Threadless

Nathan Griffin
Nathan Griffin aka no really, it is my real name is a 33.68 year old boy, has been a member since July 31, 2005, has scored 620 submissions, giving an average score of 0.80, helping 4 designs get printed.
Alumni Club Member
For the last two days, I've refreshed my submission (see below) page more times than I can count. I watch the vote numbers go up by 1 or 2 and find myself sad and thinking of ways I can better promote my sub when nothing happens for more than 5 mins. I refresh my page when I get home from work, when I wake up in the morning, when I come out of the bathroom or return to my computer after being away for any length of time.

My Threadless.com Submission

So my question is... are you submission type:

a) refreshes your page 10,000 times per day for seven days, wondering how people are voting, thinking maybe you should have changed something but it's too late now, considers suicide when you get no votes for any period greater than 10mins (by the way.. I've never done that), lets the confidence you have in your design fluctuate with every refresh depending on how many votes/comments you just got, calls your grandmother requesting that she and all of her red hat friends vote but freaks out when she tells you she doesn't know how to use a computer, swears to yourself and your housemates that you've stopped caring because you know you're not going to win but taps that refresh button one more time and then asks if your friends know anyone that could maybe vote, watches all of the incoming subs on a daily basis (especially for LOVES contests) to see how good or bad they are 'compared to yours.' Or asks your friends on MySpace with high friend counts to drop a plug in for you... ignoring of course your best buds with only 12 friends on their profile because well, it's just not worth it or better yet gets upset with folks on MySpace with 12,000 friends (which you consider a good 10,000 extra votes) because they don't allow HTML comments which ultimately means you can't plug your sub.

or

b) submits your design knowing that you'll win and doesn't check back but once during the seven days (if but only to reaffirm what you already know...... that your design rawks)

or

c) (as ISABOA pointed out) submits your design assuming you've got no chance in hell so what's it matter anyhow you're just doing it for fun.

which are you??

Andreas Mohacsy
   Andreas Mohacsy on Dec 20 '07 at 7:40pm
a) but a little less tony hawk
nikolina100
nikolina100 on Dec 20 '07 at 7:41pm
oh A fur shure!! Even, when I have nothing in the running I am refreshing the blog page 10,000 a day!! In my defense...I do work in front of a computer all day.



PS - My Grandma can't use a computer either.. :(
wullagaru
   wullagaru on Dec 20 '07 at 7:43pm
a god help me ... i check it like every 5 minutes unless Im super busy at work and i bump my promotion blog as much as I can and stay in teh realm of nettiquette
ISABOA
   ISABOA on Dec 20 '07 at 7:44pm
c) sometimes promotes, sometimes forgets about it - but not because you know you'll win - because you are pretty sure of the opposite - NOTE: often never votes on ones own design - due to sheer forgetfulness
Bramish
   Bramish on Dec 20 '07 at 7:45pm
First one. It's even worse after getting printed the first time - now I check the stock charts every day and more to see how it's selling, and am always checking for new blogs about it/gallery photos of it.
shirtflirt
shirtflirt on Dec 20 '07 at 7:47pm
this blog makes me want to sub something just to find out which personality type i am
wullagaru
   wullagaru on Dec 20 '07 at 7:48pm
do it shirt
shirtflirt
shirtflirt on Dec 20 '07 at 7:51pm
i think i'm gonna, actually



Nathan Griffin
   Nathan Griffin on Dec 20 '07 at 7:58pm
dooooo it shirt. right now. make sure it involves toast (your design). I only say that because I just saw another toast design and thought to myself "I should design a shirt with a slice of bread on it that says... 'I am toast on a tee. nuff said.'



aww screw. who needs text. just slap a piece of bread on there.
ISABOA
   ISABOA on Dec 20 '07 at 7:59pm
toast of the town
Nathan Griffin
   Nathan Griffin on Dec 20 '07 at 8:00pm
does 'better than sliced bread' work even by the mere fact that it's toast?
DaniellesGarden
   DaniellesGarden on Dec 20 '07 at 8:00pm
I only check my submissions when I see a comment was made. and I never checked to see how many people voted since the last time I checked..



No one is commenting on my sub right now, havent for 2 days.. : ( or something.. so I havent been checking at all.
DaniellesGarden
   DaniellesGarden on Dec 20 '07 at 8:04pm
Blatant self promotion Piggy Back..



Owl in the Oak - Threadless, Best T-shirts Ever

shirtflirt
shirtflirt on Dec 20 '07 at 8:05pm
i have an idea that i've wanted to illustrate for awhile.



the time is now i guess
kayceislost
kayceislost on Dec 20 '07 at 8:05pm
i am d) keep making subs but never EVER actually sub them
Nathan Griffin
   Nathan Griffin on Dec 20 '07 at 8:09pm
Danielle. Who said you could take over my 'good blog topic/sneaky self promotion idea' with your own!? sheesh! jk.



I jumped over to your critique on the dragon shirt and gave you a few of my own thoughts.



shirt. the time IS now. get on it.



kayceislost. what's stoppin' ya?
shirtflirt
shirtflirt on Dec 20 '07 at 8:11pm
i will. i even have a sketch. i'll scan scratch something out.



i'm going to call it My Tribute To the Living Legend Nathan Griffin.
DaniellesGarden
   DaniellesGarden on Dec 20 '07 at 8:13pm
ha, sorry.. i hoped you wouldnt mind.. dont worry im sure your bloggers are ignoring it..



Im gonna go see what you wrote on the dragon critique.. thanks.
Nathan Griffin
   Nathan Griffin on Dec 20 '07 at 8:13pm
Oh man.. from reality tv to titles like "Living Legend" on Threadless... I think I just wet myself. My life can't get any better.
kayceislost
kayceislost on Dec 20 '07 at 8:13pm
i dont know if i ever want to sub anything under this account
shirtflirt
shirtflirt on Dec 20 '07 at 8:14pm
sub it under steve the great's account
Nathan Griffin
   Nathan Griffin on Dec 20 '07 at 8:15pm
better yet... sub it under Stev(ie) Wonderbread. I'm sure you'll get points just for the name alone... it is bread afterall.
shirtflirt
shirtflirt on Dec 20 '07 at 8:23pm
oh, does my sub have to be about bread/toast? cos it's not. but it is about food.
Nathan Griffin
   Nathan Griffin on Dec 20 '07 at 8:25pm
haha. nono. it doesn't have to be about bread/toast. In fact, I'm sure there are a lot of folks out there that would prefer that it's not.
shirtflirt
shirtflirt on Dec 20 '07 at 8:26pm
even if it doesn't have a face? :o
bortwein
   bortwein on Dec 20 '07 at 8:27pm
(A) with a shameless plug for my sub in the running. ;-)

Tuning Fork - Threadless, Best T-shirts Ever
Nathan Griffin
   Nathan Griffin on Dec 20 '07 at 8:28pm
well... toast without a face is just...... toast. *ponders. And that's just boring [sarcasm]
FRICKINAWESOME
   FRICKINAWESOME on Dec 20 '07 at 8:45pm
Yeah, the a one although i didn't read the whole summary. That's the fun of the submission going live, seeing what everyone thinks about it! The stock charts are fun to watch as well as the number of your tees dwindles away.



Oh, and whoring your stuff is a ton of fun as well, striking the fine line between lifting your sub cutely in front of someone like a little kid offering chocolates to you, and being a complete nuisance whose blog is instantly swatted away after the 50th bump that hour.



Quick Draw - Threadless, Best T-shirts Ever



Air Guitar - Threadless, Best T-shirts Ever





Nathan Griffin
   Nathan Griffin on Dec 20 '07 at 8:49pm
Pluggit ;)



... hmm.. that's almost a community website worthy venture. Because ya know, as many times as I've worked on projects of one kind or another, one of the hardest things to do is find a place to plug the idea to other people.



I need to write this down. It would be great to have a place where you could go JUST to plug your stuff. It would have to be community regulated though. Every plug gets voted on so the big corporate monkies couldn't take over. Plug categories. A blog forum. ShaBANG.



Guess I'll add that to my list of 'projects to work on.'



Thanks for the inspiration FRICKIN!
Andreas Mohacsy
   Andreas Mohacsy on Dec 20 '07 at 9:24pm
you go shirt
shirtflirt
shirtflirt on Dec 20 '07 at 9:25pm
god damn the pressures killing me
bananaphone
   bananaphone on Dec 20 '07 at 9:27pm
no matter what you sub itll get around 2000+ votes, so who the hell cares about promoting it?
shirtflirt
shirtflirt on Dec 20 '07 at 9:28pm
lately it seems like the numbers are dwindling but i wouldn't know.
FRICKINAWESOME
   FRICKINAWESOME on Dec 20 '07 at 9:29pm
Actually BP, there's plenty of times I haven't plugged a submission and a bunch of people in the blogs later go, "i didn't see that...i woulda 5$'d it fer shure!" Some people on the blogs only vote when something is directly presented to them. And i go for every vote, no matter if it's a 1 or a 5$.
Nathan Griffin
   Nathan Griffin on Dec 20 '07 at 10:22pm
I'd have to agree with both BP and FRICK. I was just talking with my girlfriend about vote counts and it DOES seem that unless everyone is doing the same amount of promotion on and off Threadless.com as myself (which I highly doubt), the actual amount of promotion doesn't REALLY make that big of a difference.



I'll be completely honest, I'm promoting the HELL out of my new sub. Why? Because I'm broke and I'm moving to Chicago on Christmas Eve to start a life with my g/f and it's not cheap. I could use the money. But from what I've seen, my vote counts are on par with other subs from the day mine was accepted. Which says to me... it doesn't make a difference.



But like FRICK said, I still like to know that I'm getting the most out of it. A lot of people most certainly don't vote on subs unless they see it staring at them and happen to be bored.



And that concludes my bump for the night.
bonafides
bonafides on Dec 21 '07 at 4:55am
definitely an A, even when it's not my own submission!
Bramish
   Bramish on Dec 21 '07 at 4:58am
I tend to plug my subs a couple of times during the week in running. But I agree with BP in that it doesn't make a difference. Even if a handful of bloggers see it and give it a 5$ it wouldn't have otherwise got, that's not going to have much noticeable effect on the final score.
polynothing
   polynothing on Dec 21 '07 at 4:59am
For sure an A
jimmiiko
jimmiiko on Dec 21 '07 at 5:00am
HAHA, definitely A, but not too extreme.

Please also check out my sub and VOTE!, thanks.
staffell
   staffell on Dec 21 '07 at 5:03am
I don't watch the votes go up..whether i've got 100 or 100,000,000 won't change the average score. It's the comments I care about!
anushka
anushka on Dec 21 '07 at 5:08am
I set up a blog for that sub then check it every couple of days. I'm a mix of C, and something else - maybe apathy. Basically I feel that if it hasn't got 30 or so comments in the first day, it's not going to get a great response in the 7 days.
anushka
anushka on Dec 21 '07 at 5:10am
...though I do bump the design if there are loads of people using the blogs.
Nathan Griffin
   Nathan Griffin on Dec 22 '07 at 3:31am
I've realized that I'm much better at designing for LOVES competitions only because I have a starting point... a theme. So in the end, I tend to hope (heavily) on the fact that the final judges will look more at concept and score as opposed to just the final score.



With that being said, I suppose I should quit refreshing and just wait out the next two (or three months) until a winner a picked :p
viralVISUAL
   viralVISUAL on Dec 22 '07 at 3:53am
Depends on the sub for me. There are some that I'll be more excited about than others and those are the ones I check up on. But for the most part I kinda just let them go and check back at the end of each day.
Nathan Griffin
   Nathan Griffin on Dec 22 '07 at 11:45am
bump
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Check me out, I got printed!



My gallery photos

I haven't submitted any photos. I guess I don't want free money.

My designs


All about me

If you're interested in picking up some original pen and ink illustrations from the early days of my Lump character (as seen on my recent Loves Cranium WOW contest sub), check out my shop on etsy... I'm selling them dirt cheap right now.



My etsy shop

I'm the guy who doesn't give up on the idea of being self employed. I'm the guy who stars projects and rarely finishes them (not a winning combination I assure you). I'm the guy who's in love with a girl and moving to Chicago.

Many years ago, I was the guy that 'won' the NBC reality show, Average Joe: The Joes Strike Back... but that was then.

I'm an illustrator, photographer, writer, designer, idea guy. That's me.