Threadless’s choices for prints and reprints have been impressing me thoroughly for the past few weeks. Check it out:
This tee is actually from the week before, but I’d hate myself for not giving it at least a bit of blog time. “Arcade Expressionism” is perhaps one of the most unique video game reference (Mario, no less) designs I’ve seen in a long, long time. It’s almost pathetically easy at this point to create a parody based on the Mario games’ iconic imagery, so I was quite surprised when I found myself doing a double-take at this tee by Brock Davis. Brock takes the classic arcade level Mario first starred in, and transforms it into an expressionist painting. It’s nothing but a series of colored brush strokes, but still immediately recognizable as one of the most famous images in gaming. Totally, undeniably awesome.
“Calm Shot” by Kontrastt is from this week’s new tees, and my personal favorite. Beyond being just a beautiful, dream-like design, this shirt has some meaning. As quoted from the artist’s description:
I wish there were spiritual missiles, invisible ones, which would leave no injuries , no blood and pain.
Which would give the wounded person a marvelous feeling of peace, calm and love.Wouldn’t it be awesome? :]
Indeed, the design exudes a feeling of tranquility, thanks to the cool colors and the presence of what I assume to be doves in the tank’s “missile”. It only helps that the simulated process print on this shirt looks fantastic.
I was ridiculously excited to find that “Icarus” — a personal favorite — by Joe Carr — also a personal favorite — was reprinted this week! This design is one of the best examples of oversized printing and creative placement you can find on Threadless, or any shirt site for that matter. The detail in the shattering wing is just astounding. On a side note, it appears that Threadless opted to reprint on a silver-colored tee, as opposed to the light cream/tan color in the photo above. It looks a little strange next to the bright gold sun, but it thankfully it doesn’t detract from the awesomeness of Joe’s work.
Buy Them: $18-20 at Threadless.com
