I've read the blogs. I fully understand the criticisms. I appreciate that this is a composite of existing images and concepts, and that the only display of originality was in actually sticking them together. And perhaps it did only take the artist three minutes to knock-up. But I still think this is a great T-shirt, and I will wear mine with pride.

And, furthermore, I would argue that there is valuable creativity in lumping together existing influences to see what you come with. Take British art-school bands, they are often little more than a winning cocktail of their fave records: Franz Ferdinand (Talking Heads, Blondie, Bowie), Kaiser Chiefs (Madness, The Clash, The Beta Band, Super Furry Animals), Super Furry Animals (ELO, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Steely Dan) Blur (Everything under the sun, including: The Kinks, Nirvana, Wire, The Specials, Japan), The Smiths (The Byrds, Presley and British kitchen-sink dramas of the sixties), The Beatles (Music hall meets Chuck Berry).

I love all these bands, and the fact that some of their rip-offs are so blatant it's untrue (Rusholme Ruffians, Song 2, For Tomorrow, I Predict a Riot, Do You Want To, etc.) bothers me little. You can find more original bands, it's true (Joy Division, Pink Floyd and Orbital spring to mind), but you won't have as much fun.

'Predicament' could have looked like shit (like a helluva lot of other designs round here). It doesn't (on the contrary, it looks ace), so whether it's original or not seems rather a moot point to me.