We said it once, and we´ll say it again: June 21st is International T-Shirt Day. In order to build up the celebration mood in advance, our good old friend Adam created the “Countdown to T-Shirt Day“. The idea is to have one T-shirt blog, T-shirt shop or T-shirt platform a day hosting a T-shirt related contest, sweepstake or promotion.

This is a plea to any T-shirt sites or blogs that want to

• host a daily contest
• offer a daily prize
• organize a activity/sale/coupon/promotion for tshirt day itself

to get in touch with Adam using the Tee Junction contact form.

We at Spreadshirt will kick off the countdown tomorrow with our “show off your favourite shirt blog safari”. You´re more than welcome to join.

While some of you might have started learning German to understand our original Design Service video, we went and got a voice over for it. Michael from Design Service and Klaus from our Test Lab give us a glimpse at things behind the scenes. We show what happens from the point when your design is submitted to its plotting and weeding.

Michael first introduces us to the two most common reasons for the rejection of a vector graphic and how he checks to see if your designs meet our requirements for vector graphics. Then we head down to the Test Lab in production where Klaus plot designs with lines that are too thin and curves which are not closed just to see what happens! The results are eye-opening and they certainly convinced me that the strict vector design requirements are there for a very good reason.

Some of the recent submissions for the Social Media special contest from laFraise and Spreadshirt have been great. So, we decided to move the submission deadline from today to Monday, June 1st.

As a little extra motivation for all designers, Spreadshirt CEO Jana Eggers spontaneously introduced a special CEO prize. She will award her favourite design which:

• helps people promote their social media identity
• in a fun and cool way
• with an eye-catching design

with an Amazon Kindle - which, for those who haven’t heard of it, is a brand new digital reading device that allows you to read electronic books, magazines, newspapers and blogs on the run.

The Kindle is currently only available in the States so that the winner will be among one of the few first Europeans to hold it in their hands. Keep those great designs coming and get them in by Monday!

The official start to summer is just a little less than a month away, well and warmly accompanied by the International T-Shirt Day.

We want to make sure that as many people catch wind of this celebration as possible and are able to plan their own festivities (some ideas which came to mind: Boston Tee Parties, Dry T-Shirt Contests, etc.). So that’s why we are starting off another Blog Safari with the theme “Favourite Shirt”. The idea would be to promote t-shirt designers you might know or expose up-and-coming t-shirt labels and get them some publicity which they might not normally get.

If you aren’t familiar with a Blog Safari, here’s how the whole thing works:

We are calling for all who love t-shirts and want to participate to publish a blog post next Monday (June 1st) with the headline: “My Favourite Shirt” which includes:

• A picture of you in your favourite shirt,
• A link to that shirt’s designer/shirt label/shop where you bought it (if the link is available).
• A reference that the International T-Shirt Day will be celebrated on June 21st 2009.

That means – grab your favourite tee out of the dirty laundry, take a pic with your webcam and if you are better at editing images than typing, go ahead and use the T-Shirt Day Banderole on your image.

It would be really great if you passed along the word so we can cover the widest selection of different shirt designs possible.

P.S. Above you can see me in my favourite Spreadshirt: one with a design from LA Lewis. If I had pictures of me in one of my many other favourites, I most likely would have linked to seen., Design By Humans, laFraise, Looky Looky, Top Dollar, Long Clothing or Rockers NYC. But, I hope that you guys are able to cover these and many more platforms and designers. After the click you will catch a glimpse of the Powley shirt which I am wearing today: continue reading ‘Blog Safari for International T-Shirt Day: My Favourite Shirt’

The Graphic Design Agency Büro Destruct’s shop is a classic on the international t-shirt shop scene and those into design might have come across their work, knowingly or not. This group of four Swiss designers are prolific in bringing out absolutely top-class work. Their designs, like the faceless bearded man above are brilliantly minimal, yet still seem to radiate warmth in that minimalism. In addition to the Spreadshop, you can get a real idea of the vast spectrum that their work by taking a look at their posters. Loptez from Büro Destruct interviewed: continue reading ‘Minimalistic, Stylistic, Simply Top-notch - Büro Destruct Interview’

If you look to the left you’ll see a screen shot of the official Spreadshirt shop for T-Shirt Day 2009. It looks great, but is still quite a bit empty. We have to change this. Fast.

Calling all Shop Partners and Marketplace Designers! Either tag your favourite shirt designs with “tshirtday09” or upload a new favourite design with the tag “tshirtday09”.

We’ll grab those designs a put them in the shop, and to top that we’ll be sending some of them out in newsletters and slapping them on banners. So, tag on!

P.S. This is just a friendly reminder that you still have time (until Thursday) to submit designs for the “Social Media” T-Shirt Design Contest with laFraise and Spreadshirt. You can find details about the contest here.

If you are looking for some inspiration, check out the video “Cosmopolitan Tribalism” which our blog-savvy Tobias found in Markus Reuter’s blog. Think zeitgeist, mainstream, trends and global youth. Video after the click. continue reading ‘T-Shirt Day 09 - We Need Your Favourite Designs’

I’ll go out on a limb and say that we’ve all stared at something long enough that another form appeared. Animals on the Underground is based on that very common fact and is living proof that day dreaming isn’t just a waste of time. Animals has grown since the first “discovery” by Paul Middlewick in 1988 and the team of Paul, Nick and Jon allude to some upcoming developments with the concept. During the interview, Paul delves into the history behind Animals, the shop, his approach to design and (don’t tell the emu!) reveals his favourite animal. Come and take a ride with him through Animals on the Underground.

What is the story behind Animals on the Underground?
I got the idea when I was travelling on the Tube. It gets very boring commuting daily on the Underground, and I’d stare at the map as I waited for my train.
After a while, I started to see shapes in the tube map, particularly animals. I sketched them down and Animals on the Underground was born. Since then, I have picked out over 20 different animals from the intersecting lines and stations on the map, including an Emu and a Penguin! I decided the internet was the ideal medium to bring the troupe to a wider audience, and set up the Animals on the Underground website in 2002.

When did the first t-shirt appear?
We started to print our own merchandise to sell on the site but found that the effort of printing individual items on a supply on demand basis was not feasible while trying to hold down a full time job. So, in 2006, we found Spreadshirt and set up a shop to manage the orders for us. Since then, we have received a regular steam of orders which have been fulfilled without any input from us nor any problems or complaints; we just get sent the commission - what a dream!

What do you do outside of Animals on the Underground? continue reading ‘Elephants, Emus and Whales, oh my! Animals on the Underground’

And we’re off! Spreadshirt’s 1-2-3 Rally is up and running.

Let’s start those engines refresh those memories: for every 3 new customers who buy from your shop within the next two weeks, you will receive 1 £15 voucher.

Every Shop Partner can win up to 5 vouchers and we will also be raffling off an extra five vouchers for a free 6-month premium membership.

The best part is that you don’t even have to register – every Shop Partner is automatically entered for 1-2-3 Rally and will be sent their voucher(s) once the promotion is finished.

So put the pedal to the marketing metal and attract some new customers to your shop. For a few tips on how to market your shop, our Spreaducation marketing area would be a great place to start.

It’s that time of year again – where the warm weather provides many reasons for celebration. 21 June is action-packed this year – not only is it both Father’s Day and the official start of summer, but also International T-Shirt Day. Just like last year we are teaming up with laFraise for a special competition where the winner can rake in a prize of €1,500. The theme of this year’s competition:

Take Social Media to the Streets!

Social Media isn’t exactly something you could normally put your hands on, but rather has become the corners of the net which some call their second home, like:

• Blogs
• Twitter
• Facebook (etc.)
• Flickr (etc.)

We are looking for the best t-shirt design which allows people to communicate their social media presence (nickname, name, URL, status update etc.) on a shirt. Create a design for laFraise and Spreadshirt which best and most concisely conveys social media and its importance for the individual.

Requirements for the design continue reading ‘laFraise and Spreadshirt Team up for T-Shirt Day Competition’

A relatively new Spreadshirt shop with a lot of potential has gotten off to a great start. Teknique takes a house music approach to t-shirt design, mixing colourful apparel with even more strikingly colourful designs to create a really bold shirt. Read about the man behind the scenes, his approach to design, his thoughts about Spreadshirt and about t-shirt culture in the UK. Our interview with Richie from Teknique: continue reading ‘In Bold Contrast to High Street Fashion - Teknique in Interview’