Art in the Age loves the Walrus

*Sorry guys, as Kevin points out in the comments, I’ve actually already written about this design.

This tee gives a shout out to a Philadelphia music blog called The Walrus, which I’d never heard of, but then again, I’m not from Philadelphia, and the only music blog I subscribe to is Stereogum, so what chance did I really have?

But if you don’t know what the blog is, like me, it doesn’t really matter for this design, because you might just think that there’s a cool looking Walrus on a t-shirt, and that would probably be enough for you. And if you’re a fan of the blog then you’re in a little secret society of music lovers that rally around your big-teethed mascot and nod at each other whenever you spot someone wearing the tee.

Costiness=$28 Tee Link

• 3 Comments
Tags » AITA • Art in the Age • blue • grey • music • T-shirts • teal

AITA have dropped a new tee and it is a shout-out to a music blog from Philly that apparently has really big teeth. As I’ve mentioned before this week, I’m a bit pushed for time writing posts, so I’m going to hand you over to the rather eloquent folks at AITA to do the job for me.

Art In The Age Creative Director Ben Woodward gives a shout out to Philly’s music blog with really big teeth, The Walrus.( http://www.walrusmusicblog.com) The big, music loving personality of this oversized and lovable friend of the sea is expressed perfectly in Ben’s larger-than-life illustration. Available in two color palettes: “Lo Fi” Gray-on-Gray or “Experimental” Turquoise-on-Turquoise”

The tees will be available in men’s sizes Small-Large for $28 and will be released tomorrow [oh, sorry, guess I probably should have posted this yesterday...]. Art in the Age will also be giving away 3 tees to 3 lucky winners in the next 3 weeks!

I’d usually think that grey on grey is the blandest colourway possible, but its actually pretty cool in this case.

Check it out here

• 1 Comment
Tags » AITA • animals • Art in the Age • grey • more grey • music • philadelphia • T-shirts • walrus

I knew who David Lee Roth was since we’re both hard rockin’ amigos (though, admittedly, I didn’t recognise him from the tee), but Patrick Nagel was a new name to me, which I think shows my considerable lack of art history knowledge, but once I found this website about him I did actually recognise the style (I’m cultured!), and the t-shirt started to make a whole lot more sense.

I did something quite unusual with this t-shirt; I wore it on a night out before doing the review. Usually I take the pictures, do the review, and then I’ll wear it at some point in the future, but with this tee I took the pictures then wore it on a Saturday night out with my friends. One of the problems with everyone knowing that I have a large collection of t-shirts that have been sent to me for free rather than me picking and choosing them from shops is that they feel they can say whatever they want about my clothes. Reactions ranged from “that is a horrible t-shirt”, “that looks really weird”, to “isn’t that the guy from Twisted Sister?” Over an entire night only one of my friends realised that the image was of Diamond Dave of Van Halen fame, and none of them were particularly enamoured with it. Out of everyone I know, I’m the only person that actually likes this shirt, so I think that the Patrick Nagel style combined with Roth’s rather ‘unique’ appearance really makes this a ‘love it or hate it’ kind of design, although I guess it could be a British thing, maybe in the US where Van Halen were a lot bigger it would be a whole different story. But its not just the person that I find interesting about this tee, the bright, bold, and numerous colours of Roth and the pink stripes in the background being put over the dullness of the grey t-shirt work really well, providing great contrast.

Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction have been impressing pretty much everyone with their designs, and I’m just as impressed with their quality level, and the press package that they’ve put together. I don’t usually talk about the little press bits that I get sent, but they looked really cool (pics below), and made it feel like they were a company who put a lot more into the design aspect of their business than just the end product. The blank tee is provided by American Apparel, so we all know what the deal is there by now, and the print is amongst the thickest plastisol ink that I’ve ever had (I could be wrong about it being plastisol though). I would imagine that the print is thick because they wanted to produce really solid, vibrant colours, in keeping with Nagel’s style, but it doesn’t make the tee feel at all heavy.

Costiness=$34 Link

• 1 Comment
Tags » AITA • Aperican Apparel • Art in the Age • David Lee Roth • grey • music • negative space • Patrick Nagel • T-shirts • Thom Lessner • Van Halen