...at least try to do something of your own to it. and starting with something other than a pretty mediocre design might help, too.

THE COPY

It's funny, I'm a couple of weeks from my 3 year anniversary of starting here. I didn't realize that until I started this blog, but it seems fitting that the timing should fall like that. You see, three years ago I was a very different designer than I've become, and I owe the progression I feel in my work largely to the community and staff here at threadless. When I started here I was a graphic designer working for a publishing firm doing brochures and ads and laying out magazine stories. I had always wanted to push my illustration but found my motivation and self-confidence seriously lacking. I would look through workbook or illustration annuals and always thought 'I'm never going to get there.' That was also the time I was looking at my sad sack clothing selection and wishing I had something that was more personal, that represented me better than some company logo or Hawaiian gift shop find. While looking at the site of a friend of a friend, I found a link to this place. From that moment on I was hooked.

At first I didn't take my designs seriously...and I only think of this stuff as designs, not art. My first five or six designs aren't up anymore. I asked that they be taken down, because I realized something after I'd done them—threadless was an opportunity for me to really test my illustration work, to clarify my own ideas and style and to really find the fun in doing my own work. So I started to do just that, and still do to this day. It's because of the feedback from the community that I saw weaknesses in my work, things I didn't realize on my own working in a vacuum as I was. My first print came as a shock because I had been trying to make a point with that design without thinking it'd actually get picked. After that I've pushed harder and harder to figure out what I like and why I've liked it, discovering in the process that it's just plain old fun to do this, to express and idea or mood with some color and cloth. I realized I don't exist in a vacuum anymore. I've made real friends from folks I'm met in the blogs, people whose design sense and honesty I trust and know I can ask an opinion and will get an truthful answer. And I've found this stuff I do really does resonate with other people, and as any artist out there will tell you, that is the most fulfilling thing in the world.

So it is with absolute sincerity that I thank the threadless staff and the community at large for all the feedback, all the response, all the acceptance. If you'd asked me three years ago what I had hoped to achieve from participating in this community it would have come nowhere near what has actually happened.

It's been a while since the alumni got together to create a surprise group submission, but here we are again! We hope you all have as much fun scoring and viewing these as we had creating them.


THEME:
Lyracize. Choose the lyrics from a favorite song and create a design around them. You don't have to include the lyrics in the design unless it needs it.

ENTRIES:

Hi everyone!

I'm going to be starting a set of blogs on tips and tricks and advise on ways to improve your threadless designs and have a better chance at getting printed, but I'd really like to know what areas of interest you guys think are important. I'm collecting interviews from as large a group as I can of threadless' most successful designers, as well as from the people who actually choose the shirts themselves, so this isn't going to be just about my opinions on design. This isn't going to be a series of tutorials on how to make a halftone or a discussion on whether pirates and ninjas are a dead horse subject (unless you are Ellsswhere), but more about what sets certain designs off from the rest and why one design works and another doesn't. I'm planning 6 parts right now, but that may go up or down depending on the feedback I get here and the results of the interviews. So let me know what you'd like to know!

The last alumni group submission, Purple Rain, got more than 30 submissions on the theme! We had a blast last time, and this month looks to be another great group. We hope you all enjoy scoring and viewing these as we had creating them.



THEME:
Stand Alone Creature. Everyone comes up with one funky/unique looking creature without any surrounding objects or landscape. No accessories unless its attached to its body. Whatever shirt color you want. Only ONE, no groups of creatures or packs or flocks etc. Placement could vary. The title is the name of the creature.

ENTRIES:

Hey all,

Every now and then a group of us get together and submit a bunch of designs because we like to vote on stuff and thought it'd cool to make voting for a day a little more fun for you, too. In the past they have oriented around just one theme, but this time we tried out two. Objectivity's theme was "pen", which had to appear somewhere in the design. Opposites' theme was, uh, duh, opposites. We hope you enjoy!
































Thanks to everyone who participated and good luck!

Here is a listing of all the Fallen Stars submissions put out in this month's group collab project:
































And honorary member Ross:


Thanks to everyone who participated this time around!