designgive relaunched

After a short abscence, I'm happy to say that our friends and sponsors designgive are back online and have resumed kicking ass. They've got a few new designs from some great artists including Matt Owens, Si Scott and Jenna Ebanks, topped off with great prices and of course the option to contribute a portion of the sale to a charity of your choice (from the list provided). Ahh, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over.

Brisbane Tee Party

I hate to say it - but the Brisbane Tee Party is one of the most poorly promoted events ever. It's on today and starts in an hour and ten minutes. I live in Brisbane, work in the city, go to stores, bars, galleries etc, read the free newspapers and streetpress quite a lot, and I write a freakin tshirt blog - and I only found out about this last night!! Poor! They don't even have a website - just a myspace that doesn't even tell you who's going to be there. Slack. They say are going to have Brisbane's best tshirt designers there but I know some who won't be - cause they don't even know the damn thing is on!

Anyway, hopefully it should be a great day, and if for some sad reason you are reading a tshirt blog on a Saturday morning and you live in Brissy, head along and check it out. It's on from 9am to 4.30pm at Ahimsa House, 26 Horan Street, West End. I'm going (I'll be the guy with the skull pop shirt if you wanna say hi) and I'm sure there should be some sweet new labels there just waiting to be discovered.

Kimazo - tshirts and illustrations

Oksana Kemarskaya has a nice little profile site/store called Kimazo. I'm not sure that I completely understand... but I damn well like it. This shirt comes from a series of four and are available in both short and long sleeved varieties. Ooooh, options!

New People Like Us

White is so stylish. Again. Is it the new black? Well I for one don't friggen care and am totally satisfied with the old black. But the new tshirts from People Like Us are all white and sure are nice. And if you've got a stylish little white iPod and are sick of being so damn slick (it's hard damn work right?) you can pick one of the sexy little Gelaskin things to make your pod less white and more protected. Kick Ass.

Gorilla Riot

I'm not sure what a Gorilla Riot would be like, but in my head I imagine an awesome meeting of Gorilla-esque masculine rage and uni-student-esque passion as the enraged beasts protest violently over the destruction of their native habitats whilst harrasing business men, burning shops and tossing over hotdog stalls.

But that's just me...

I've been following the progress of the Gorilla Riot site since they announced their first Beta version on t-shirtforums.com quite some time ago. It's great to see a company who has a put as much time and effort into producing a great site as they have with their tshirt range. Testing and constant refinements means that the finished Gorilla Riot site provides an excellent shopping experience - enabling the salivating tshirt enthusiast to easily navigate between the label's 6 different launch collections. Sure, it's awfully annoying that you have to click on each thumbnail before you can see what colours each shirt comes in (no they don't all come in white!) but the site loads quickly, and getting a bigger look at the tasty illustrations (and models) makes it bearable.

With artwork from the likes of Digital Three, Bagger43, Eyekaps, LambShank (Kyle from D3 and IMario), and Matt Morris (aka Cool Vader), this is one riot that even the most ardent pacifist may want to check out.

Monsieur T fall/winter line

In case you haven't checked it out already, the fall/winter line from Monsieur T is well worth checking out. As well as a range of tshirts, their are some sweet hoodies to keep you warm. Artists including Andy Rementer, Bwana Spoons, Martin Ontiveros, Fernando Elvira, Emil Kozak, and the Berkley brothers have contributed their talents.

Trick or Treat

Buy this. Happy Halloween.

Jordan Atkinson

Jordan Atkinson makes me want to be an artist. His bold, musically influenced style is something to behold, and indeed many would agree with me judging by his impressive client list. If you can't shell out the required coin for a print why not opt for the useable - and affordable - alternative, a tshirt? These beauties are screenprinted on American Apparel Tshirts and pay homage to pop sensations from the past and present. Too freakin' awesome.

Funkrush

Sometimes I feel like the internet is like a giant maze, a labyrinth that you have to navigate through to in order to find what you are looking for. But unlike your traditional maze, the internerd can have a million different outcomes, and sometimes you're not even sure what you are looking for. Del.icio.us acts like clues to get you through the map, and Google is like a teleporter, but sometimes the results can be unexpected (especially if you're feeling lucky). Sometimes when I'm browsing for new stuff I end up getting nowhere, following link after link to crapsville until i reach a dead end. Alternatively, sometimes I end up finding something truly extraordinary, completely justifying (to me at least) my wasted hours of net travel.

Recently, on one of my geeky adventures, I somehow ended up at Funkrush. This awesome site has an unbelievable range of tshirts from some of the biggest names in contempory illustration (Jon Burgerman, Peskimo, Tado, Olly Moss, Dalek and many more). How I have not come across this outstanding label sooner amazes me, but if you are also unfamiliar with Funkrush click here to warp to their site. Post-haste!

Go Ape//Olly Moss

I spotted this awesome design on Olly Moss' site a couple of months ago, and am happy to say that it is now available for sale from Go Ape. Also, check out Olly's impressive collection of tshirt designs and excellent work for Threadless.

A Better Tomorrow

Man, I wish I had've kept going with the German lessons at school. Then I'd be able to understand what's going on at A Better Tomorrow - and perhaps order a thing or two. The site is pretty big, with stuff from a big range of labels, as well as A Better Tomorrow's own line (pictured), comprised of design competition winners and contributions from guest artists such as Koa (bottom). I think ;)

As seen on: Shirtspotting

GAMA-GO Yeti Cannons

GAMA-GO release awesome new stuff constantly and I'd have no chance keeping up with it all, but I do particularly like this sweet design called Yeti Cannons. Their bags, wallets and jackets are also worth a look.

Lifelounge 22 Flavours

Lifelounge has launched the 22 Flavours project, utilising the skills of the "who's who" of the art and design world to create a stunning range of limited edition tees. 22 artists were each given a flavour as a theme and the results are fantastic. Even more impressive is that proceeds from the sale are being donated to help the homeless. There is only 22 of each design printed, so if you want one be quick - they may sell out as fast as Rage Against The Machine tickets.

YWFT Limited Edition Tees

As mentioned a little while ago, YWFT are in the process of releasing a range of new shirts. The two that I wrote about earlier are now available, along with this number entitled Pie in the Sky. All are printed on American Apparel and are a limited edition of 70.

TEE TEST: Lamstok

You may have seen Lamstok already if you check out some of the other tshirt blogs. Well they contacted me too, and because I have a big desire to help out Australian designers, and an even bigger desire to own really cool tshirts, I hit 'em up for a tshirt to review. How would this newborn label fair? Well the tshirt, and the results, are in.

What can I say....? Lamstok dominates. They pretty much do everything right. In fact, Lamstok could be used as the manual for how do start a successful label.

1. Cool designs. The designs, such as the banana they sent me, are cool, quirky and unique.

2. Quality. American Apparel tshirt (I'm not necessarily promoting them but they have a good reutation and fit so well), quality printing, swing tag and packaging.

3. Well promoted. Get your stuff out there and if it is cool enough, and you are nice enough, every tshirt blog under the sun will be giving you free promo.

4. Good website. I cannot stress how important this is. The shopping experience should reflect the mood of your brand and be easy to navigate. A good website encourages buyer confidence too, while a bad website makes people think you may be a bit dodgy. Right?

5. Little extras. How sweet is it when you get a badge or a stylin' sticker or something for free? Lamstok packaged this shirt in a pretty nifty printed zip-lock bag. Now my sandwiches look shit-hot too.

Ok ok, so Lamstok gets a tick in every box. This shirt is great. It's original, well made and fits great. I wore it to a party on the weekend where I knew hardly anyone and had 4 random strangers comment on the shirt, which I think is a sign that they've done the job well. The rest of the range is awesome too and each shirt comes in a range of colours. Things are looking good.

RRP: $45 (Australian)
GET IT HERE

Want your shirt reviewed? Get free publicity and a link in our tshirt stores section. Email deathbytshirt@gmail.com

Commune Tshirts 2007

These days productivity is key. Although the digital age promised a reduction in human workload and more time for leisure, we now work, on average, more hours a day then anyone in the last 100 years. As a result many of us end up working several jobs, participating in assorted projects and squeezing our recreational pastimes in between. Labels release new lines of clothing every season, month or even week as time pressed customers vacate the pavements and hit the internet for a massive selection and to save precious minutes.

But there are exceptions. New Zealand label Commune releases only one series of tshirts per year, so when they do we get excited. Sure Commune founder Jeremy Bennett knows as well as anyone the stresses of multi-tasking, splitting his time between Commune and fulltime employment for architectural firm JASMAX. But when your label puts out stunning shirts by top artisits such as Catalina Estrada, Adam Cruickshank, Josh Gajownik and Ronald Kurniawan I guess you only need to release new stuff once a year.

Now if only I could get away with writing only one blog entry per year...

Paths 2 // ISO50

Iso50 (aka Scott Hansen) has released a beautiful new version of his Paths tshirt, aptly named Paths 2. Perhaps even more exciting is his new blog-like website. This definitely gets my vote for one of the best looking new sites I've seen lately, especially in the often cluttered blog format (as my site may demonstrate...) If you're not already familiar with Scott's awesome work you have to check it out, and if you are familiar with his old site, well, you have to check it out. Get my point??

New Jon Burgerman Stuff

Jon Burgerman has some great new stuff on his site including his own range of toys, some limited edition slip mats, and this Pumpkin Horse tshirt. It is printed on a 70% combed cotton 30% bamboo blend, which is apparently extra smooth, and uses environmentally friendly, water based inks. Goodness on so many levels.

Jordan Mattos

If you're sick of seeing people all over town in the same shirt as you, or you just don't want to risk it, why not get a customised tshirt? Jordan Mattos creates custom, hand drawn, one off tshirts that are sure to be as unique as your fingerprint. You even get to let him know what you want on your shirt - all for a casual $150. Just don't wear it when you're sticking up a bank.

Mike Cina/You Work For Them

Following up from the post I wrote about You Work For Them's first tshirt release, Anthropomorphotosynthesis, I got an email from YWFT co-founder Mike Cina, letting me know about a couple more new tshirts that are coming soon. Mike is a somewhat iconic designer. With a background in typeface design, he went on to co-found the design collective We Work For Them in partnership with Michael Young. WWFT has an impressive clint list touting such names as Adobe, Bacardi, Coca-Cola, DC Shoes, Emerica, Etnies, Es Shoes, ESPN, HP, MTV and VH1, so you've probably seen some of their work somewhere. Cina and Young have yet again flexed their creative muscle with these new shirt designs for YWFT, which I'm told should be released some time in the near future. Stay tuned.