Links not working lately, so closeup is here:

http://www.threadless.com/profile/289796/spires/blog/185942/Smuggling_Operation

hmm...can't tell what's going on...

YES! I love it!

haha, love that cute close up

$5!

I'm stuck too - explanation please!

an alien trying to steal a baby penguin?

hm...the background kinda confuses me...i didn't see the penguin first, i think it's too small and the backgroung distracted me

who else needs a spoonfeeding?

http://www.threadless.com/profile/289796/spires/blog/185942/Smuggling_Operation

It made me think of the Chipmuk Adventure where they rescue the baby penguin in a cooler. Not in a bad way. I love this design. It makes me want to watch that movie tonight, though.

nice 5$

i'm not into the all the prints on threadless now being huge... they look so much more classy in a smaller size. sorry.

T-shirts aren't classy at all.

I don't know. A nice black cardigan and a skirt. I would wear this to a dinner party. Then to break an awkward silence I could open my cardigan and be like "Surprise! it's not just a pretty snowy print, look at this sweet thieving ship!" Or, you know, that could just be me

^hahah, now that's classy

HAHA that made my day ohyoustealher

I do what I can. Just don't tell anyone else. I like to stay low key

The background is to loud compaired to the actual message. I love the design of the snowman and the cut penguin, but the eye has a hard time focusing on them when the background is shouting at you. After a little tweeking this could be a really great shirt.

LOVE IT!! $5

I love big prints! This is super $5

it's a decent idea but the business of the image makes it hard to discern what's what. I didn't get it at all for a while. I still don't know what the red thing is. It's the pattern that really throws it all off.

Sorta busy.

i gotta agree that the background is too busy and distracting from the overall image :/

Prior to submitting, someone suggested that I dampen the background but I decided not to, why?

Perhaps you all should ask yourself what the real subject of this design is. What is being smuggled here?

nice use of pattern...

if the real subject of the design is not immediately present (or funny in the fact that it is not immediately present) then it is a failed design. So that's what this is. Take the hits like all the rest and worry about making something that works.

the subject of the design is immediately present, but everyone tries to make it what it's not.

Fuck you.

Hey, I apologize man -- I got very carried away there.

But I still don't like the idea that I should crawl back into some box to cater to everyone else's comfort zones.

You tell 'em!

:]

On first glance it appears that the snowman is giving birth to the penguin.

I understand this site to be different, in that the shirts come from artists, and if you keep changing designs to please everyone this might as well become Walmart.

On the other hand, I think a lot of people are voicing real concerns...this shirt is just hard to get (and I think I get it...but I'm not sure)

i don't get it.

It looks very cute and I like the colours, but the shirt isn't very clear. It's obviously very hard to figure out.

eh...you've made much more inspired and easier-to-understand but-still-complex-and-more-awesome-with-every-glance than this one. I think most people are just confused with the perspective of what constitutes the closest piece and what is fading into the background. Good try on making something completely different, but that doesn't always fulfill the needs of the design the best than it can sometimes. If you don't yell something incredibly demeaning about my opinion in another post, I will be quite crushed.

FRICKIN, I'm gonna hafta crush you; there's no anger in spires on this lazy sunday :-D

I just had the most amazing sleep, so anyone could say anything right now.

If people don't understand this, because what's being smuggled is the background pattern. The cutesy nonsense like the snowman and the spaceship are meaningless on purpose. The pattern really is the most important thing here, and in my opinion the most beautiful. So, I made it the biggest and I also made it overwhelming.

it's because* -- yawn

ew. christams is over. stop making tees like it. its depressing

winter's not

I feel like a stalker to this submission, but it's only because it's in my participated list. Anyway iluvtees239573129875120397504, despite popular belief, others besides Christians are allowed to have snowmen... and penguins. Not spaceships, though. We all know Jesus invented those...

I have one more point to add to ohyoustealher's argument in reply to iluvtees123.

Penguins are from the South Hemisphere.
Down here we have Winter in July... therefore, when I see a snowy design I don't think of Christmas (unless it actually has holly or xmas trees or santa on it).

That's just my two cents on that matter.

And to spires, your design is nice. And I get it. But I wouldn't wear something that loud and busy on a tee.
I know it completely contradicts what the design is about, but I would only buy it if you toned down the background.
I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but it seems like a lot of people are thinking this way. If you change the design to make consumers happy, then they are more likely to rate it highly, and its more likely to get printed. You need to decide what's more important to you: would you rather stick to your artistic beliefs and refuse to change the design, or would you rather have a tee printed? Just remember that at the end of the day Threadless.com is a business, and they'll only print something if they know they can make a profit.

Sorry if that sound really harsh, I don't mean it to come across that way.

Being 100% Anarcho-capitalist, I competely understand consumer demand. I'm sure one day there will be something both I and the masses have in common, that they will find enjoyable, and so will I.