Diary of a T-Shirt Intern is a weekly column written by Bo, a T-Shirt blogger at Loving This Tee who is also affectionately known in the tee community as dunz0. Bo will be tracking her experiences as an intern at Tilteed and sharing her thoughts on the strange land that is Portland, Oregon!
Hey, cotygonzales.com readers! Some of you may know me, but chances are that most of you don’t, so let me begin with a brief introduction about myself. My name is Bo, but I’m also known as dunz0, the blogger at Loving This Tee, and b2.0 at I Am The Trend. I hail from the DC Metro Area, I recently graduated from The College of William and Mary with a degree in Psychology, I have a strong love for slushy drinks, and I have joint custody of a purple Betta fish named Gilly.
To be completely honest, I never imagined being a part of the t-shirt industry when I started out blogging at Loving This Tee. I always thought that I would only be able to stand on the sidelines and admire companies and their designs. Boy, was I wrong! Earlier this year, I was asked to be a curator at Tilteed, an offer that I couldn’t refuse. When I thought that that would be my greatest accomplishment in the t-shirt world, I was asked to fly across the country to Portland, OR to intern at Tilteed. Three weeks after graduation, that’s exactly what I did. So this is where my journey begins. I’ll be sharing with you some of my weekly activities, as well as some of my experiences outside of the print shop.
I’ve only been in Portland working at Tilteed for about a week and a half, but I’m already learning so much and having a lot of fun in the process. In my brief time in the shop, I have learned about all the steps needed for preparing screens for printing, fulfilling orders, and general website upkeep. I have already gotten a chance to try screen printing, and the first shirt that I ever printed was a Tilteed Limited design by Recycledwax called “Jackalope.†Since then, I have printed a couple of other shirts and am hoping that I get many more opportunities to develop my skills. I have a greater appreciation for the whole process now that I know all the steps that go into it.
Strangely enough, I have also found a real enjoyment in fulfilling orders. This part sounds boring, but it’s actually not bad! What’s awesome is that we keep two large maps in the office for pinning where our orders get shipped to. Although it takes me forever to locate towns and cities (I’m horrible with geography), it’s a fun part of packing orders. I hope to see a map completely covered with pins someday!
One of the main lessons that I’ve learned thus far is to treat every aspect of my work with the utmost care. From setting up screens, to printing, to packaging orders, the whole process is even more meaningful when you put in your best efforts throughout each step. There’s no concept of cutting corners here. Since I’m somewhat of a perfectionist, I love this mindset.
T-shirts aside, I’m enjoying being on the West Coast for the first time. It has been cloudy/rainy most of the time, but I do enjoy the fact that Portland weather is not anything like Virginia weather at this time of year. It has been hoody weather here, unlike the hot and humid summer days back at home. I love walking around when it feels this great outside. As a Tilteed outing, I got to go to this amazing donut shop downtown called Voodoo Doughnut. There were some amazing selections on the menu, and I had a hard time picking a pair of donuts. I ended up getting a Voodoo Doll and a Captain My Captain donut. Talk about tasty! I hope to go back again multiple times before I leave this beautiful city.
So, that’s my recap of my first 10 days interning at Tilteed. I’ll be doing a new write-up on a weekly basis, so keep your eyes peeled for an inside scoop on working at a t-shirt company. I hope that you have enjoyed reading my account and flipping through the photos! If there’s anything in particular that you would like for me to touch on, I’ll be happy to take your suggestions.
Please check out Tilteed if you aren’t familiar with our site. We feature a new design every 72 hours (curated pieces and a monthly contest winner), so you’ll be sure to come across something to your liking!
Be sure to check out the latest curated tee by Bo at Tilteed. The shirt is called Age of Innovation and is on sale now for $12 but you can save $2 by using the coupon code “TILTCOTY” at checkout!
Brandon Hopkins, Founder of All For One Clothing, is celebrating the third birthday of his dog Shilo! To celebrate he is having a 20% off sale on tees in the All For One Clothing store. To cash in on the saving, be sure to use the coupon code “PARTY” at checkout. Also, All For One Clothing has unveiled a redesign of the All For One Clothing website, so be sure to take a look around!
When I first joined Facebook I felt as if I was part of the cool culture of educated geeks who seemed to agree with my sentiments that the bigger and more established Myspace sucked ass. When I first signed up for Facebook, I was happy to see that the little teeny boppers were gone, as were the annoying background flashing GIF’s. There was no music that instantly streamed every time you loaded a new page – thank goodness! The Facebook interface was clean, easy on the eyes and a pleasure to navigate. You needed a .edu email address to register. There was a time when Facebook felt exclusive.
Those days are gone.
NerdyShirts sums things up succinctly by characterizing Facebook as Cultbook. With 400 million users and growing, including those teeny boppers that I so happily left behind when I abandoned Myspace, Facebook is turning into the modern day MySpace. Facebook is no longer exclusive. Facebook is Cultbook, 400 million users strong and growing.
Known an awesome kid? We’ll here’s your chance to pick them up some awesome threads! The good people over at Threadless is having a huge clearance sale on all of their gear made especially for kids, including onesies, hoodsies, hoodies and of course kid tees! The tees are normally priced at $20 but they have been marked down to $9. Score!
In this episode of Co-Tee TV I wear Blue Canham, a Jack Johnson tee and review Maggie’s Pharm Tee by Dead Bury Dead, a lifestyle brand for the living based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and founded by Brandon Grbach.
You can also watch this episode on Vimeo, Viddler, YouTube, blip.tv and download and sync all episodes to your iPod or iPhone by subscribing for free to Co-Tee TV in the iTunes Store.
Coty’s Thoughts:
Maggie’s Pharm Tee by Dead Bury Dead.Pros: Top notch packaging, with the T-Shirt safely wrapped in a plastic bag, tissue paper and a custom Dead Bury Dead Box – the box is even further wrapped in a separate custom plastic bag. T-Shirt comes packaged with Dead Bury Dead stickers and pins. Faux Dead Bury Dead prescription slip adds an extra element of cool. Dead Bury Dead definitely goes all out with the pharmacy/death/dying theme. Maggie’s Pharm tee is tagless and features a very large custom screen printed neck label. The shirts also features Dead Bury Dead logo print on the upper back portion of the tee. I really dig how Dead Bury Dead goes all out with their theme, from the box to the T-Shirts to the included extras. Great price for what you get! Cons: The front screen print is a bit thick. For me, this design in particular is the weak link in an otherwise strong line. I think the other Dead Bury Bead designs (see below for link to some of my favorites) are far superior to Maggie Pharm Tee. Price: $16.99.
Blue Canham by Jack Johnson Music.Pros: I love the throwback retro look of this T-Shirt. I would have preferred a color other than baby blue. T-Shirt is a 100% organic cotton blank.Price: $15.
Our friends over at Lady Umbrella, Rob Ryan and Elena Montes Casado, recently opened the doors to their very own brick and mortar shop! That’s right folks, Lady Umbrella no longer just exists online, you can actually stop by their physical store and buy their designer T-Shirts! The Lady Umbrella shop is located in the Loft Market in Powerscourt Shopping Centre, which is located in Dublin, Ireland. If you live in the area, or plan to be around Dublin in the near future, then definitely be sure to check them out!
“We can’t believe it is happening but we are opening up a shop in the Loft Market this Friday..It will be the culmination of a lot of hard work and we’re just delighted to have been given this chance…”
Way to go Lady Umbrella!
Lady Umbrella
The Loft Market, Powerscourt Shopping Centre
59 William Street South
Dublin, Ireland
Lance Armstrong made a big fuss out of this Photoshopped BFD T-Shirt on the latest cover of Outside magazine.
I really dug the latest tee from Random Objects. It’s called Vision Test and it is Nice!!! Tip: Use the code “RANDOMOBJ†at checkout to score 10% off your entire order.
Well, the NBA finals ended in dramatic fashion, but not in the way that I had wished. This list of 30 T-Shirts chronicles every NBA Championship tee from the 1980′s up until 2010.
T-Shirt Blogging Friends:
Have you voted for CotyGonzales.com yet over at T-ShirtBlo.gs? I’m currently ranked #4 so please help me out by giving a vote of 5 stars! Virtual hugs, kisses and high fives will be dispersed appropriately!
Our good buddy Glenn from Glennz Tees announced the Weekly Bonus Tee. For $9, you get a random Glennz tee shipped to you. The shirt changes every Monday. Via Glennz Tees.
David Murray of Seibei has been updating his blog with his personal sketches. His latest one had me at hello! Via Seibei.
And did you know, I frreakin’ hate Kobe Bryant! Via It Goes To 11.
Other Coty Links:
The iPad is undoubtedly the ultimate piece of “now†technology. So what happens when you take the crème de la crème of Apple touch technology and merge it with old school Apple tech? Via SwipeTap.
Kevin Rose had some very interesting ideas (5 to be exact) for eBooks. Click the link to find out what they were. Via SwipeTap.
Say hello to the incredible farting-hiccup cat! I spent a good 10 minutes the day I found this just playing the clip over and over again. Via TumblrTrends.
This kid is insane. Watch him pull out his teeth with a rocket. Via TumblrTrends.
This weeks Threadless Pick of The Week goes to the winner of the Threadless Loves Lilith competition, Jeremy Bingham and his design titled Lilith’s Affair.
The Experiment Jetset phenomena rolls on with these two new tees from our friends at Found Item Clothing. Both shirts references characters from 80′s movies classics. In fact, The Goonies was one of those movies that I grew up watching – over, and over and over again. I remember the first time I watched it, my dad had rented a copy from a local video store when it was just released (I remember the sticker on the case proclaiming it to be a new release). At the time, I had no idea what or who the Goonies were. But once the film on the VHS tape started to roll, I was hooked. Goonies never say die!
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the John Hughes classic from 1986 (a year after The Goonies was released), didn’t catch my attention until 2 or 3 years after it was originally released. From what I recall, I caught it on HBO. I might have been too young to appreciate the antics of Mr. Bueller, but my appreciate for him grew with every re-watch.
Our friend Josh Perkins of T-Shirts recently released a pair of T-Shirts for his Go Ape brand. It’s been a slow year at Go Ape, with just two releases (see Vintage Pretension and Memento Mori) previous to these new tees. I have to say that Josh really picks up the pace with both Mask of Dooom by WalrusHead (top) and Valholla by the WorkSteady. Both designs are intricately head heavy, especially Mask of Doom, which looks like a mix of Native American art infused with 80′s pop art. Valholla is a nice mix of photography with vector art.
At least that’s what Outside magazine thinks. What does Lance Armstrong think? Well, if the Twitter post seen below is any indication, the 38 year old and 7-time Tour de France winner is not very happy with Outside magazines proclamation. Apparently, Outside magazine photoshopped the statement on to Armstrong’s previously blank blue T-Shirt.
Interestingly, Outside does note, on the cover even, that the shirt is not actually Armstrong’s real T-Shirt. See the tiny text next to Armstrong’s right elbow. Lame Bullshit? What do you guys think? Should Outside have at least let Armstrong know they were going to add that seemingly very powerful statement to his blank T-Shirt?
