Tag Archives: silkscreen

how many t-shirts does it take to fix the oil disaster?

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i don’t know the answer to that question. i’m just asking.

in the mean time, i will continue to bring you t-shirt designs i find interesting from designers/companies who are using their creative skills to raise some money for non-profits and other organizations responding to the oil disaster.

the local t-shirt makers are still coming up with the best stuff, in my opinion. local silkscreeners saturn screenprinting have a couple sharp looking spoofs on the bp logo on vibrant green shirts (above) – one that says “spill baby spill” and the other the more direct “fu bp.” there are lots of shirts using the bp logo now, but these catch my eye as being similar enough so that you know it’s a bp logo without having to actually BE the bp logo -  i like that. all proceeds from the sales of these shirts will go to the gnof gulf coast oil spill fund. you can pick one up online for $20 including shipping, or stop by their central city location and get it in person for only $15.

i was wondering how long it would take for fledgling t-shirt empire storyville to come up with their own fundraising shirt for the gulf, and lo and behold, they have. this is one of my favorite designs i’ve seen so far; i just really dig all the little drawings of fish, crabs, crawfish, shrimps, oysters and other local sealife that make up the shape of louisiana. (and the color palette is pleasing, too.) they too are donating to the gnof gulf coast oil spill fund, with $5 from each $23 t-shirt sale being donated. you can pick one up at their magazine street location or order online.

i noticed storyville also just added this one too, which spells it out loud and clear. this one is on one of those trendy burnout shirts in a color scheme that resembles dirty water; it’s a cool effect. these are $30 and some portion of each sale will go to the same charity, the gnof gulf coast oil spill fund, though it is unclear how much. again, available in their shop on magazine or online.

i first saw this design on skip n’ whistle‘s facebook page; they were saying it was the only design they carry in the shop at this point that is not their own. so i wondered who had made it. i’d seen others posting about it, saying they’d seen it on cnn and local tv news, so i did some googling and found that it belongs to nola tee, and is benefiting the st. bernard project, to help commercial fishermen affected by the oil disaster. it appears it comes in different colors and in both men’s and women’s sizes. click the picture above to go to their site for ordering, or call or stop by skip n’ whistle to see if they still have any in stock.

speaking of skip n’ whistle, they continue to come up with more of their own original designs in response to the oil disaster. i’ve featured two of their other designs in previous posts, but this is their most recent one, time is running out for bp. they continue to donate a portion of their sales of these bp response shirts – $10/shirt on this design – to the humane society of louisiana, who are helping with wildlife rescue in the oil affected region.

of course, locals aren’t the only ones making fundraising t-shirts in response to the oilpocalypse, but i think i’ll leave that to a separate post, as this one is already getting long. if you know of other oil spill/bp related t-shirt designs that i haven’t covered that you think are cool, feel free to post them in a comment here.

stay tuned for more.

oilpocalypse day 64

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64 days after the deepwater horizon rig blew up in the gulf of mexico, the oil continues to gush. people all over the world, and especially in southern louisiana, continue to feel helpless, and even those who are doing their best to fight the good fight feel like they are in a losing battle.

let’s revisit that oil spill ticker i posted early on in this crisis:

divide that number of gallons by 42 and you get the number of barrels per day that have leaked into our beautiful gulf. and that’s just an average of all the best-guesses of how much is leaking out every day. i find this beyond comprehension.

i personally continue to feel like there is little i can do, save for spend a few hours every day posting articles and photographs and reports from grassroots groups on the ground to my facebook profile in a desperate attempt to keep others far and wide in my social circle informed and enraged. i have a few-day break from the census (the phase i was hired for is now over, but the next phase that i’m getting rehired for starts next week), but have to condense everything i’ve been wanting to do for the past two months into a few days. plus i have to get ready for the craft mafia’s 5th year anniversary party on thursday. and fae leaves for michfest work in a week, so we have to get all our ducks in a row for my eventual departure later in july as well.

it’s all a whirlwind to me.

so i guess i’ll just continue to do what i’ve been doing here on the blog, which is highlight some of the visual creativity that’s come out of this horrendous nightmare, in an attempt to both vent our collective anger and/or also help raise funds for some of the grassroots groups and first responders to the situation.

today, i’d like to point your attention to sticker robot, a silkscreen sticker company out in california. some of you may remember back when i was stenciling-for-obama, sticker robot kindly donated a huge whack of stickers of my obama stencil design for me to give out, to help the campaign. zoltron and sticker robot are good people, and here they go again, donating their brilliant work to the cause:

click the picture to get all the details. basically, you just have to send them a self-addressed, stamped LEGAL-SIZED envelope and they will send you a free sticker. i personally think this is one of the best graphics i’ve seen come out of the creative community in response to the disaster, and i can’t wait to get one onto my car. (maybe i’ll get lucky and get 2 in the mail so i can put one on the scooter too!)

a fresh batch of oil disaster response t-shirts coming soon. stay tuned.

oilpocalypse t-shirt response pt. 3

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as the oilpocalypse rages on, i continue to be overwhelmed with anger, heartbreak, sadness and a feeling of helplessness as to what to do. i spend a considerable amount of time every day reading and reposting many online articles and first-hand accounts to my facebook and twitter streams, and i keep trying to hash out some designs for an eventual t-shirt or protest poster or something. but my census job keeps me so busy i don’t really have time to do much else.

tomorrow i will attend my first actual protest at 1pm in jackson square in the french quarter, which i hope will gather thousands to voice our collective outrage and sorrow. (i thought there was supposed to be one on thursday, but i scooted downtown at noon to find nothing going on anywhere – so i guess that one got canceled or something. sunday’s protest has been getting a lot of play in the media, though, so i think it will be big.)

since i still haven’t managed to come up with my own design that i like enough to want to print onto t-shirts, i’ll continue to spotlight those from my new orleans peers, particularly those who are donating a portion or all of the proceeds to organizations working on the response to the oil disaster.

(if you missed the first two posts, you can read them here and here.)

first, i can’t believe i forgot to mention this one earlier, from defend new orleans. the design pre-dates the oil disaster and was always intended to raise awareness of our diminishing wetlands, but now takes on a much more urgent message in regards to the oil disaster. 100% of the proceeds goes to the coalition to restore coastal louisiana and the gulf restoration network, two grassroots organizations that have been very effective and dedicated to preserving the coast and wetlands.

this second one is another design from my pal chris over at skip n’ whistle. their website is currently getting an overhaul, so no online ordering, but he says you can call the shop and order on the phone (504-862-5909) or just stop on in to 8123 Oak Street. i’m not sure where the proceeds are going for this one, but his other anti-bp shirt was benefiting the humane society, so perhaps it’s the same for this one.

this one is from my friend phillip whitmore of inexplicable confetti. according to his etsy shop, $5 from each sale goes to benefit the audubon society and their efforts to save the coast.

i’ve seen a LOT of these around town lately, and it took me a while to figure out who was making them. apparently it’s po-boy apparel. i don’t know anything about these folks, but this shirt sure is popular! according to their website, $2 of each shirt sold will go the “save the coast” coastal sustainablility program of the lake pontchartrain basin foundation (saveourlake.org).

and lastly, for now, from the good folks over at save nola, comes this “save our coast” design. according to their site, net proceeds from the purchase of this item will go to the coalition for coastal restoration. the design comes on this army green colored shirt as well as white t’s, in both men’s and women’s styles. i’ve seen a few of these around town already, too, and i’ve always appreciated that save nola was founded by locals to help out local organizations working to better new orleans and the region.

oh, and just as an update concerning fleurty girl’s rescue me t’s i mentioned in an earlier post, she recently tweeted the following: “so far raised $14,892 for @audubonzoo‘s louisiana marine mammal & sea turtle rescue program with our rescue me shirts!” that’s pretty fucking amazing! apparently she’s now offering some other accessories with the design on it too, so stop into her retail shop on oak street to get you some.

ok, i think that’s it for now. i know there are more – i keep seeing new ones all the time – and i’ll keep sharing them as i find them. i’m sure there will be some interesting ones at the protest tomorrow. now to get back to thinking about my own design…

poster fiend

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you may (or may not) have noticed that i’ve been slowly adding more links to the right sidebar of this blog. i recently added the category “posters!” (as well as a few others) so that i might pay some tribute to and link to the websites of some designers and artists i respect and admire.

posters and art prints are like crack to me. what started as a teenage propensity to tear out pages from my favorite magazines and plaster my walls with teen idol and rock star imagery turned into a love of band gig posters and album cover artwork in college, and then expanded to the appreciation of various printing techniques like silkscreening and letterpress and the many forms they take – from folk art and other art prints to commercial design and more. in recent years my love of street art and folk art has turned me on to a slew of blogs that cover the poster and design worlds, and i turn to them often for inspiration and just appreciation of both technique and creativity.

as i was catching up on my feed reader the other day, a few pieces grabbed me that i wish i had the disposable income to waste on. (not that i think spending money on art is a waste – not at all – but unfortunately in my world, i have to prioritize, and eating and paying rent kinda trump buying art for my walls, even when it is incredibly affordable art.) so i’m posting them here both as a means to share them with you and as a record for me so i can go back and find them later when hopefully i do have the money to spend.

this first one is kind of random, and i’ve never heard of this person/company before (brainstorm print and design), but i kind of really love it. it’s a 5-color silkscreen print and being the font-freak that i am, i think it is, well, fucking fantastic. simple. to the point. great retro font and awesome colors! i would just love to have that up on my wall!

this next one is from the delicious design league, another new-to-me company that started out making gig posters for fun and has since grown into a full-fledged commercial design firm. i love the simplicity of the design and the brilliance of the concept.

new orleans folks might be aware of the hurricane poster project, which was implemented after katrina as a means for designers to do something to raise money and help victims of the gulf coast region in the aftermath of the storm and floods. well now there is the haiti poster project, which is offering limited edition sets of posters from artists, designers and design firms from around the world in order to raise money for doctors without borders, who are helping in the aftermath of the horrible earthquakes in haiti.

i have several favorites, but these are just a few. spend some time flipping through the gallery – there’s some really amazing design work there and it’s all for a good cause. and if you are an artist/designer, they are still accepting submissions.

one of the artists i became aware of during all the obama art craziness in 2008 is scott hansen. he’s a san francisco designer who does both commercial work as well as fine art. his progress print was one of those released officially by the obama campaign to fundraise (i originally bought one but ended up trading it for shepard fairey print i wanted more). he was one of the many artists i shared wall space with in washington d.c. at the manifest hope show during the inauguration, and i’ve been coveting his skyway print since i first saw it. now i have a new one to add to the wishlist:

it’s called terrabyte, and it’s a little pricey! but oh-so-cool. i love it and think it would look amazing against the bright blue paint color in my studio/office. <sigh> oh well. a girl can dream. (the original terrabyte festival gigposter that utilized the same design is only $17, though, with just a few more words on it.) i like a lot of scott’s stuff, and would definitely buy a bunch of his work if i had the money to spend.

one of my favorite discoveries of the past few years has been the print mafia. i just love their technique – old school, baby, hand-pulled and manipulated – and the results they get are just so spectacular. if i was a rich woman my walls would be plastered with their work. i have a hard time picking out just one or two to share but this recent cat with antlers is just the kind of tongue-in-cheek humor and eye-catching imagery that makes me smile:

ok, i need to stop cuz this post is getting long. but you get the concept – i could go on and on about my love of good graphic design and interesting technique. and i didn’t even get to the letterpress folks! i guess i’ll save that for another post later. but keep an eye on my links to the right as i continue to add more.