Okay, so I've had some ideas I've always wanted to try designing. Only problem is, I've stuck to using the pen tool in Photoshop for my previous designs, and it doesn't really allow detail with any great accuracy (To my knowledge). You can check out my designs to see what I mean. I'm curious to know how you can make such detailed designs as http://www.threadless.com/product/607/No_More_Bento There is no way in Hell I could do something so detailed with the pen tool. I could just design images in photoshop using my conventional methods, however, that brings up the issue of image quality. I'm a little confused on the requirements for quality (Image quality, not creative or design quality). Threadless says

"Design your tee in a vector art program such as Adobe Illustrator, or Macromedia Freehand... or design in a raster program such as Adobe Photoshop. If you are designing in a raster program, make sure you design actual size at at least 150dpi. When you are done, transfer your design to the template. If you are using the photoshop template, save off a copy of your design as a gif. If you are using the flash template, publish your file so that you have a swf of your design." So what is the exact definition of "vector art"

and what does it entail? And Raster? What's that exactly? I know 150dpi is dots per inch, but what exactly is needed by way of image quality? I'd like to be able to draw with Pen/Pencil, scan it up, touch it up with photoshop and submit, but do I have to vectorize it? I have Photoshop and Flash at my disposal to use. Please help!

This blog is just in response to all the lovely comments I got on my rant about skulls and rabbits.

If you haven't read it yet, it's here: http://www.threadless.com/profile/308571/ainoko/blog/61120/Things_that_should_never_be_put_on_shirts

Perhaps I need to clarify myself.

With these comments I am making sweeping generalizations. Okay, so not EVERY shirt with a skull or bunny on it is bad.

By saying that I dislike skulls, I simply mean that in general, skulls are extremely tacky. This is not Hot-topic.

And Bunnies? I can go to any store in the mall and find a shirt with a damn rabbit on it. That's not what I come to threadless for.

Now of course, like I said before, there are exceptions to everything. For example, I greatly enjoyed this shirt: http://www.threadless.com/product/503/Illusion_of_Rabbit_Optical.

How can I be so hypocritical? This shirt is original. It's not so much about the rabbits as it is the optical illusion.

So what DON'T I like? Things like this.

http://www.threadless.com/submission/84503/Dead_Flower

http://www.threadless.com/submission/78880/wear_a_bunny

http://www.threadless.com/submission/79431/bunny_tail

http://www.threadless.com/submission/80426/soft_bunny

http://www.threadless.com/submission/79997/heart_skull

http://www.threadless.com/submission/77080/Skull_black

Not to say I dislike the artist, or even to say that the artistry is bad. All I am doing is expressing my distaste for these types of shirts. They are overdone, plain and simple.

chenonceau: you pose a good point by saying that "For all we know, a designer could be a noob submitter and not know that skulls and rabbits are "passe" on Threadless..." However, perhaps they should also take the time to check out the site before submitting their own?

I did a simple search of all shirts and got these results:

"Rabbit" resulted in 110 designs.
"Bunny" resulted in 150 designs.
"Skull" resulted in 171 designs.

If this doesn't scream overdone, I don't know what does. They even surpass:

"Ninja" resulting in 120 designs, and
"Pirate" resulting in 155 designs.

Time taken to figure this out? About 5 minutes.

Get the point?

amy122166: No.
Gringz: Not really.
wullagaru: You show me a badass bunny, and I'll show you Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Other than that? No.

mindtrance: Yes, I have submitted a design. It's pending judgement currently, so keep an eye out for it. And personally, I like to see what other people do before submitting something of my own. This way I can get an idea of what does well, what does not do so well (i.e. Skulls and Bunnies).

Papaprime: Thanks.

Robsoul: Spamming that link in my blog will not make me look at it more than once. Are you annoying me yet? Scroll wheel ftw. No, spamming my blog doesn't bother me.

Thanks for your comments. I'm suprised at how many I got, never thought so many people would read my blog, much less respond.

Your comments are appreciated, even if they don't agree with me.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I'm simply expressing mine.

Any design containing skulls automatically gets a 0.

They are ungodly tasteless and tacky.

Why anyone would ever wear one on a shirt is beyond me.

I'm bad! I'm a rebel! I wear skulls on my shirt!

No.

I'm also tired of the cutesy rabbits and bunnies on shirts.

Sure they're cute, but there is absolutely NO originality

They are used by people who can't design and so use cutesy creatures to try and pull at the peoples "Cute" reflexs.

OMG THATS CUTE, I TOTALLY WANT IT.

No.

Anyways, just thought I'd let people know how to not get a 0 from me.