As we previously chronicled, submitting t-shirt artwork to a t-shirt competition can be a tough contest. You can get ripped on your design, loved for it, or completely ignored. We purposely didn’t bring our “A game” the first time around because we wanted to work out the kinks of the process and make sure that we knew how everything worked. Meaning…we didn’t want our best artwork to go to waste by our own ignorance such as improperly submitting the artwork or something like that.

In the meantime we have sat back and become active members of the different t-shirt competition sites and are ready to enter the game again. We also went back to the lab and came up with a few different concepts and themes that we wanted to illustrate. As active members, it was easy to see that most of the winners had depth to them with double meanings.

Before we give away the house on the design that we have coming, we wanted to share a few thumbnails as a sampling of what we have been working on. Our expectations aren’t necessarily to win, although we would love that, but more to do much better than last time (3 votes).

Here are some thumbnails of the composite in black and white because we haven’t started to color it in. As soon as we add the color, we are going all the way live:

One of the most iconic, beloved teams in baseball history is the New York Yankees.  As a result, Yankees’ merchandise is a hot commodity for fans to say the least.  One of the most symbolic pieces of merchandise for the Yankees is their navy blue hats.  Check out the classic style Yankees hat that we are referring to:

For a long time, there have been options for different styles of hats in the official team colors and that hasn’t been considered a big stretch from the norm. However, while the Yankees’ team colors have always been navy blue and white, it seems that recently fans have been wanting more options for their adoration.

And by more color options, I mean at least 17 different options with just about every primary color and then some. You can no longer claim that sporting Yankee merchandise is hindered by color selection. You could find a hat to match just about any color gear you are wearing. Here are pictures of all 17 colors:

I wonder how the powers that be figured out there would be a demand for these colors??

Today we do our weekly feature of the top 15 t-shirt blogs of the week.  These blogs found and featured excellent new t-shirt designs and gave us insightful reviews.  Here they are:

The Early Worm Gets the Bird (from Shirts on Sale)
This post links to the very clever, creative, and well-executed ‘The Worm Has Turned’ design over at Shirt.Woot! Not only is this design all-around cool, but if you check out the Woot! write up, you can read a parody about the bird murders.

Get it to GO and Ghost on the Machine (via Compete-tee-tion)
This compete-tee-tion article does a fantastic job bringing us some of our favorite new t-shirt designs and offering an excellent critique of them.  We agree with their evaluation that ‘Get It to Go’ is destined to be a classic.  ‘Ghost on the Machine’ is very clever concept and bonus points to the designers for making the ghost glow in the dark (and thus creating a joke that’s only there half the time).  Another great bonus is ‘A Day is Swallowed up By Night’ which is a very original, well-done design.  Great picks!

Substratum Apparel (from Cottonable)
This Cottonable blog post features information and designs from Substratum Apparel.  This company has some really great looking t-shirts with original concepts and quite a few layers of meaning and interpretation.  Cottonable does a fantastic job of highlighting these designs and offering us valuable information.

I Don’t Believe Giraffes (Shirtfind)
This very unique print features a pair of giraffes composed entirely of mouse pointers!  Earlier in the week we featured a blog about designs that played to computer based humor.  Looks like we made an oversight by not including this one!

Interlocking Lives, Lines, and Transit Lanes (via HideYourArms)
Hide Your Arms does a great job pointing out and discussing this terrific, busy, and very creative design.  There’s a lot going on on this one shirt!

Portrait of a Legend (from Shirts On Sale)
Once again Shirts on Sale brings up a creative, amusing t-shirt.  This one is of a mythical hybrid creature called a ‘yeticorn’.  Naturally it’s the offspring of a Yeti and a Unicorn.  That’s certainly a pairing we hadn’t imagined prior to seeing this shirt.  As the blog says, the text ‘I Don’t Even Exist!’ make the shirt all the more amusing.

Vive La Paix (The Daily Tee)
The Daily Tee brings us a top notch ‘Peace’ shirt that’s sure to be a favorite for everyone from hippies to foreign language majors.  The colors and design really drive home the message.  Thanks Daily Tee!

Ready Aim Fly (Shirtfind)
Shirt Find brings us another one of the ubiquitous ‘birds or other flying creatures morph from a violent object or scene’ shirts that we’ve been seeing so many of lately.  This is creative and well-designed though and defintely does deserve the shout out.

Squishi (iloveyourtshirt)
This blog does an amazing job of providing a write up on the UK company Squishi.  Not only do they provide some great, fascinating information but they intersperse it with several examples of Squishi’s terrific designs.  Great!

Tarantino Babies (via Funky Duds)
This blog features a terrific looking shirt of ‘Tarantino Babies’ in bright, vivid colors with a sharp, realistic design.  It’s beautiful…and almost creepy.  Great pick!

The Art of Stain at Dirty Laundry (from Dirty Laundry)
This very thorough and informative blog features a write up on the company Dirty Laundry and their ‘art of stain’.  It was definitely very eye-opening and interesting.  Apart from the facts the blog also of course illustrates their points with pics of some of the designs.  Our favorite is definitely ‘tea shirt’ which features a shirt that looks like a giant teabag complete with a long string and paper label.  Very cool!

The Breathtaking Marc Ecko “Cut & Sew” Star Wars Collection (Cottonable)
This blog features a beautiful, indeed breathtaking, line of new Star Wars shirts.  Star Wars tees seem to be on the rise and making a strong resurgence, so what makes these so special?  Well go and see for yourself!

Back To School Bake Sale at Johnny Cupcakes (Hide Your Arms)
This blog highlights the new back to school design over at Johnny Cupcakes.  The design is extremely original and all around fun as it features a skull and crossbones image composed entirely of school supplies!  Check it out!

Fugitive and F5 Refreshes You (Shirts on Sale)
These two awesome blog posts directed us to two of our favorite shirts of the week as well as the inspiration for the computer humor post.  How could we not give them a shout out?  Once again let us point out how amusing and witty we find these designs and how well they pay homage to computer humor and our ever increasingly blended cyber and real life experiences!  Excellent!

One of the sites in our feedreader for design information is called Fuel Your Creativity.  They provide some good design insight and a just authored a really cool post, “Tasty Designer T-Shirts” about several of the most creative recent t-shirt designs and designers.  As you can see, not only did they select some of the best designs to feature, but they also provided some good resources at the bottom on various t-shirt related topics.  Don’t forget to leave a comment and to check out the other great articles on the site.

Not only is that title the longest one we have ever written for a blog post but it is also the title to a great book about used t-shirts. We all have them….t-shirts that just have been worn to the point that they can’t go any longer. It is a sad day when a great t-shirt has to be retired, but it doesn’t have to be so bad with this t-shirt book. They literally walk you through 99 different ways to cut up and reconstruct your t-shirts into a whole new top.

Most of the instructions I had seen catered to females but I can admire the creativity and originality. We definitely recommend any t-shirt enthusiast purchase this book for all of the tee shirts out there in need of rehabilitation. The book can be found at Amazon by clicking here.

One of the main reasons that we made a move to our new offices was the location was much more conducive to walking/biking than it was to driving. We are trying to do our part for Ma Nature and that includes my new ride to work. This electric bad boy is actually parked in my office during the day:

It is made by Schwinn and is completely electric. She tops out at 15 mph and can travel a distance of 12 miles on a full charge. I would recommend it to anyone for work or play. Especially when the stock rims are five stars:

For the engine purists out there who are thinking about getting a Tesla, we suggest you start with this electric engine first to get the hang of it:

Just wanted to show you the lighter side of You Design It!