Man, seeing Eric Zelinski’s “Diver No. 12″ (which won second place in Threadless’ 2K10 contest) frustrates me, because the $10 sale ended but two days before its release! This tee is just so cool for so many reasons, and most worthy of the $5,000 prize it won. It’s so cool, I might just buy it regardless of the lack of a sale. I’m totally digging the surreal, Imaginary Foundation-esque quality of the image, and the juxtapositions between grayscale and color, photo and computer graphics. The dripping liquid is an interesting detail which also seems to tell a story.
This wasn’t the only strong entry, though — be sure to also check out “Real Peanuts“, “Forgot to Study“, “Firelight Cottage“, and “Kite Parkour” for some other great innovators in t-shirt design.
“Real Peanuts” isn’t really my style at all, but I can appreciate the creativity behind it. I love the vibrant colors and — of course — the painted peanuts themselves. While it’s slightly disheartening to see a pop culture reference take the top prize, the fact that this design executes the reference with such subtle grace makes that easy to overlook.
Buy Them: $18 at Threadless.com
[...] some time ago, Threadless released a design called “Diver No. 12“, which enchanted me with its surrealist style and flawless combination of photography and graphics. It ended up [...]