the best purchase i've made from threadless by far. you should buy this shirt

i said i'd write a blog about why this design meant a lot to me. as i said, the poster in my room was one of my inspirations and it looks like this:

i think this event, this photo represents strength and not weakness (as some people that have commented on it already have). there is another reason why i did this, and that is my dad. i don't want to get into the dirty details of why i call my step-dad my only dad, but all i can say, that this is out of respect for him.

i used to swim in highschool and summer league, and before my races i used to raise my fist and he would raise his back, its our little way to communicate and like this picture, it would bring me strength.
so that is why i made this design. please don't rip it apart as of content. talk about the design quality if you are or the placement. thanks for reading.

has anyone felt that recent designs have been sub-par? i score all designs that come in on that given day, and they really aren't up to threadless par. i'm not saying mine are, because they aren't. when i found out about threadless i did the wrong thing, and submitted a design without really looking at the site and what was expected. so i've taken a break from submitting subpar designs and am working on some ideas that mean something. i've been scoring designs and checking peoples work out. i urge others to do the same.

(maybe i just have different taste...but i don't think that's it.)

don't you wish that people would look at previous submissions to try to come up with something original? because i submitted the first of now 4 standardized test shirts for the "last kiss" contest. and now i feel very unoriginal. thoughts?

i'm new to this whole threadless site. actually, new to this whole graphic design stuff too. i heard about this site from a friend, and i love it so far. anything i should know?