This was inspired by Emilio Zapata's quote, "Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado", which translates to "It's better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees"

Works on any color
I made this for the regular competiotion, but I believe it fits the E for all theme because it promotes Powering up.

If you still don't "get it", check my blog posts for an explanation!

Sorry... i don't get it and I'll score anyways... cause that's the purpose of scoring isn't it?
It has to become a popular tee, and if only the few ones who get it score it, of course it will get printed...
I think that'd be like saying: please don't score if you don't like it.

Lindo que hables español, though

If you're on your knees and look up at it you'll be able to read it

it's hard to read because i can't tilt my computer monitor.

"Stop Living on your knees" ...took me a while to decipher it

Well if you live in a kingdom, you gotta live on your knees sometimes.

I guess if you spend a lot of time on your knees in front of a guys tee shirt, this will be something for you to read?

I'm not sure the idea of "if you don't get it, don't score it" works...maybe you should work harder on execution so that the message comes across, but still works aesthetically.

I think you could have said the same thing by just writing the text "Stop living on your knees" small at the bottom of the shirt with a more interesting image at the top.

My head hurts a bit reading that.

"don't vote if you don't get it"

here's the explanation.
It looks nice when it's big. It's a lot easier to read, and the small variations in height make it look less boxy

This would be fun to explain to people.

Great incorporation of the theme, and awesome conversation starter. This is one of those shirts that ppl ask "what does your shirt mean?", but once they get it, they praise it every time you wear it
$555555

is it possible for me to shorten the title to
Prefiero morir de pie
?

I'm on my knees all too often

Steve's kneez.

Im in ur sub, psting on ur sub.

The perfect inspiration i can give to a prostitute in a Spanish brothel.

HAHAHA, I applaud you for making a brilliant shirt.

This would be a great shirt for someone who wants to constantly remind people that he's smarter than them but still look like a moron while doing it. It's pretentious.

pretentious? I meant it to be inspiring and motivational

It doesn't really come across that way. I didn't mean to be as harsh as I was but think about how people will react. They'll stare at it confused for a moment then ask what it says. The person wearing it will have to explain and by then the whole concept is overpowered by the awkwardness of explaining why you're wearing a shirt that tells people to get up off their knees but forces them to get on their knees in order to read it. If someone told me I had to get down on my knees to read their shirt I wouldn't feel inspired or motivated. I would be offended.

It may help to know it's easier to read when it's bigger, but I understand your criticism.

Thanks to all of you who scored well and voiced your opinions, This was a good first day of scoring. I appreciate all your $'s, and as long as this doesn't get dropped early, I'll be extremely happy with it :)

although it's hard to read, but this actually the point that attract me, i'm really curious and deadly wan to know wat these word tell...

erica ca

Threadless has gone corporate!

it seems that this is a less precise and more subjective method of scoring. There seems to be a lack of emails notifying designers. This leads one to believe that their designs were no good with no reasoning behind it. No constructive criticism.
I wonder if there is less process involved and more laziness on the part of those "scoring".
I advise those who are disgruntled, to start a site of their own or just learn the process of screen printing.
This has become a money making business loosely run under the guise of indie culture.

rene magritte was featured at the dali exhibit in LC

to the guy who said that it was pretentious...
"your mom"

this design is way too smart for the rabble. i hope that it gets dropped in order to further my theory that the critics are ignorant hoe moez

Oh my God!

Threadless has become a money-making business?

Soon they're only going to be printing tees that people score highly and vote "I'd buy it" on.

What is the world coming to when a t-shirt site will only print tees that people actually want?

monica lewinsky shirt?

john, there are plenty of shitty designs that get printed and you know it as well as good designs that are passed up, you clod.

funny z35

so much drama...

Did you edit my post?

There are no shitty designs printed on Threadless. It is beyond pretentious to think you have good taste and the others don't...that for some reason you "know" what looks awesome and what is crap. They just have different designs for different types of people. All designs sell out eventually, they all make money for the company. Understand the basics of consumer psychology and you'll be succesful on this site as a designer and pretty much everywhere you go
professionally.

10 7 3, you've turned my nice happy submission into a jerry springer episode

The design is nice btw. Just a little tough to read, but I like it.

wouldn't the phrase "It's better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees" be the opposite of a gamer's lifestyle??

If you changed knees to butt yes.
But this contest is not about gamers.
The theme is Power up and Play.

The same way the gmail contest was all red envelopes, and most of the Iron and Wine subs are coins, E for all doesn't have to be about video games

your statement proposes two opposing ideas. however, e for all is a video game expo. "power up and play" is said in reference to powering up and playing video games. thus ... the theme is in fact targeted to gamers and the many many games they play.

i do applaud your design. i knew instantly it's motivation. i just don't think it falls into the theme since i see hardcore gamers as watching their life pass them by to get the highest score, which is contrary to the idea to stop living life on your knees. there's no need to substitute words since the kneeling position is representational of submission to some higher power (a person, an idea, a video game), not necessarily literally being on your knees.

looks like a barcode or something..

I still disagree with you, but I understand what you mean. Even if it doesn't win the contest, it may still win the regular competition, so there's really no reason not to put it in a category that I believe fits.

"dont score if you don't get it"??
you know this is threadless right? and the general public scores a shirt to show that they would like to own it? right? there's no point in being pretentious or elitist here.

What I meant to say is find out what it means before you score it. Don't just say, "it's a bunch of sticks- 1"

how about it says give me head while your down there because no one is going to be on their knees to read it and it is too hard to understand. I don't want to explain my clothes everytime I wear something.

your thoughts on this, Montro are of a sheeplike mentality aside from being completely wrong and stupid

zapata didn´t said that..
was the che..
actually.. zapata didn´t died stand up.. he died sitting on a horse...

and i don´t like your t-shirt

Blowjobs from strangers FTW!

my eyes hurt from the design but mostly from the fecal matter 10 7 3 is typing into my retinas.

ya bet ur girlfriend could read it

well, frickin, maybe its true that your friday evening activities may cause blindness.

This might be irrelevant, but Emilia Zapata was my great grandpa's cousin, Lol. (My great grandfather's name was Maximiliano Barrera Zapata)
I like the theme of the shirt, although I think it will be hard for people to understand. Keep it up!

I meant to say Emiliano, not Emilia, my bad!

tenseventythree on Sep 22 '07
it seems that this is a less precise and more subjective method of scoring. There seems to be a lack of emails notifying designers. This leads one to believe that their designs were no good with no reasoning behind it. No constructive criticism.
I wonder if there is less process involved and more laziness on the part of those "scoring".
I advise those who are disgruntled, to start a site of their own or just learn the process of screen printing.
This has become a money making business loosely run under the guise of indie culture.

Whoever heard of a business that wasn't out to make money?! Threadless do print a lot of stuff I don't like, but clearly enough do to warrant them printing it. They know what they're doing.

The voting system is in place so that Threadless can get an idea of what the majority of their audience wants to see on a shirt. If something is clever or whatever, true, it may well only appeal to a few, and consequently score low, but that doesn't mean the chaps at Threadless will discredit it or ignore it completely. Check for yourself, there are plenty of low scoring shirts printed, and sold out.

As a money making business, and at their scale, they can't be expected to, or expect to, please everyone all of the time.

And who are these critics you speak of as ignorant? Are you not one of them?