I'm so ironic, I wear 3 Keyboard Cat to pet shows.

I'm so ironic, I gift 3 Keyboard Cat to people who don't know it should be funny.

Your ideas here...

My first decent project is up for scoring in the 'Pre-Loved' contest. Some folk from the critiques pages wanted me to notify them when it was up for scoring, but I don't know how.

Do I have to download AIM? Is there any other way?

In case they're reading, the sub is here:

http://www.threadless.com/submission/221200/Cat_Love/

Hi. I asked whether Hitler was ever funny, but in the end decided that it would be better to get something rough up so that you can see the concept. It's up as a critique now, and I'd REALLY appreciate it if you could supply some feedback.

http://threadless.com/critique/48304/Cat_Love

Thanks.
Jordan

I am busy with a project that I don't want to discuss fully until it's critique-ready, but I need to sound out an idea before I embark on this work.

As a small-ish part of the design, I need a world leader who symbolises atrocity of some or other form. Hitler is the easiest to make recognisable, and is generally hated enough by everyone (except for Bernie Ecclestone), but is he out of bounds?

I've caused enough crap by handing in an illo of George W that I had lying around, and more recently by replicating an famous artwork, so I'm eager not to take it in the neck again.

If Hitler is out of bounds, or too borderline, who should I choose? The leader of North Korea might work... Saddam... Osama? Some of these things might still hurt. Suggestions?

Thanks you guys.
Jordan

My recent Alphons Mucha copy has raised a minor stir.

http://www.threadless.com/submission/218996/Mucha_Love/

Some people seem alright with it, some people think it's virtually plagiarism. So my questions are:

1. Is the value of a design in its originality, or do other elements contribute to value?

2. Why is it valid to take all your cues from, say, old horror movie posters, but invalid to go one step further and use near-verbatim elements from such a poster? Why is it offensive in my case when it's the point of the composition to meld together historical items?

I quite possibly am in the wrong, I'd just like to understand why some people treat it as a virtual disqualification, and where the line is between homage that excites the Threadless crowd, and copying that earns your scorn.

Your help would be appreciated.

I just submitted a slogan about false dichotomies [until recently on a 5-0 losing streak!! :)] inspired by the binary voting system at TypeTees.

Here is my short wishlist for changes in the way the TypeTees site works. Maybe you can submit some of your own:

1: Get rid of the yes/no scoring system, and use a basic 0-5 scale like on Threadless (although having comments is clearly not necessary). Some slogans are good-ish, but not my style, and both a 1 or a 0 seem wrong. Some slogans need to be told just how 0 they are.

2: Have a weekly highscore list. Maybe the top 50 or 100. Then more people would at least come and have a look at who’s in contention.

There really are few incentives to score slogans when there’s so much drek, and goodness knows how the poor staff members go through all of them to choose. Both of these changes would help the slogan quality, would help to get more (and more meaningful) votes, and would help the staff selection process.

Cool design. Love it. But now, as a South African, I couldn't help noticing that the bloke in the picture is wearing a baseball mitt, but he isn't holding a baseball. That is in fact undeniably a cricket ball.

Bigups to Threadless for being so inclusive and affirming of their international friends, but should I be insulted by the connection of cricket with lower sports?

[runs for cover as Americans reach for heavier missile weapons...]

This is a quality control measure, and mostly a bit of fun. Think of it as the TypeTees Razzies. If your name appears on here, take it with a pinch of salt, and work a bit harder!!

If there's anyone on TypeTees who is posting dozens of no-thought slogans, and darkening the mood of those of us who try to score them, post their profiles here.

Sure, we're breaking the 'Be nice' rule a little bit, so it's only for people who are clearly wasting time with tired rip-offs or slogans with no point. And you can still be nice. Ish.

OK, I'm somewhat guilty:

http://www.threadless.com/profile/685077/zeropluslessthan/slogans

But here's someone with more, worse ideas, and yet strangely consistently better scores than me (huh?). [WHO votes for, "Been There, Done That, Got The T-Shirt. huh" or "You want a slogan? ... u just read it ;)" or especially "I was paid 500$ for this...."]

http://www.threadless.com/profile/878735/karry_kap/slogans

Sorry Karry. Multiple raspberries from me. Who's next?

Wow; TypeTees submissions is a very weird place in which to dwell. If ever there was a site that needed better controls in place, that would be one.

Now, not all of my ideas have been passable, sure, but even if they were, they spend about 5 minutes on the radar before they're swamped by a plethora of comedy-free 'slogans' about breasts or cats or 'getting paid $500 for this'. What's more, it's usually 3 or 4 people posting ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING that passes through their heads as though sheer volume is bound to score a winner.

I get so annoyed with reading for 5 minutes before I come across a genuine idea that when a good one arrives, I'm poisoned against it before I've read it. It's almost as though it HAS to be crap because it's in the same typeface as the last 300 crap ones I read. [I'm sure I get so many 'no' votes because people aren't expecting wordplay anymore... or it could be that my ideas suck. Hmm].

So, how about either:

- limiting the number of daily submissions per user so that only your best ideas are worth submitting; and / or
- having a regulated submission process so that someone reasonable has to OK an idea before it gets posted up for voting (poor staff member).

Secondly, there are some ideas that you want to mark a firm 'zero', but others are pretty good, but not quite your thing. The 'yes' or 'no' voting option is way too limited. Would it be so hard to have the same 0-5 scale as on Threadless?

O+