Updates, New Years, and Woodchucks.

Hey guys... this'll probably be my last blog til the New Year. If you're out there and reading, have a happy one, and a safe one, because my readership simply isn't high enough to take a blow like that. In the New Year, I'm hoping to bring you some shirts you can actually buy, some designs I haven't entered, -maybe- a Woot Win, if I'm lucky. We'll cross our fingers, shall we?

A little news for y'all... if you haven't been following along, woot has selected my Walrusbird as one of the best overlooked designs of 2007. Why that one? No clue. It was my first design, it didn't break 30 votes, and I needed to resubmit my vector art because I'd since redesigned it to look, well, less like the first thing I'd ever done. It's not really doing so hot, as it's competing against scads of impressive designs (if I were able to pick the top-3, I'd still be disappointed I couldn't get some), but it has already surpassed its showing last time, and that makes me happy.
So what would I have picked from nearly 30 designs? Probably today's blog subject. It's my most successful failure to date... 6th place, 169 votes, a reference on Best Losers... Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you "How Much Wood?"

I was very pleased with my showing last derby, the theme of which was "other words of the year". Designs were to be submitted based on one of a selection of words from Merriam-Webster's top 10 list for 2007. This design is based off the word "conundrum," and the concept comes from one of the oldest conundrums: "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" The answer appears to be "at least 11".

I love this little guy. I think he came out great, I think the design utilizes the space well, I think the concept is self-explanatory... apparently many people agreed, because he's far and away my biggest success. I hope some day you get to purchase him. Please talk about him here.

***Disclaimer: All images in this post are for display only. No design herein is currently for sale. Any changes to this status will be noted in a separate post.***

Life's Little Warnings

I've kept this on the back burner way too long. Outside of a couple I want to toy with, it's my oldest baby. So now is the time to pimp it.

This was my first entry into the Infographic derby. While my other entries were more esoteric or methodical, this is much more information packed into its design. Each merit-badge-like image is loaded with important information. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't cry over spilled milk. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Don't not buy this shirt when it's on sale. Y'know, the truly important lessons of life. It's a straightforward concept, with a basic placement. I find it hard to really play with the space on a shirt, but thankfully, I think a concept like this is made for the average chest placement. I think it's incredibly accessible without needing frivolous text. I think the horse came out pretty well for toying in Inkscape. I think lots of positive things about my own shirts. That is why I need to know what everyone else thinks.

***Disclaimer: All images in this post are for display only. No design herein is currently for sale. Any changes to this status will be noted in a separate post.***

White Widow

The winter derby was entered feeling iffy, but for the first time I had three designs doing relatively well at once (all three broke 40). The best of the three follows, almost making my fourth hundred-vote breach. It's a fairly simple little design we can all relate to. The snowman is scared as hell of a dog-sized snow spider. Wouldn't we all be? As the spider has eight stick legs, and the snowman has none, it is safe to say the snowman was bitten with its vicious carrot mandibles, and is currently host to its snow larvae.

This ended up coming out amazingly all things considered... I had issues inking and when vectorizing, all the white insisted upon disappearing. It took a good hour and a half longer than it should have, but it did me proud. I especially like how the spider came out. This is an almost guaranteed print when winter rolls around next year.

***Disclaimer: All images in this post are for display only. No design herein is currently for sale. Any changes to this status will be noted in a separate post.***

Jazz Hands!

I've been a bit slow this month for one reason or another... largely due, I'm sure, to a week off from derbying 'round the beginning of the month, but also due to the holidays and other concerns. That said, it's about time to Fosse myself to throw out an entry.

Make up your own holiday theme. I came up with four ideas, but could only put my heart into 2 of them. Make your theme too open ended and the crazy ideas come out. This is probably my cleanest execution of all of them, and it did relatively decently. I just don't love it myself. It's the text. The hands also make it female unfriendly. Still, this blog's for your opinions, if you're out there. Perhaps there is a small, unrepresented Jazz Hands society that would love this. Gimme some love. Or some hate. Anything constructive is helpful.

***Disclaimer: All images in this post are for display only. No design herein is currently for sale. Any changes to this status will be noted in a separate post.***

Ol' Fashioned Love

Once upon a time, love was simple... you needed only to tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree and it would be known, though sitting under the apple tree with someone other than your girl would send a clear message to the contrary. But as modern times have come about, it seems as though love in one's tummy is no longer so yummy yummy yummy. It's as if we need a witch doctor, or love potion #9, to really make our feelings known.

Enter this handy flowchart. As you can see, it illustrates the easiest way for the girl of your dreams to show her true feelings. That dull thud you hear from the floorboards? That's the thud of her heart when she thinks about you. That clinking from the heat pipe, though... that shows that while she may seem warm, her emotions are cold and metallic. The one concern? The values of eras past may not be understandable to today's youth, and then, no matter what we did, it would likely be Judy's turn to cry. If you feel the message is not wasted on modern youth, do tell. We wish to ease the troubles of the lovelorn, not deepen their pain.

***Disclaimer: All images in this post are for display only. No design herein is currently for sale. Any changes to this status will be noted in a separate post.***


****Also, please click for detail. Which should be obvious. Duh, Adder****

The Clownward Spiral

Sometimes a design comes out of titular necessity. Nachtmusic was one where the title came long before the image fleshed out... this was a pretty quick transition from title to image. The title fairly obviously comes from the Nine Inch Nails album "The Downward Spiral," and what a spiral it is. Straddling the line between creepy and cute, these clowns are pretty shocked at their speedy drain circling. And they'd probably rather die than give you control.

This didn't do super, but it had strong reactions from the people who liked it, many of whom wanted it purely to creep the hell out of someone. Hey, I'm not going to quibble with why people voted for it... all I know is that it's something which will move copy. I'm happy with how the whole spiral thing came out, and I'm happy with the reaction. Do feel free to give me your reaction at this here blog!

***Disclaimer: All images in this post are for display only. No design herein is currently for sale. Any changes to this status will be noted in a separate post.***

Leapfrog!

My second true success of a failure, Leapfrog comes from the pattern derby. While most people went with full out patterns, I took a different tack... knowing I couldn't beat anyone at the slick repetition game, I went for something with a small amount of repetition and a large amount of whimsy, something that could be appreciated without concern for the pattern theme. What came out was leapfrog.

While Unexspookted remains my most popular vote-wise, Leapfrog was actually featured on a handful of user favorite lists, a good strong leap away from most of my designs, which were usually relegated to a spare comment here and there after posting the comp in the forums... leapfrog generated buzz without my doing. Keep the buzz alive and talk about it here (and when you're at it, feel free to weigh in on my other designs, too.)

As of Feb. 14, 2008, this shirt is now on sale at Bountee.

Two for Tuesday!

For the sake of aesthetics and readability, since this is a dual-design post, I'll start with the disclaimer: All images in this post are for display only. No design herein is currently for sale. Any changes to this status will be noted in a separate post.

That out of the way, welcome to the first, and possibly the last, two for Tuesday, so named because today, I will discuss two shirts at once. We're going back a couple weeks to the "time travel souvenir" derby, wherein designers were to create souvenir t-shirts, such as they sell at Planet Hollywood, but for events that took place in the past or future... shirts that say "I was there, via time machine." Three Worlds Collide was my best design that week... these two scraped by with about 13 votes combined.

My first entry was Exotic Constantinople. It's laid out like a travel brochure picture, complete with They Might Be Giants reference (although our more astute history buffs will note that New Amsterdam did not come into existence until after Istanbul was in vogue). It was universally ignored, because even hatred would have generated more buzz:




The second entry did only slightly better... we all know people who live high-powered lives and need to take an airplane from Boston to NYC, close as they are. We also know people who actually visited and enjoyed South of the Border, the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota, Carhenge, etc... what's travel without a tourist trap? It stands to reason that time travel as well would have its locations only for the frivolous and the kitsch-seekers, and with that in mind, I created Back in the Day:





I thought the concept was strong, but perhaps the execution was off. And so I leave it up to you, random people who occasionally visit my blog. What's there to like and hate about these? What would make them pop more? Enquiring designers want to know!

Bluebird of Avarice

This is probably the design I'm most proud of so far. It took a while to perfect, it's a mix of digital and hand-drawn, and it's conceptually strong. This little fella was born for a derby celebrating consumerism. I staked all my chances on one horse this time around, figuring I had a strong enough idea, especially with all the normal memetic ideas being quashed for the week. I was proud of the drawing, which was stronger than I'm usually capable of, the inking, which really made the drawing pop to me, and the concept... basically, it's a statement on the cult of wealth. A peacock is known for its flashy courtship shows. To me, the rich and well-dressed are little more than peacocks, hoping their flashiness will overcompensate for whatever shortcomings might be underneath while searching for a mate.

Yet in the end, it's one of my worst-scoring designs. This ended up being one of those ideas that sound great to you, but simply don't resonate. It took a couple revisions to get the end result, and by that time it was mostly buried in cheap parodies and concept-over-design designs. I'm not sure if it was simply ahead of its time, or that I got in over my head trying to play up an artistic piece with my rather limited skills. Do feel free to weigh in... the more opinions I get, the better.

***Disclaimer: All images in this post are for display only. No design herein is currently for sale. Any changes to this status will be noted in a separate post.***

Carrots Lie

First off, I want to thank everyone, those I know, those I don't, those who don't want me to know who the hell they are, etc, who has weighed in on the blog. This is an uphill battle, and a handful of critiques won't ultimately define my potential success in the field, but every little bit helps, and it is appreciated, and will only help me grow as a designer.

What's the hardest part about a "nutrition" theme? Creating an intelligent and wearable shirt. I don't know if this is either, but I liked it. It's a simple design... just a carrot wearing glasses. It's basic enough to be "iconic," though the word is pretty bold of me to use. A takeoff on the idea of carrots improving eyesight. Subtle, but ultimately not good enough. How do you feel about it?


***Disclaimer: All images in this post are for display only. No design herein is currently for sale. Any changes to this status will be noted in a separate post.***