inPrint Companion: July 31
(an artist's guide)

Q took over and I'm still late!! I am fantastically sucky!
Enjoy!

(this weeks oughta be fun!)

---

We aren't all winners, but these people are:

---

Poetic Irony

A multiple winner already, Grayhound did a very good job of conveying the urban legend. We have had debate over recent weeks on submissions that did not score high on the artometer. This challenges those responders that felt other submissions were scored low. This design is the reason why. This design is so well put together with color, form, perspective and even dominant vs. subdominant considerations. Even people that do not know about the urban legend can find appreciation for the story conveyed here. There is no question passer by’s would be intrigued by this shirt.

The composition drives the story as you work upwards from a moment of tension through to the onlookers at the gravesite. The great attention to detail and color allow it to "pop" off the shirt and shows the illustrators skilled linework. The "hidden" skull on the right hand shows the love for the crafting in this sub!

Reviewed by Quoo & BasicShift

A Spaceboy Retrospective

The boyhood dream come to life. The viewer is engaged with the image of both characters. Darker lines enhance the young boy wisely interpreting the order of appearance. –Meaning objects closer to the viewer is darker or more definative. The linework is executed nicely. One is left to wonder if adding an implied background would have helped further. The color choices force the viewer feel warm childlike memories like the palette.

Reviewed by Quoo

Magical Powers

It is easy to forget that we as humans are comprised of so many mini-miracles. Using one of our greatest gifts, our hands is one of the best ways to exploit such talents. Threadless loves Threadless was another way for Ray to showcase his typographical talents . His handmade fonts are artistically placed within the dominant magical powers hands and titles. The diagonals pull left, right, top to bottom, making the viewer engage the shirt to view each phrase. The design feels like and old poster, reminiscent of Toulouse Lautrec. What is great about this design is that Ray nicely executed in between contest guidelines creating something truly original, unexpected and fun.

Reviewed by Quoo

Lonesome George looks for a Wife

Leroy_Hornblower has such a variety of style in his submissions. The history of Lonesome George in the submission statement truly added to the design. But what is so cool about this design is that it is very hard to pull off a loose drawing and have it make sense. Usually some elements get lost because of technique and some get overworked. But here the linework remains consistent and fresh. It feels pretty close to the older Pink Panther cartoons where ink and color neatly flow through one another.

Reviewed by Quoo

I’d hit it

The original name of Attraction seems to have disappeared. The original submission had the “I’d hit it” placed on the shirt, but the print does not. Nuns and penguins go back a long way in jokes. Now there is a joke neatly displayed in front of us. The semi silhouette is enough to retain the basic nature of both subjects. Small details like the watch and breaks in the robe are wisely done. There is considerable control of dark and light, saving the flash tone to highlight. But in the end it is more of a design piece than artistic. These are not as complex as the hand drawn winners. The images are flat and offer little in the way of original art. This is where we return to a commercial quality shirt that is more entertaining than anything else.

Reviewed by Quoo

My Green Forest

This feels like a very good pen and ink sketchbook session. The attention to texture really makes the smaller areas of the design pop with individuality. The stylized approach to the tree branches and ground elements is quite different from other submissions using heavy black lines for art. The green is presented in certain areas to create direction and there is enough in the terrain to enjoy the woven hatches that break up larger areas.

Reviewed by Quoo

---

Why even bother Reviewing (or Type Tees):

---

Fractions Speak Louder than Nerds

This submission is a little different than the previous type tee submission. This is due to the use of a background texture. This grid pattern plays off of the school exam sections of advanced math and science. A single color of white is toned down for the grid and at it’s highest for the font. The font selection is not what most people expected. It might have included the background grid. So I am curious as to what the other font selections might have looked like with this slogan.

Reviewed by Quoo

---

"The artists that are better than you" - Select Tees:

---

Lonely Snowmen

Another hand drawn submission expresses emotion and tells the story of lonely snowmen waiting for the winter to begin. The viewer’s eye bounces around to each small house and character. All piece together for the overall theme of the shirt. This was done with a very controlled palette. No one color truly overpowers the other, which kind of makes this feel monotone or sepia toned on the brown shirt color. The white really shows how much snow is missing while the browns do much to convey the mood of somber anticipation. Good use of textures and perspective is another good technique that aided in the design.

Reviewed by Quoo

---

Design Redeux - Reprints:

---

Time Fades

What a way to break the mold. Because this simply becomes a shirt of aesthetics, with or without the title. The organic quality created from a mechanical piece is quite amazing. The amount of layer work appears to be pretty extensive. This is present in the background details which make for a nice visual experience once investigated. The broken edges of the large clock pull in the center and do much to symbolize the loss of time. The silhouettes make more sense here than they do on many of the other submissions Threadless receives weekly. It feels like a lot was considered for its design.

Reviewed by Quoo

Russell! Hows yer Ma!

Cute and simple. This symbolizes how personality pushed through design. Like a fun marker drawing, it entices us to figure out the message. So on the commercial side it is wonderful. What makes this fall a little short – even though the characters are portrayed pretty well, is that nothing else is added. None of the good linework that is present is placed anywhere else. Not even any other extras in the way of color – except for the text. As nice as the characters are created, I kinda wish there was more.

Reviewed by Quoo