as designers and artists, why use someone else's work when your own will do?



if someone else's sells well, is widely recognizable, and easy to parody, why not get in on it and make some easy money.

I can think of a boatload of reasons, personally.



but putting those aside, is "easy money" all there really is to designing nowadays?

Hmmm, it's like you knew that would happen even here, well kind of! You're not just wise, you're even a psychic!

I'm sorry not to comment on this topic right now because I don't feel like thinking too hard on a monday morning, but i wanted to thank the hell out of you for the write-up on your blog post. It's super well-written and very flattering, thanks for getting to the heart and soul and funny bone of what Roni and I are trying to do. Talk to you later man!

I agree that parody should exist to make a concept work that otherwise would not, and that if the design can easily exist without the copyright images because they have a lack of relation to the material, then its not really a parody at all.

I like this blog because it seems destined to just get bumped randomly out of nowhere and then die down. It's like the guestbook of awesomeville.

Guess I'm making you happy then. :)

guestbook of awesomeville



that is my mantra today

i think it boils down to the designer. They are the one making the choice to parody. Whether or not it's a good choice will be left up to their audience, which will then determine if the designer is noteworthy. Which is why I love Threadless. Personally I think it's harder to pull off a parody than creating original work. Kudos to anyone who can do it.



Also, like FA, thanks for the wonderful review. Great blog!

I think my question is, why let it boil down to audience?



I mean, what does the audience watch most on TV? American Idol. What does the audience listen to most in music? Miley Cyrus. What does the audience read most? Nothing. But when they do, it's probably Twilight. The audience knows nothing.



Which is why there needs to be something else in place besides an audience. Here, there is a whole vote spectrum, to even the playing field. There is the fact that comments are weighed into the choice. Presumably staff looks for how many alums love it enough to comment. They look at the buzz. They look at their own tastes. They look at what they want Threadless to stand for. And then they pick a print. In most cases, this is what seems to happen. Ergo, most of the parody work here is indeed well thought out, etc etc.



But I feel there are many places where that doesn't happen. I still think that more often than not, Teefury is printing something for a pop-culture reference or for being a generic tee meme than for being some sort of awesome tee graphic. I think there are times when Threadless prints Keyboard Cat Moon and forgets what they stand for. There are times when sites allow their audience to be the be all and end all of their print schedules, and end up printing horrible shirts because of it.



I guess, for me, if you're in a business that is based off of art (and Threadless is, and all tee purveyors are), you should have ethics in what you pick. You should make sure you're printing work that is worth the prize you're giving. And to do that, you need to be willing to say "screw the masses, this is what's what". Or else you're not working for art, you're working for money. And people like that are killing the art community. Most people here at Threadless seem to like flexing their art muscles as well as occasionally pulling out parodic work (and doing so well most of the time). It is not a hatred of any one particular style or concept set, but a question of how anyone could be so narrow minded as to only want what the lowest common denominator desires. You can have cutesy work that is also awesome, and funny work that is also creative, and collage work that makes a unique, original piece. But most of it is not that. Most of it is easy money. And if I can recall my intention here, it was mostly to ask how anyone fighting to be relevant artistically and creative artistically and respected artistically can tolerate the people who just want to make a quick buck.

One of my designs somehow infiltrated the front emptees page (no where near ToTD mind) and these people seem shocked that its there because its not a zombie doing some activity for a band -_-



I dunno what Im trying to prove ......so erm....print me more im original ect ... that working for ya? :D

I'll always go for originality first! It gets tiring to see a same thing done 500 times and what masses like is usually not originality, creativity or uniqueness but quite the opposite, they need something of the same every time so that the other "blend in" person can relate to that...

Different strokes for different folks. That's the gist of how I feel.

Dude, you need stop worrying about what everyone else is doing, and what you think your audience likes, and focus on your own craft. Stop hating man. Maybe if your average score for shirts was more than a 1, your own designs could get more than a 2. Find a reason to like or love something, instead of tryin to hate everything. I bet i speak for plenty of fellows designers on here when i say, please stop scoring our work. Your opinion is NOT appreciated. NOBODY hates a hater more than an artist. It's quite easy to walk around and always think you're right, it takes strength to take a second look and see how you may be wrong. If you think my shirt would look the same if it was just a photo on a tee, you're quickly doing the former, not that later.

AdderXYU on Sep 04 '09 at 8:48pm
I think my question is, why let it boil down to audience?



I mean, what does the audience watch most on TV? American Idol. What does the audience listen to most in music? Miley Cyrus. What does the audience read most? Nothing. But when they do, it's probably Twilight. The audience knows nothing.

hahahah I like this blog