slick.

i spent the evening redesigning danndesigns.com's look, and as much as i detest words like "edgy" and "hip"... i have to say that i went for a "slick" new look.

i whittled down the amount of designs, so to see my full body of work, you should check my flickr page.

and to celebrate the new doman/new design, i put together a video on the home page. i was inspired by a blog on threadless collecting initial sketches of printed threadless designs, to both contribute, and make this video:



that same video is also integrated into my new site, so be sure to check it out there as well!

sales bonanza.

huge edit! feel free to read the post below, but these shirts are no longer on sale. i was either unlucky, or scammed. i'm hoping it was the former. this company just folded a week after opening, and will be refunding all purchases made. that seems legit, but this company now has my print ready art for the shirts seen below. so my designs may show up in china or malaysia (hot spots for stolen designs).

the tshirt vault site is now live, and you can buy my shirts!





i am thrilled to have these designs on sale, especially the butterfly/glasses design. a buyer from fueled by ramen (or a manager) contacted me interested in showing the design to the band paramore, but they passed. and i've always had a lot of interest in my "the death of super grover." design when in the sidebar art on tee fury, so i'm hoping that parlays into a lot of sales.

what's in it for me? besides seeing the smiles on the faces of the children? i take in $3 per shirt sold, and i have a chance at getting a chunk of a $10,000 prize if i am one of the top 5 designs sold on that site. so, please, tell your friends. order 12 in case 11 of them are destroyed in a chemical fire. it could happen!

more meta mario!

i have a new design up for vote on threadless:



i even have a little back story for the design:
"lakitu towing
'the art of knowing kart towing'

"after time spent in jail, lakitu reentered the world a changed, and determined man. he started his towing business using the same vehicle he had previously used for misdeeds. it took lakitu a while, but he proved himself time and time again, helping stranded motorists from the stickiest of situations. lakitu was finally awarded full sponsorship of the star cup (a local kart racing tournament) and has become a hero to many on the road to victory.

"this is the official lakitu towing shirt worn by the lakitu staff."



if you like it, please show me some love on emptees as well!

so bright, i've gotta wear shades!

a lot of cool stuff coming up this year, and only minor uncertainty.

i have 6 new shirts coming soon. 3 of them i spoke of in my previous blog, 2 of them will be for a new website launching soon, and the last one is awaiting placement (if it gets printed)

i will be printed in (and on) a couple of published books this year. one is for certain, but it's a project i can't speak about yet, and the other i was contacted to take part, but i have no guarantee that i'll be included.

i just spent an hour sifting through my entire blog for some designs to submit to the latter book project i spoke of. and i felt the need to update the blog. i am tired. i should head up to bed.

3 new prints coming soon!

there is a new competition in town that is raising some eyebrows. well, some brows are being furrowed.

tshirtvault.com has a new contest model that awards designers $3 per $19 shirt sold, and the top 5 designs sold get a portion of a $10,000 prize.

why are brows being furrowed? some find the setup incredulous, and even i feel like i am gambling as i submit designs into the competition. the detail that is concerning artists is the fact that you have to send it print ready art from the word go. the first rule of design is to never send the print ready art until you have cleared the check. and for tshirtvault.com to start selling your designs, it's a necessity to have this art up front.

the fear is that these designs could end up being ripped off. the company is brand new and hasn't had the time to build any trust with the online designer community.

i am throwing my hat in only because i see other respected designers taking the same gamble. and if we're ripped off, i will commiserate with good company; if that's any consolation.

now that i've waded through the uncertainty, i'll speak to the perks. barring rejection from tshirtvault.com, these designs will definitely be available to purchase on march 1st:



this eliminates a lot of work for designers. usually, when a design is finished, a designer looks at the different competition communities threadless, emptees, design by hümans, tee fury, shirt.woot, etc.) and guess which one is the best fit. then you submit and cross your fingers for prize money or 24 hour partial sales compensation. all tried and true systems, no doubt.

tshirtvault.com operates more like the old bountee.com (now a different company, hence no link) where every design submitted is available for sale, there's no uncertainty. and unless you win one of the top 5 sales spots, you retain your designs artistic rights and can pull the design at anytime to sell elsewhere (which raises the issue of the bigger design competitions not accepting previously printed designs, no matter how low the quantity, they're tainted.)

so i'm hopeful, and i have selected designs that are particular to tshirtvault's printing process and have been favorites when featured as sidebar art on sites like tee fury, but have never been printed. so please, spread the word. make my gamble worthwhile and help me get in the top 5 printed designs!

the desperate plea.

itunes just shit the bed.

i have been playing my 7,000+ songs in itunes since i first fell in love with my imac 4 years ago.

every song has been imported by itunes off of cds or purchased through the itunes store. (i bring this up so everyone understands that the aac codecs are all correct for itunes playback)

i recently purchased a couple itouches, and i noticed that some songs refused to play.

then i find that those same songs refuse to play on my imac as well.

no error messages, itunes is still pointed to the correct folder containing all of the music (both the songs that still play and the thousands that don't) and nothing happens.

i reinstalled itunes, and it immediately picked up where it had left off, same problems.

i then pointed itunes to an empty music folder, tried out a few songs and got the error message that it couldn't find that track. perfect, right? nope. the songs that wouldn't play before still did nothing. no reaction from itunes at all.

pointed itunes to the correct folder again and i still have the same problem.

insult to injury is that a call to apple will cost me a one time fee for them to walk me through how to fix a problem caused by using their software and their products together, as i can only imagine the itouches are the catalyst for this problem (chronologically speaking, at least.)

i bring this up in my oft-neglected blog as a final cry for help.

i have tried all the google-fu at my disposal, and i can only find fixes for windows operating systems.

has apple gone rotten?

sha-na-na-na-na-na knees, knees!

i have a new design going up for sale on teefury tonight at midnight titled "use your illusion." (hence the comical title to this blog)



if you're having a hard time deciphering why i think this design is interesting, start looking at it knowing that it's an optical illusion. your mind has just been blown, courtesy of dann matthews.

this sale, like all teefury sales, is only for 24 hours, and it's dirt cheap. so go pawn your dirt!