[photo credit: Steve Woolf.]
I’ve made a lot of t-shirts in my life. The one for blip.tv is without question one of my all-time favorites. The shirt had an interesting genesis. I met up with blip.tv’s Charles Hope for lunch the last time I was in New York. While we were waiting for the coffee to arrive, I drew him the cartoon, right there at the table. Within a few weeks Charles had taken the design and turned it into a t-shirt. The rest is history etc. Hmmmm… Maybe I should be doing more of these.…. [Charles blogged both the lunch and the cartoon here.]
Just thinking outloud…
AFTERTHOUGHT: I don’t think I’d want to be in the shirt business per se. That being said, a fun t-shirt now and again for my hardcore blog readers wouldn’t be a bad thing. Again, just thinking outloud…
[Backstory: About Hugh. E-mail Hugh. Twitter. Newsletter. Book. Interview One. Interview Two. EVIL PLANS. Limited Edition Prints. Private Commissions. Cube Grenades.]
The New Republic
Len Schlesinger
Seth Godin
Brian Clark
Hey Hugh,
Why not? Your stuff would look great on a T-shirt. If it’s not too much hassle for you in return for what you get out of it, then go for it.
I’d buy one in a heartbeat! T-shirt or tank top or underwear!
IF you do again— remember da girls! Most of us would only wear a V-neck– and in black– and comfy— but not bulky and and and —
Please do more! “We Need to Talk” and “Quality” are two personal favorites that would make fantastic shirts.
BTW, my fiance told me about your blog, and I am glad he did. It makes me laugh and think. Two of my favorite things. It has inspired me to start taking my blog seriously and to just be myself on it. Thanks!
I don’t really like this t-shirt specifically but I think you could do it with certain designs/color schemes.. I think the simplistic design here a little bit too drab, but maybe the white business card on black or something on the back, small heart-placed gapingvoid logo in the front.
As long as Create or Die makes it onto a t-shirt … I’ll be happy.
I love my “The market for Something to beleive in is infinite” t-shirt. Thanks again Hugh!
I love t shirts! I love gapingvoid!
As long as it comes on a black shirt I’ll buy it.
Black, white,
colour of sh~*@
I’d buy one.
I’d buy it– they are right– black and 100% cotton.
And you’d have great shirts– but does it dilute the value of your art? Don’t know– just wondering.
I like– “I’m a Social Media Specialist…” for a shirt.
The problem with a lot of cartoon/clever t-shirts is that they are printed on crap garments. I won’t wear cheap, generic, round collar black or white t-s, regardless on what is on them.
What Toffs got right, was using heavier materials for their football reproductions. Makes all the difference. But, hey, you already know this from using quality paper for your prints!
If you can get some good cloth, nice cut and your stuff on it, I’d be all over it!!!
I wont wear a swear word, but other then that I’m game.
Agree with other comments. Black t-shirt would be better. We chose white print on black for our first t-shirt and it worked well with our customers/readers.
– Fabric should be at least 180g/m2 (6 oz?), now you’re doing prints t-shirt quality should stand up to that.
– Don’t think t-shirts would dilute value of your art. Actually now you’re talking about it: making t-shirts with gapingvoid motives looks far more natural than doing fine art prints.
– Then the shorter claims (e.g. “Recession is for wimps”) might work better than the more complex ones (e.g. “It’s easy to spot a tourist…”)
– Last but not least: don’t use print on demand services. Quality of print is not that good. And so is your margin.
(This is the second t-shirt we’re doing:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19356575/Mixology-TShirt-Mixology-Airing-Final-Version)
“It’s easy to spot a Purist.…”
Sorry about the “tourists”…
Love it, would buy it — I also want laptop skins!
I’ve *always* thought that there’s a market for gapingvoid t-shirts. You know that.
I’d buy them!
Thanks All,
I like making t-shirts on occasion, but I don’t think I’d want it as part of my “core” business. You need to sell a to of them to make any money…
I’d buy one too.
How about an artist-designed unisex vest? Mix of textured materials, black, white, greys, and the cartoon as a back panel, but integrated .…… boxed?
Hugh,
Beware the Thomas Kinkade effect. Once you’re on a t-shirt, are coffee mugs, calendars, mouse pads, skins, etc far behind? That’s ok, if that’s what you want.
Stay true to your core and let someone else to the business development on licensing some ideas — within your purview. Cheers!
Joe, true, Thomas Kinkaid has t-shirts.
Then again, so does Picasso, Warhol & Haring.
you did them years before, and the feeling i always had was that the experience didn’t satisfy you.
now that you’re doing gangbusters on prints, i don’t see any reason to return to the shirt business.
what would be gained, exactly? would it be any fun?
Michael, I don’t think I’d want to be in the shirt business per se. That being said, a fun t-shirt now and again for my hardcore blog readers wouldn’t be a bad thing.
I’m in, but only if you can figure out how to make it truly fit into the #evilplans…
Hugh,
Most definitely, I think your designs kick ass and they would easily work within the confines of a T-shirt
Monochrome all the way and as many swear words as you can humanly fit on them, et voila more celeb/normal folk/indie kid/web type advocates than you can shake a stick at (and maybe make some money too) what’s not to love? roll on the t-shirt revolution.
I don’t think it devalues your brand one jot either
I’ll buy one. More provocative the better. T-shirts way more viral than posters and prints IMHO.
My favs:
Buy me or the puppy gets it
x y z
F.
I’d buy one. And I agree with the others who say they should be printed on high-quality tshirts.
Why not do a limited run as a test? I’m sure they would be snapped up by the gapingvoid crew and we could feed back any comments we get about them, which designs get the most votes etc.
Sign me up!! Maybe you can setup a ‘crowd-driven” store where FANS can VOTE for their favorite gapingvoid cartoons/designs and only the FIVE TOP shirts will be made available based on vote/ranking. Fans will dig it!
A CDF exclusive perhaps? I would love to see a DesertManhattan or Marfa One type design on an entire shirt… covering the shirt totally in Gaping Void goodness. Let me know when they are ready.
I think t-shirts would push the gapingvoid brand towards the more accessible and cheaper part of your whole set-up (in the way one off moleskine commisions push it in the other direction).
crew neck cheapo white t-shirts are death of course.
A super high-quality shirt with a top top quality print is cool. any shirt for less $100 would be a big yawn.
but might be more hassle than it’s worth.
I see gapingvoid t-shirts as a way to fuck things up pretty badly, or might be a cool throwaway gimmick. so it depends on how much effort it’s worth
PLEASE DO IT!
The one I bought some time ago was a very good quality shirt. Comfortable, and hasn’t stretched or anything. I do like the idea of a black shirt though…
If you do go down the T-shirt road it would be a nice touch if the fabric used was organic cotton. Conventionally grown cotton in California is dusted with 6.9 million pounds of chemicals each year: http://tinyurl.com/patagoniaorganiccotton
Using organic cotton would raise the price of the garment a little, but maybe that would be no bad thing. Each T-shirt could be a limited edition premium product rather than a mass-produced item. You can always reward your loyal followers with an early-bird discount in the same way that you have done with some of your art.
Admittedly, tees are an okay idea. It’d be a great social commentary for a social setting… Dunno, though, I always enjoy gapingvoid more for the office environment — especially those of us who really do work in cubes and are always trying to “knock the cube walls down” with the “cube grenades”. In such a consideration, I would *prefer* to make such a social commentary in the workplace with something I could wear to work; i.e., not a tee. We dress pretty chillaxin in Hawaii, and in DC, my office did, too. But still, no tees. I see this more as akin to an aloha shirt but with the message, whether that be full-scale patterns much like your paintings, or just a short-sleeve button-up with the biz card graphic at biz card size on the pocket. It would work on long sleeve button-ups, too, although better if the shirt was dark to indicate contrast. More importantly, utilizing the whole element of contrast across environments, form, etc.…
Hugh, aren’t there affordable options going through vendors such as Cafe Press? Or print-on-demand vendors? I don’t know much about the specifics, but that might be worth looking into.
(I say this b/c I just sent my wife “Miracle” and she loved it, and said she wanted it on a t-shirt… LOL)