After recently closing their site down, the Desired Heart team is back in action, re-branded and hopefully better than ever. To kick off the re-opening of Desired Hearts, they have teamed up with the folks running the upcoming and worldwide Twestival and is currently organizing the official Twestival T-Shirt Design Competition. You can now vote for your favorite entry (12 from the 45 submissions were selected) and can even pre-order your Twestival tee now for $20.00. Voting closes this Sunday and the results will be announced on Monday, February 9. The profits from this sale will be going to Charity: Water – a group dedicated to bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.Â
Here are the 12 Twesitival designs that you can choose from and vote for:
For those of you wondering what the Twestival is all about, here is the information that you need:
On 12 February 2009 175+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water.
Join us by:
Attending one of the events detailed on the city sites listed on this page.
Uploading or buying music at Twestival.fm.
Taking part in the t-shirt design competition.
Donating to charity: water.
The Twestival is organized 100% by volunteers in cities around the world and 100% of the money raised from these events will go directly to support charity: water projects.
That’s right, here’s a quality freebie from the folks over at The Chop Shop. You can get your very own copy of the very upside down Graphic Design tee from the Chop Shop, for, you guessed it – free! Chopping Block (on the back of the tee) is in reference to the Chop Shop’s sister site that specializes in graphic design (go figure!). The only catch with this tee is that you still need to pay for shipping ($5). If you want to pick one of these guys up then use the coupon code “freeGDU” to get yours. The shirt is printed on charcoal grey Hanes Beefy T’s.Â
This is the newest design from Glennz Tees and it doesn’t disappoint! Glennz Tees founder, Glenn Jones, never fails to impress me with the wit of his designs. This particular design, Pre Computers, brings us back to the days when interacting with other humans for fun and enjoyment was the norm. When sport was an actual physical activity not just twiddling of thumbs. The design is printed on a royal blue American Apparel tee and is going for $19.95.Â
Our buddies over at Never In Wonderland (NIWL) will be holding a live video chat on ustream this Sunday at 6:00 pm Pacific time (9:00 pm Eastern). They’ll be taking questions your questions live, but you can also email them questions ahead of time. They’ll be having a free contest and giveaways so be sure to check it out – it sounds like fun!Â
If you would like to know more about NIWL then check out Indie Tee Spotlight #6, I got to interview NIWL founder Daren Girdner.Â
“…We will be broadcasting a live video chat so you guys can ask us any questions you want. We will be answering them all to the best of our ability. We really hope everyone who likes NIWL will join. It should be really fun and should last around an hour or two. It starts at 6:00PM Pacific time and 9:00 Eastern time. We are currently accepting questions so we can prepare ahead of time. So if you have any email them to us at niwlclothing@gmail.com For the people that do come we will be making it interesting and will be having free contest, giveaways, maybe you might see sketches for new designs. Who knows…… So make sure you stop by it will mean a lot to us. See you next Sunday. Spread the word.” -Daren Girdner
Johnny Cupcakes, known for his limited edition ways, has unleashed the first of his Bakers Dozen series of tees. This line of tees will be especially difficult to get since they will be in-store only exclusive – advantage goes to Los Angeles and Boston residents. That means that the rest of us – who live outside of LA and Beantown can only hope one of these guys end up on eBay for a reasonable (I cringe at how much they will go for) price. The Bakers Dozen tees will come in waves of 130, with each of the tees numbered. What do you guys think about these in-store exclusives?Â
Mr. Cupcakes also showed off some other in-store exclusives (non Bakers Dozen):
This weeks Indie Tee Spotlight features one of the major players in the indie clothing and apparel industry. His name is Greg Kerr and he runs {miles to go} clothing, but he has made quite a name for himself producing cotton and clip metal buckle belts popular amongst the indie apparel and band merchandise scene. He has done belts for Johnny Cupcakes, Linty Fresh, Electric Zombie, Glamour Kills, and 410BC to name a few. Some of the bands that he has made belts for include Fall Out Boy, A Wilhelm Scream, Gym Class Heroes and Less Than Jake. He has an impressive list of clients that  you can see here.Â
I was fortunate enough to talk a bit with Greg about {miles to go}, how he got started in the apparel business, his thoughts on Johnny Cupcakes and his plans for 2009 and beyond. And when you done reading this interview be sure to check out the {miles to go} online store – use the code “friends” to get 20% off your order!
Coty: How long have you been running {miles to go} and how did you first get started?
Greg: I’ve been doing miles to go about 6 years now, starting with the belts and moving into doing clothing about a year and a half ago. The belts kind of happened in one of those back against the wall moments where I needed to find a way to pay my bills. I was playing keyboards for Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer at the time and when we would go on tour for a month, I still needed to pay my bills. Everyone else in the band lived with family but me, so if we left for a month, I still needed to find a way to pay rent. I had been using the product I use on the belts in my artwork at the time and just brainstormed about how I could use it to make merch for our band. Started off with selling zolof belts, making $50-60 a night and then bands would ask where we got them and it just kind of picked up from there. I was all word of mouth back then and I still am.
Coty: Aside from {miles to go}, you clothing brand, you also run Miles To Go Belts, a custom belt making service in which you specializes in making custom heavy duty cotton belts with the classic sliding clip metal buckle. Which is more difficult, running your own clothing brand or providing a paid service?
Greg: At this point with the belts, I have it down so well that the challenges involved have for the most part passed. The merch industry has changed so much over the years and it has become harder to get belts made for bands. Before, I could contact a band, make a sample, they’d order some and we would start the business relationship. Now, its all fulfillment companies who handle a lot of bands and I’m sorry to say put less into looking for new products. Running the clothing line has been a challenge and a good learning experience. I’ve been printing shirts since I was 16 for my old bands and I was familiar enough with the general aspects of it from working in the industry for so long, but it takes a lot of ground work. There are a lot of new clothing companies popping up all of the time and I wish them all the best and hope they want belts too!
Coty: If you had to choose one, {miles to go} the clothing brand or Miles To Go the custom belt service, which would you stick with and why? Which is more fun for you, designing your own tees and belts or making belts designed by others?
Greg: To be honest, the belts are how I pay my bills and I’ve been fortunate enough to have it be that way for about 3/4 years. The clothing has a little bit more excitement involved with planning designs and concepts, executing it, etc. If one had to go, it would be the clothing, but I dont plan on disappearing anytime soon. I do really enjoy making belts too and seeing the designs. Sometimes people send me great designs that keep me inspired.
Coty: One of your major customers in the past was Johnny Cupcakes. Johnny has been noted as saying: “Miletogobelts; Great guy, awesome business man, has helped me out tons over the years! I decided to part ways because I’m working on a bunch of custom belts overseas. There’s too many clothing lines doing those belts. It is def awesome for Greg, however – I want people to look at my products and be like, “How the heck did he get that made?!” But that’s just me & I’m a weirdo. I’m even losing money because I decided not to make any/many more of those type of belts! I gotta stick with my gut instinct though, it’s what got me to where I am today.” What are your thoughts on losing a major customer because of your increased popularity?
Greg: Johnny is a great guy and it’s one of those situations where the ride has to end at some point. He was getting belts from me for at least 4 years and to carry an accessory for that long is really rare. I was fortunate enough to be along for the ride as he grew into the monster he is today. There were no hard feelings and it wasnt anything that caught me off guard by any means. When your company is evolving, you need to keep moving forward with new products. I forget how I met Johnny. It was maybe either through Vinnie/Less ThanJake or he found me then Vinnie. It’s been a while. It was great to see the progression in his company. The first order I did was I think for 12 each of 3 designs and when we ended it was sometimes a few hundred of each of 6/7 designs. When companies email me saying they want 10 belts, I treat them the same I do as a company who gets 500. We all start somewhere. I have a small company myself, have been on tour sleeping in shady places, broke and I have a ton of respect for people just starting up.
I had the opportunity to chat a bit with Kneil Melicano, who this week won the Threadless Bestees Award for Design of the Year. Of course, he was quite excited about his win and I was very excited to get to chat with him.Â
Coty: What was it like waiting to see if your design would make the top 20 for the Design of the Year category? Were you confident that you would win Design of the Year once you saw that RED made the top 20?
Kneil: It was amazing. I’m still floored. I was not that confident looking at all the finalists, seeing most that made it are some of the best concepts for a t-shirt printed out there. The amount of talent Threadless produces and prints is absurd. From Frank Barbara, Aled Lewis, AJ Dimarucot + Jimiyo, Oliver Moss, Enkel Dika, Joshua Kemble, etc etc, you can’t help but feel intimidated by these heavyweights. I did an uppercut-hadouken combo after I refreshed the page and saw my name in the top 20.
Coty: You’ve mentioned that you’re friends with AJ Dimarucot, aka CollisionTheory, who also had a design that made the top 20. What was it like to go up against a friend whose design, When Pandas Attack, was much talked about this year and very popular? Would you like to maybe collaborate with AJ in the future?
Kneil: Haha! AJ is a scary scary person to go against with. I had the opportunity of meeting him when he had his victory party from his win over at DBH. And that dude knows how to throw [a party] on a side note.
He’s a very talented person for someone who admits he can’t draw. That Panda shirt is one of my favorite designs from the site. Battling it out with Pandas Attack made for the most stressful week of my life looking at how well it was received over at other sites like Emptees. But I think RED had a following of it’s own. You tend to look at it in a different perspective. Sometimes what works as standard for a great score at a printable range over at Threadless doesn’t necessarily work at other sites specifically like DBH (famed for huge prints). I think if RED made it over at DBH for a head-to-head with the Panda, it would suffer a heavy concussion with a blurred vision. I like the idea that the crowd chose a more traditional basic print. Not to pertain or target the Panda’s huge all-over placement because I think it’s very appropriate for the subject matter, but I think it separates these two sites  in terms of their crowd following. And the contrast of these two designs and some others nominated (e.g. “Fail” by Budi Kwan, “Snow Angel” by Ian Leon, “Foam Monster” by Aled Lewis) making it over to the Top 20 makes Threadless a more diverse site catering to different crowds.
We do have some projects in the works at the moment together with other Pinoys in the field like Dexter Fernandez (Krayolaeater) and Loy Valera. Hopefully, it should materialize sooner than expected.
Coty: Design of the Year was selected by the Threadless community. Did you do anything special to publicize Red, or did you just cross your fingers and hope that you got the most votes?
Kneil: Like some others, I whored away. That’s it. It’s funny because throughout the whole week of voting, sometimes we would accidentally send each other our pimp emails and myspace promotions and realize we just sent it to the competition. I got some from the other top finalists.
Coty: What is next for Kneil Melicano? How do you follow up something like Red? Do you have ideas for future Threadless designs brewing in your head?
Kneil: There’s no pressure following up RED with a hit. In fact, I think this is the moment where I can experiment more and not play safe with the standards of printability playing in my head every time I try and churn a design. I got other designs in the works but I think there is no better opportunity to focus more on my personal illustrations than right now. I got stuff that I’m dying to finish.
Coty: And of course, the big question is, how do you plan to spend your big $20,000 winnings?
Kneil: Travel! Hit up the best beaches that 20 grand could afford.
Doubletake Clothing is the newest brand to enter the T-Shirt market -- and they’ve put their own spin on things. Doubletake, run by two good friends, is focused on collaborating with different artist on producing high quality designs and then using a portion of the profits to get involved with the community. Both Brandon and Craig, founders of Doubletake, have soft spots for serving the community and so they’ve developed a brand that centers on that.Â
They’ve launch their store with a single tee, one that was made in honor of the hit NBC show, The Office. The tee is called Bears, Beets, Battlestar, and, according to Doubletake, ”is tested and proven to evoke the most absurd symptoms from fellow fans. Symptoms may include (but not limited to) laughter, crying, nose bleeds, sensitivity to light, unpredictable rushes of emotions, numbness in extremities, high pitched voices, Paraskevidekatriaphobia, rapid chest hair growth (yes, this applies to women as well), dry mouth, vision impairment, and excessive hugging.”
If you want to pick up the first Doubletake tee, Bears, Beets, Battlestar, then you better head on over to their online store and pick it up now since it will be gone forever after February 22. The tee costs $20.00 but you can save 20% with the coupon code coty20off so go pick it up all of you Office fans!
If you need a little help remembering the Bears, Beets ,Battlestar reference then check out this video with a medley of discussions between Jim and Dwight. The reference is at 3:15.
Our buddy Andy Meyer of ReThink Clothing sent over his latest design and it’s a blend of awesome and cute! If General Patton was an otter, this is exactly what he would look like – all around badass! Otter-tude is printed on American Apparel tees and is available now for purchase at RetThink’s online store for $20.99. What’s even better is that ReThink is part of the Attack of the Coupon Codes so that means you can get 20% off this tee with the coupon code COTY.Â
For more information on Andy Meyer and ReThink Clothing, please checkout my interview with Andy in Indie Tee Spotlight #4. And remember, if you’re a college student, Andy is prepared to pay you for your talents so if you have design ideas contact ReThink clothing. For more information read on below!Â
Jeff Sheldon of Ugmonk just released his newest design, One Hundred, and as expected it goes well with the rest of his font focused line. It’s a three color design that shows off the numbers 26 and 74 overlapping. And if you’re wondering why the name One Hundred – just do some arithmetic and add up the numbers! I’d love to find out why he chose the numbers 74 and 26 – if you know why post in the comments.Â
In other news, Sheldon is bringing back his classic And Then I Woke design in a different colorway from the original design. He’s letting the people decide which colorway gets printed so be sure to vote for your favorite on his blog.Â
