it’s great. I have even backed a project on Kickstarter. The Pocket TV by Infinitec which I don’t think is so great.

One of the proposed new designs by Christopher Lovell

Anyway, the reason I don’t post about Kickstarter t-shirt projects is because the vast majority of projects I see are poorly thought out and showcase designs that fail to impress. In one case, one featured plagiarized designs. (It wasn’t funded.)

For £25: 1 tee or vest of your choice + sticker + pin + matching page of comic

The Big Bad City project on the other hand is well thought out and has some beautiful designs by Christopher Lovell.  They are 75% funded at the moment with 9 days to go. While funding tends to slow down at this point, I think it’s already high enough that Big Bad City will make sure it is funded.

Pledges begin at £1 and go all the way of to £650.

Link: Kickstarter

Big Bad City on Kickstarter

This is a pretty good deal really. If you are in the market for a few more tees this is a really good deal. You can select any 4 of Busted Tees $20 t-shirts and pay just $44. That’s $11 each. Almost 50% off.

Add four $20 tees to your cart and apply coupon code 4FOR44 at checkout and BINGO! SHAZAM! Bob’s your uncle!

Link: Busted Tees

Four Tees For $44 at Busted Tees

Bakso is a new print on demand company based in the UK. I have used CafePress and Zazzle and I am quite familiar with other POD sites too but Bakso is a little different from those in that it doesn’t allow users to upload any old design regardless of quality. Trust me. I tried.

All designs must go through a brief but stringent quality control process, this is to ensure the quality of all the designs that are uploaded onto Bakso and also to ensure there is no copyright infringement. Call us picky but we only want the best designs and we think allowing designs of poor quality under values our tees, but more importantly our artists.

Bakso T-Shirt Review

The shirt is a 100% cotton medium tog white t-shirt. This, like all the tees on Bakso I believe, is made by Continental Clothing using fair-trade cotton. Nice. This shirt in the photo is a medium and is a little looser overall than a standard American Apparel tee.

Being a DTG print, the print area is of course very soft. The print quality is great. DTG technology has been improving rapidly over the last few years and this is a good sample of what can be done.

Artwork

This tee was designed by an artist called Memuco, who as of now has 8 other designs of varying styles on Bakso. This design doesn’t really work for me.

Overall, it doesn’t really look like it was created to be on a t-shirt. The top two halves works well enough but the rectangle at the bottom just looks out-of-place.

Specifically: I don’t find the girl to be particularly attractive which may be just a matter of taste but the image is not very flattering. Why does she have a red nose? Does she have a cold? Is she an alcoholic? The red surrounding her is almost like blood too, making the whole image reminiscent of a horror movie poster. I know she’s “Shark Girl” and that would explain the sharks but I just don’t get it. And why just hammerhead sharks? And Memuco’s logo of a man in a gas mask at the bottom of the image just adds to the horror vibe.

Branding and Extras

There was no Bakso branding on the t-shirt that I could see. But I guess that is fine as they are not really trying to sell Bakso t-shirts. They are selling tees by various artists. A business card was included with the tee but that might be simply because it was for a t-shirt review. There were no extras but extras are not common with print on demand companies.

Website

A simple mockup appears if you mouse-over the designs

The Bakso website is clean and easy to navigate. There are no images of t-shirts on the homepage which I always find very strange for a t-shirt store. That’s not exactly true. If you roll over the designs on the homepage you will be treated to a very simple mockup.

The store looks a little like the submission gallery for a t-shirt design contest site rather than a store with the “Baks” looking like votes, which they are a kind of. (My wife thought it was a Buy Now button first. Her second guess was that it was a Kickstarter like deal.) At first I wondered if there were actually any t-shirts on sale. Perhaps they should put the price where the “Baks” are.

On the product pages there is a “BAK THIS” button. It is the Bakso version of  a “like” button but it is a little confusing because it reads the same as “back this” which sounds like I might have to put my money where my mouse is if I clicked it. I guess that is why my wife thought it was a Kickstarter-type deal.

Selection

There are currently 73 designs by 14 artists to choose from. So it’s not a huge store but I have seen much smaller. And it is only starting.

While I can appreciate that there is some pretty decent artwork on Bakso I think very little of it is actually suitable for t-shirts. A lot of the designs are just rectangles on a shirts. I guess they were just scanned and uploaded rather than created digitally. There was nothing that stood out and made me want to buy it but some of that could be down to presentation too as those mockups don’t help.

Pricing

They are not very cheap but PODs rarely are. £23.99 (about US$36 at today’s exchange rate). Still it seems a bit steep for a white tee with a single print on the front.

Wrap-Up

The t-shirt and print quality are very good but the selection of available tees needs to improve dramatically if they are to make a success out of this. The presentation of the t-shirt needs to be improved too. Perhaps with better presentation the designs would look more like something that I would want to wear.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest

Bakso T-Shirt Review

Threadless just released 22 new Iron Man tees, the winners of the Iron Man t-shirt design contest. And if you are a fan of Iron Man, I think you will be pleased. The t-shirt above by Luc Journot is my favorite but I would be wary of buying a dark t-shirt with so much ink on the bottom. (I like my tees soft.)

Be sure to check them out before they are sold out.

Link: Threadless

22 New Iron Man T-Shirts at Threadless

This is another t-shirt design contest that I bet many people will get excited about. There have been a few Marvel Comics collaborations with Threadless already but this one has the potential to be huge. Especially if you make it angry…ahem…sorry…

If your design is printed, you’ll get:

• $2500 cash for the grand prize
• $500 Threadless gift certificate
• Other designs chosen for print from this challenge will receive compensation based on the product printed on & the quantity printed.

MARVEL: THE INCREDIBLE HULK - Genius nuclear physicist Bruce Banner has been Hulking out since 1962, when a bomb he designed clobbered him with gamma radiation. Over the years, Hulk has battled foes like the Abomination, the Leader, and Wendingo, supported by his wife Betty and occasionally joined by his mutant cousin, She-Hulk. But no matter who he’s up against, Hulk is strongest there is!

Submissions close April 25th.

Link: Threadless

Hulk T-Shirt Design Contest

Design by Humans are holding a special contest where the challenge is to design an awesome tee with just one color. Here is what they have to say about it:

…One Color Only is the theme but we do not expect you to go simple, show us your most beautiful art and coolest concepts. One color is all you are permitted but that color can be any color from the millions available. … Three winners will be selected. You can submit standard, oversized and all-over styles of printing and you can select any color t-shirt as your canvas. You can only use one color, use it wisely.

Prizes:

1. 1st Place: $1,500
2. 2nd Place: $1,000
3. 3rd Place :$750 + Goodie bag

Submissions close April 26, 2013.

Link: Design by Humans

DBH One Color Only T-Shirt Design Contest

Eric Fan is the latest artist to get made at Threadless and it is easy to see why he was chosen. I love the video too. He seems so laid back and positive.

Eric Fan is a Toronto based illustrator and t-shirt designer with a passion for the whimsical and unexpected, a love of vintage art, top hats, pop culture collisions, and surreal constructions.

Link: Threadless

Eric Fan gets made at Threadless

With this new t-shirt design contest at Threadless, you can design zombie tees with a purpose other than “I like drawing zombies.” The design challenge here is to create a t-shirt design inspired by Dead Island Riptide.
If your design is printed, you’ll get:

• $2500 cash for the grand prize
• $500 Threadless gift certificate
• A copy of Dead Island Riptide Rigor Mortis Collector’s Edition for either Playstation 3 or Xbox 360
• Other designs chosen for print from this challenge will receive compensation based on the product printed on & the quantity printed.

Submissions close April 18th, 2013.

Link: Threadless

Dead Island Riptide T-Shirt Design Contest

ThinkGeek are holding a pretty awesome t-shirt sale with lots and lots of tees for just $9.99. If you think geek then you will probably find a tee or ten that you like.

Of course it is a clearance sale so many sizes have already sold out but ThinkGeek have made it easy to see what’s available in your size.

Link: ThinkGeek

$9.99 T-Shirt Sale at ThinkGeek