Once again, a year is fading out making way for the next one. This time: 2008. And once again, we – my colleagues and I, Torge – would like to know what made this year important to you, what moved you to tears and who really ground your gears.
Short review: Last year you nominated Al Gore as the most polular person of the year. The silver medal went to Sébastian Chabal, a guy who I never ever heard of well-known rugby player of the Sale Sharks. The real surprise, however, was to be found at the lower end of the scale where George W. Bush handed over the Golden Raspberry to Paris Hilton. By the way: Knut (the famous Berlin polar bear) got stuck somewhere in the middle.
When it came to the vote for the most important website of the year, there was of course just one possible winner: Spreadshirt! What actually surprised me was that you guys like MySpace more than Facebook…
Anyway, additionally to some questions you already know from last year, we want to elect the most beautiful city and risk a short glimpse into the future this year.
All participants can hope for awesome prices like the Acer Aspire A150X.
So take the survey. Have fun!

I was really happy about an email from Tamiko Thiel last week. Tamiko runs the Mission Base Creations shop and told me that her legendary CM-1 shirts are now finally available for European customers, too.
CM-1? Mission Base? Tamiko Thiel?
Here´s the story: Tamiko was a member of the team that designed the CM-1 super computer at the MIT in the early 80s. The “Connection Machine 1″ - that´s the full name of the device - was “the first commercial computer designed expressly to work on simulating intelligence and life”.
Even before the team finished the design of the computer, Tamiko came up with a t-shirt logo which visualized the design principles of the CM-1. Tamiko: “In fact, we designed the CM-1 to look like this logo, thus making it the only supercomputer designed after a t-shirt!”
The shirt became famous as the “Feynman t-shirt” in the 90s, when Apple’s “Think different” campaign used a photo of Nobel physicist Richard Feynman wearing it.
See pictures of the shooting here.
Using Spreadshirt, Tamiko has reissued the legendary tee and now made it available in Europe, too. In case you still need Christmas presents for geeks, Apple fans and/or regular t-shirt lovers, the CM-1-Shirt should be a sureshot.

Now is the time to send Santa on his last run - if you order by December 15th, which is tomorrow, we can guarantee that your shirt will be delivered before Christmas!

As Santa will put on extra speed, we were able to cut costs:

from 6:00 -11:59 a.m.: 10% off + Free Shipping with the voucher code rollercoaster10
from 12:00-05:59 p.m.: Free Shipping with the voucher code rollercoaster
from 6:00-10:59 p.m.: 20% off + Free Shipping with the voucher code rollercoaster20

Those who are still at a loss for gift ideas can also give their loved ones a personalised gift voucher for £15 or £25. This way they can choose for themselves and test out their creative muscles.

Less than three weeks away and we might already be tired of Christmas jingles, the word x-mas and crowded stores.

That doesn’t save us from the fact that we still need gifts. For those who are saying to themselves “This is the year I will start shopping before Christmas Eve”, we have quite the tip for this upcoming weekend. Saturday: get out and grab some of that crisp winter air. Sunday: stay home and simply finish all of your shopping.

We’ve made your lazy Sunday even more convenient — with the voucher code “LAZYSUNDAY“, you will get all orders placed on Sunday, December 7th shipped for free. The voucher is valid in the T-Shirt Designer, on the Marketplace and in all shops.

I even have a gift idea for you: some might have already seen snow this winter, so our knitted mittens and caps certainly deserve a shout-out. They are from Vermont, which means that they are hand-made and extremely comfortable. And with a little creativity, mittens can be quite handy.

Tomorrow, December 1st, is Cyber Monday. Save 25% on your orders using the coupon code “CYBERBLOG” during checkout. Have fun buying shirts!

Printable Timbuk2 bags at Spreadshirt

As part of my job, I glorify products. This time, it’s easy, because it sure is hard as hell NOT to like Timbuk2 messenger bags. The ones you can pimp with your personal design at Spreadshirt now. Sound cheesy? Well, you just look at the bags. They are simply very very good fare. Can you ever be more of a bag in this life, than being a Timbuk2 bag? I doubt it. They have it all, these bagalicious beauties. Geological Durability (for they will probably outlive you, son), humble and pragmatic origins (bike messengers, the ones with titanium skeletons, carried them riding SF streets. In the fifties, their predecessors were in use by pole men fixing telephone lines). Ok, what was I supposed to say? Ah yeah. HURRY, WE HAVE LIMITED STOCK OF THESE ONLY! The above bag, by the way, is with a „Space Invaders“ design. By way of an example. The middle panel is printable. See interview with Lizzy from Timbuk2 inside the post.

continue reading ‘Timbuk2 messenger bags – print them with Spreadshirt’

Demand for organic Shirts is on the rise. That’s what our numbers say. And we are glad they say so – organic cotton is a good thing! No pesticides are used, they are good for the soil. But the question is: can they compete with regular shirts? Or will they shrink beyond recognition? That’s what we asked our colleagues over at the test lab.

continue reading ‘Testlab#2 - Do organic shirts shrink more than regular shirts?’

The Exclusive Line is here and we kick off our series here in the Blog with Barking Irons from New York. Founded by Daniel and Michael Casarella in 2003, the brand with the pistols (barking irons is an old fashioned term for pistol) is all about bringing a touch of american mythology to fashion. They say, each of their items is based on a character or a story, most probably from the 18th or 19th century.
In our Exclusive Line you’ll find 4 products (two shirts, one hoodie and one zipper), and we also have some more background information about the Barking Irons: Check out their blog, the New York Times article on “Brand Underground”, or the video featuring the Casarella brothers. We also did a short interview and asked Michael Casarella a few questions.

What is the barking irons brand about (one sentence)?

continue reading ‘Exclusive Line Spotlight #1: Barking Irons from New York’

More than four weeks to go to Christmas and yet, laFraise already start to put some mad decent goodies on the table to thank all designers and customers for a wicked ‘08.

For all graphic pros, they launched what is probably the t-shirt design contest with the biggets prize money ever (correct me if I´m wrong): the 15,000 - in words: fifteen thousand - Euro contest. That´s 12k GBP, folks! Deadline for submissions is December 1st. More details can be found in Jared´s art/design/fashion blog with a delicious strawberry flavour.

For all buyers, laFraise offers the following discounts in their shirt and hoodie filled online boutique:

Buy 2 T-Shirts, get 1 free with the voucher code santa2&1*
* = - 34% on all orders with 3 articles minimum.

Buy 4 T-Shirts, get 3 free with the voucher code santa4&3*
* = - 43% on all orders with 7 articles minimum.

Buy 6 T-Shirts, get 6 free with the voucher code santa6&6*
* = - 50% on all orders with 12 articles minimum.

And even though this promotion runs until the end of December, you better don´t wait too long with your order as all products are limited to editions of 500 pieces each.