I have to make a little admission about this tee before I get to the meat of the review. Usually, when someone e-mails me and asks if I’d like a sample, I tell them my size (although I do tell people to send whatever size they want), my address, and I don’t pick a design to be sent to me. I didn’t do that with Akumu Ink, I asked them to send me this design (I didn’t insist upon it, it was just a request) because I really liked its look, and I thought that a detailed print like this would test AIs mettle.

In what seems to be a recurring theme, I wore this t-shirt on a night out with my friends so that I could get the opinions of people that don’t spend all their time writing about t-shirts, thinking about t-shirts and talking about t-shirts. They all liked it, hell, even my mother liked it, which surprised me since a t-shirt with a horror theme could be a bit heavy for some people, I think that the print is a genuinely arresting image, and printing it in blood red could make a few people a bit uncomfortable. But if you’re into this style of design, which I am, it is very easy to like, especially with the use of negative space being used so effectively.

Like I said in the first paragraph, part of the reason why I asked Akumu Ink to send this t-shirt was because I thought that the print would be a decent test of their printing skills, or at least the skills of their printers if they get some other company to do it. They passed the test with flying colours, although I guess that in the case of this tee its just flying colour, but they still did a damn good job anyway. The print is pretty thick, ensuring that the colour is solid and vibrant, so I guess there could be some cracking issues down the line, but it would be a long way down the line, so you probably don’t have much to worry about. The t-shirt itself is of AA stock, so its fair to say that you know what to expect there. One cool little extra for this tee is the toe tag that has been attached to the hang tag. It is customised for each order, stating your name, place of death (your address), what caused your death (the name of the t-shirt) and a case number (your order number presumably,mine said ‘666′). One word of warning, there’s a pretty large logo print on the lower back, which I’m sure some of you will hate.

Costiness=$21 Link

• 3 Comments
Tags » akumu ink • black • blood • horror • negative space • red • review • Reviews • T-shirts

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

Big rectangular prints on the front of a tee are.. err… big, this season, I’ve noticed them cropping up more and more recently and its a style that I’ve come to really enjoy. For me, there’s a feeling that they are a good way to put art onto a t-shirt, the print conforms to the standard shape/dimensions that you expect to see in a piece of art hanging on a wall, and because of this I think it gives artists a bit more freedom to play in terms of their subject, even if they might feel a little constricted in terms of placement.

Great use of negative space on this tee, and I really like the look of the red-to-yellow gradient, although it is often pretty hard to print a nice gradient so its a pity we don’t have real pictures of this tee rather than just the mock-ups.

Costiness=$25 Link

• 1 Comment
Tags » birds • gradient • little paper planes • Mens • negative printing • negative space • olive • Option G • t-shirt

KingKongShrimp have a decent female range, so I thought that I’d continue giving KKS some love by pointing out this cool ‘Creatures Great And Small’ long-sleeve T with raglan sleeves. There’s obv. a hippo being preened by some friendly birds, as is nature, and the colours compliment each other pretty sweet, what else can I say?

Costiness=$24.95 from KingKongShrimp.

• 0 Comments
Tags » blue • hippo • King Kong Shrimp • Long-sleeve T • negative space • red • Womens