The discussion about the first ever 100%+ funded Threadless design.

https://www.threadless.com/designs/yin-yang-18


What we know:


He has 25k+ instagram followers and he used various social media sites to get funding, votes, and comments on his design.


What we don't know:


Is the design eligible for winning the $20k?
Is the design even printable?

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Jordan_Bender
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90% of the commenters made an account in the last 2 days, just sayin'
wowrainbows
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Dont worry about stuff like that. Threadless knows whats up.
Wolfgang8885
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Yeah. Some of the Staff has said that they fund a design they like and then promote it which brings in new people. I dont know what to think about anything right now. So blah.
TheInfamousBaka
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A few of the staff I follow funded that one, so obviously some people like it. I don't get it myself, but to each their own I guess.
lxromero
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vectored_life said:hahahaha this made me laugh.
that's a bug and it doesn't affect voting at all. Also, I mentioned this in another thread but if people are coming in to create accounts and fund the design that's fine, there's really no way to game the system and fun dthe thing yourself.
Wolfgang8885
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Yeah, if you look below the "Help these designs get fully funded" on the Home page, it does not look like Threadless designs. And no offense, but those designs are really bad IMHO. But If you look below that, in the "Fund the top Rising Designs" To me, that is Threadless.
palitosci
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funded system is awful ... we will see more and more shitty art in threadless.
wotto
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I think this issue is one the community here can drive. If you truly hate whats being funded put your money where your mouth is and fund other stuff you want to see there. If you have a million tees like me and don't want to fund then spread the word on those design you feel deserve funding. Designers should be smart and over time see what gets funded because ultimately that will be one of the audiences you design to. That doesn't mean making shit art it just means know you audience, all good designers know that.
c-royal
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I can never understand that audience, it's beyond irony at that point.
Liark2z
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The client is never right! this is art!! sorry ._.
wotto
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c-royal said:I can never understand that audience, it's beyond irony at that point.
Only ONE design has been funded, hence me saying "over time"
Wolfgang8885
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wotto said:
c-royal said:I can never understand that audience, it's beyond irony at that point.
Only ONE design has been funded, hence me saying "over time"
Disagree. Over time, if we cater to what is being funded, this place will be full of clip art looking designs with weak concepts because that is what the public is funding. Not necessarily because it is the BEST shirt out there, but because they know people with money.
wotto
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Liark2z said:The client is never right! this is art!! sorry ._.
This is "art" for a consumable product, if no-one consumes the product their is no threadless. You think gallery level artists don't cater to their market? You think artists repeating their work or style many times over isn't catering to a market to sell more art? It's no secret that the best apparel designers are great artists but also very aware of their audience and what sells.
wotto
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Wolfgang8885 said:
wotto said:
c-royal said:I can never understand that audience, it's beyond irony at that point.
Only ONE design has been funded, hence me saying "over time"
Disagree. Over time, if we cater to what is being funded, this place will be full of clip art looking designs with weak concepts because that is what the public is funding. Not necessarily because it is the BEST shirt out there, but because they know people with money.
Maybe more designers, artists and community people should stop complaining and fund the stuff they consider good to make that change happen? Or at the very least promote the designs they'd like to see printed.
Ryder
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i've only funded two at this point and one is my own... i think it's great for people to promote their work and get it funded, even if I think the work stinks or looks terrible. that's the system. my only issue is that it kind of degrades what a "threadless print" means... it's no longer prestigious... it's like buying your own trophy because you didn't win one...
milkbarista
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I like the design, actually. it's in line with what I'd like to see more of here.
c-royal
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That turquoise computer generated outline.
c-royal
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I mean, ok you can go for a psychedelic bad taste trip thing but at least make it consistent somehow.
Wolfgang8885
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Its horrible! Its ugly and weird! There I just said it.
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Ryder said:i've only funded two at this point and one is my own... i think it's great for people to promote their work and get it funded, even if I think the work stinks or looks terrible. that's the system. my only issue is that it kind of degrades what a "threadless print" means... it's no longer prestigious... it's like buying your own trophy because you didn't win one...
Ya that's my main issue with it. People wanna buy it, fine. But please don't tell me the subpar stuff can earn you alumni status 'cause that's just wrong. The other bit which probably isn't a good thing is - say one of these 50+ funders is walking down the street, and someone's like, "Wtf, where do you even buy diarrhea shirts like that?! D:" And then the other guy goes, "Cool right? Got it from threadless." * proudface loserpriceisrightsound *
biotwist
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funding would make sence if people actully spend money on it and then got their money back if it didn't print. right now it's just a silly button
opifan64
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I think it's an interesting design. If anything it directly contradicts the idea that only pop culture designs will get funded, which is refreshing. The artist obviously has a fan base outside of threadless who are passionate enough about his work to fund the design. What's wrong with that? Threadless (as far as I know) is not a walled community.
Oikiden
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Wolfgang8885 said:Its horrible! Its ugly and weird! There I just said it.
Oikiden
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I mean, I would probably like the design more if it was Alex Grey Tool album cover quality.....but it's not.
jeffreyg
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biotwist said:funding would make sence if people actully spend money on it and then got their money back if it didn't print. right now it's just a silly button
this is exactly how it works...?
Wolfgang8885
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opifan64 said:I think it's an interesting design. If anything it directly contradicts the idea that only pop culture designs will get funded, which is refreshing. The artist obviously has a fan base outside of threadless who are passionate enough about his work to fund the design. What's wrong with that? Threadless (as far as I know) is not a walled community.
Whats wrong with that? I mean. If he has a following and they are willing to buy his work then why doesnt he just open a store? He would already be getting sales and wouldnt have to worry about funding. The point is that the design is a design I would never see on a site like this. Its not all pop culture designs that get printed you know, theres a lot expressionism and stuff that also gets printed.
milkbarista
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Wolfgang8885 said:
opifan64 said:I think it's an interesting design. If anything it directly contradicts the idea that only pop culture designs will get funded, which is refreshing. The artist obviously has a fan base outside of threadless who are passionate enough about his work to fund the design. What's wrong with that? Threadless (as far as I know) is not a walled community.
Whats wrong with that? I mean. If he has a following and they are willing to buy his work then why doesnt he just open a store? He would already be getting sales and wouldnt have to worry about funding. The point is that the design is a design I would never see on a site like this. Its not all pop culture designs that get printed you know, theres a lot expressionism and stuff that also gets printed.
I don't really understand how that last sentence supports your argument. but about that other stuff, if you had to choose between opening up a store and selling your stuff to your fanbase, or opening up a store and selling your stuff to your fanbase and also sell stuff through Threadless where a 1000x more people are likely to see your stuff, I'd go with option B.
wotto
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opifan64 said:I think it's an interesting design. If anything it directly contradicts the idea that only pop culture designs will get funded, which is refreshing. The artist obviously has a fan base outside of threadless who are passionate enough about his work to fund the design. What's wrong with that? Threadless (as far as I know) is not a walled community.
Amen. It's not like he posted a tee with a pic of his cat on it and it got funded. It's art, art is subjective. I wouldn't wear it but 50+ people would.
mathiole
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I kinda like the yang yang design...not on a t-shirt though, but IMO at least it's better than the dinosaur one. We call all ague about relativeness of art and stuff, but there is concept and execution, and I don't see how any of the top funding designs are better than this, for example: https://www.threadless.com/designs/super-playbros. So far, i think it's proved that doesn't matter how amazingly awesome your design is, if you don't promote it hard, you won't get funded. Also, contrary to what threadless thought, having a decent score, being on top of the page doesn't make a lot of difference because it seems only friends are funding the designs and they don't need to check the feed to see what's worth they money. Probably it will take time to non-friend people start to fund designs I guess.
milkbarista
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mathiole said: So far, i think it's proved that doesn't matter how amazingly awesome your design is, if you don't promote it hard, you won't get funded. Also, contrary to what threadless thought, having a decent score, being on top of the page doesn't make a lot of difference because it seems only friends are funding the designs and they don't need to check the feed to see what's worth they money. Probably it will take time to non-friend people start to fund designs I guess.
I'm interested in seeing how the funding plays out later on, when it's not a new thing and becomes a part of the daily vocab. and maybe gets improvements or changes. other people have said this model was used in other sites and it didn't work out. but I like the feature and I wanna see if it evolves into something that ends up working out.
skaw
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mathiole said:I kinda like the yang yang design...not on a t-shirt though, but IMO at least it's better than the dinosaur one. We call all ague about relativeness of art and stuff, but there is concept and execution, and I don't see how any of the top funding designs are better than this, for example: https://www.threadless.com/designs/super-playbros. So far, i think it's proved that doesn't matter how amazingly awesome your design is, if you don't promote it hard, you won't get funded. Also, contrary to what threadless thought, having a decent score, being on top of the page doesn't make a lot of difference because it seems only friends are funding the designs and they don't need to check the feed to see what's worth they money. Probably it will take time to non-friend people start to fund designs I guess.
Definitely true so far. It's going to take some time for customers to fully adopt funding. So far about 50% of funders have been using the promo code.
opifan64
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Wolfgang8885 said:
opifan64 said:I think it's an interesting design. If anything it directly contradicts the idea that only pop culture designs will get funded, which is refreshing. The artist obviously has a fan base outside of threadless who are passionate enough about his work to fund the design. What's wrong with that? Threadless (as far as I know) is not a walled community.
Whats wrong with that? I mean. If he has a following and they are willing to buy his work then why doesnt he just open a store? He would already be getting sales and wouldnt have to worry about funding. The point is that the design is a design I would never see on a site like this. Its not all pop culture designs that get printed you know, theres a lot expressionism and stuff that also gets printed.
So basically you're only comfortable seeing things that you've seen before? That's a little depressing. I'm not saying I would necessarily wear this design myself but I would rather see art that occasionally challenges my sensibilities than get trapped in a narrow-minded filter bubble of what threadless is "supposed to be". That's the death knell of genuine creativity. If you hate the design, that's absolutely fine. You don't have to like everything you see - but how does it effect you exactly? Isn't the whole point of art to occasionally challenge your preconceptions rather than constantly fulfill them?
parallelish
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Who cares if a horrible design gets funded, what's the big deal?
Wolfgang8885
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So basically you're only comfortable seeing things that you've seen before? That's a little depressing. I'm not saying I would necessarily wear this design myself but I would rather see art that occasionally challenges my sensibilities than get trapped in a narrow-minded filter bubble of what threadless is "supposed to be". That's the death knell of genuine creativity. If you hate the design, that's absolutely fine. You don't have to like everything you see - but how does it effect you exactly? Isn't the whole point of art to occasionally challenge your preconceptions rather than constantly fulfill them? Blockquote I think you are reading too much into this. First of all, I do not constantly see the same thing. There's so many unique designs out there that deserve to be printed (and that have been printed) and that I would be lucky to own one day when im not too broke to buy something. This isnt an art gallery where we need art to break through barriers and stimulate our brains. That can be done anywhere. (deviantart, etc) This is a site where a certain aesthetic of shirts sells and has been selling. Maybe it doesnt affect me directly now, but I hate to see designs that look like shouldnt have even been approved being promoted when other well deserved designs are lost in the voting page with the influx of artists who know enough people to get the funding to be printed. Not only that, but this is purely based on popularity. Lots of artists dont know enough people or even know how to promote to have the same chance as others, and I think that is a shame for them. parallelish said: Who cares if a horrible design gets funded, what's the big deal? Yeah, who cares about anything right? We love change. Especially when it seems like a bad idea!
parallelish
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@Wolfgang8885 I think your reading too much into this whole thing. Calm down, let things play out for a while and stop whining.
c-royal
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Well it's bothering me somehow, I feel like it's leveling everything down instead of helping cool designs finding a way to get printed as I was thinking first. BTW I prefer the three rex by far contrary to Mathiole so nothing can be taken for granted I guess. But fair enough. Right now I wonder if some designs get funded because the people that support the designer think it will give them way more chances to win the grand prize? And if those designers don't strongly imply it while communicating amongst their community about the contest. That was my last word about all this.
opifan64
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I get that Threadless has a particular aesthetic, and I personally like lots of classic threadless designs. I just don't see how a single design that falls outside of those parameters is somehow an affront to decency or something. I also don't see a problem with an artist recruiting his fans and friends to join the site to vote on his or her design. That was always the whole point of threadless and what kept it constantly fresh and evolving. If there is a deserving design that is totally amazing, there's no barrier to it being printed by threadless just because another design that you don't happen to like was funded by 50 people. I don't quite understand the outrage I guess. I think it's kind of cool that some weird design can get printed because enough people committed to funding it.
Jordan_Bender
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parallelish said:Who cares if a horrible design gets funded, what's the big deal?
It's HOW he's getting funded that bugs me. The average score isn't that great, but he has TONS of comments (that are from accounts that are less than 3 days old) and the funding stats are from ???? where? This guy has NOT posted this design to ANY site on the web. None. Where did all the publicity come from? I can't prove anything though, all I did was search google images with the design he posted (zero results) 1) His comments are all lies with the suspicious # of funds to match 2) He is on the front page of Threadless and gaining publicity for possibly cheating.
Jordan_Bender
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This is what I did on google.
mathiole
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My concern is pretty much more around the 20k than the funding. As I think (and said before), you kinda need to give time to such 'innovations' to take conclusions. I don't really care if a crappy design gets printed once in a while just because the designer managed to promote it so well (cool stuff will always be around, i'm sure). But to give these designers an advantage to win 20 thousand bucks, based mostly only their marketing sales and popularity, kinda diverges from what Threadless is (I don't wanna say 'was'). Like many, I wanna win this thing, I really do. And i'm working hard these days, since the announcement, to make some cool stuff for this comp. But i'm pretty sure I won't get 100% funding because none of my friends here in Brazil will support me and I don't have that many friends outside. As always, it's ok if I don't win, but I just hope that if that happens, won't be because of my poor marketing skills... threadless is still a design competition, right?
Jordan_Bender
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If he had posted the design on deviantart, reddit, instagram, etc, google would have found it. I searched with the actual Threadless design entry photo as well, no results.
parallelish
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well if you can prove he's cheating, then sure it's a big deal, but if you can't prove he's cheating then it just seems like your a little paranoid or jealous (not of his art but the fact that he can get a good number of people to fund his art)
opifan64
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Someone mentioned his music on YouTube so maybe he has a bunch of fans that follow his music that are funding this. In any case I don't think he's generating all the accounts himself ( at least I can't see the point in doing that). I'm not one for witch hunts unless there's clear evidence that someone is cheating.
Jordan_Bender
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opifan64 said:Someone mentioned his music on YouTube so maybe he has a bunch of fans that follow his music that are funding this.
He has 403 subcribers on youtube. and some likes on facebook. Still, nowhere can I find where he advertised this design AS A SHIRT and asked for votes/funders.
Oikiden
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Jordan_Bender said:
opifan64 said:Someone mentioned his music on YouTube so maybe he has a bunch of fans that
rel="nofollow">He has 403 subcribers on youtube. and some likes on facebook. Still, nowhere can I find where he advertised this design AS A SHIRT and asked for votes/funders.
Some of the staff promoted his design and asked for funders. Wearecareful promoted it on Twitter. Don't know about others.
skaw
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He does have 21k Instagram followers.
Jordan_Bender
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Whoaaa it says 25k... thats crazy, all that's left is to see if he make an instagram post about it. If he did, I guess I'm deleting this thread!
Jordan_Bender
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It's weird to me that you can be "famous" on instagram, but NOT famous anywhere else, youtube, facebook, etc. This is coming from a non famous person all around :P
thompson98
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Ryder said:i've only funded two at this point and one is my own... i think it's great for people to promote their work and get it funded, even if I think the work stinks or looks terrible. that's the system. my only issue is that it kind of degrades what a "threadless print" means... it's no longer prestigious... it's like buying your own trophy because you didn't win one...
palitosci said:funded system is awful ... we will see more and more shitty art in threadless.
Wolfgang8885 said:Yeah, if you look below the "Help these designs get fully funded" on the Home page, it does not look like Threadless designs. And no offense, but those designs are really bad IMHO. But If you look below that, in the "Fund the top Rising Designs" To me, that is Threadless.
I completely agree with all of this
c-royal
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This seems unfair to old Nokia 2330 proud owners. I can't seem to find Instagram with it.
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