Be Crazy About…

My last T-Shirt Tuesday provoked the first discussion in my comments section.  Thanks, it was cool!

This week I want to share some interesting shirts that have come out of this year’s monumental election.

"Everyone Poops" from Threadless

The picture above is from a recently reprinted Threadless classic, Everyone Poops. Its reprint is timely, considering the peoples overwhelming distaste of and distrust in the United State’s Federal Government. No one is blameless, per Karl, and he is right that that shirt has a serious point behind a goofy design.

A spoof on Obama's name and done for the St Patrick's Day holiday.

All over the t-shirt world this year can you find politics (not to say politics isn’t anywhere else, haha, if only!). The topics range from pro-unity, to pro-insert-candidate-name, to deeply partisan, to extremely apathetic. As a person who follows politics, I take note of these shirts, and sometimes buy them. I am proud owner of one of the best “know your audience” political shirts of all time, Obama’s “O’Bama” St Patrick’s Day shirt, aimed at the strong Irish population in Ohio and the neighboring states, from back during the primaries in March. I made an impulse buy of a campaign joke shirt too, in the McCain: 1908 shirt from Busted Tees. But for the most part, I have avoided spending too much on election tees, because on November 5th they will go out of style and, at $15 a shirt, just a few weeks of wear is not cost effective.

Obama is extremely popular in the t-shirt world, probably because youth (especially the liberal group of artists and thinkers who make t-shirt designs) primarily identify with Obama as opposed to McCain.  Some really nice pro-Obama shirts have come out this summer and fall.  I have previously mentioned such shirts as the Prez Dispenser, Barackin’ the Free World, and Captain Obama.  Recently, message related shirts like this one has also shown up.

McCain is at a disadvantage in this market because all the artists are making Obama shirts instead.  I haven’t seen many pro-McCain shirts that are also aesthetically unique, but I have seen more than a few McCain jokes.  Sarah Palin has been especially the brunt of the joke shirts, including the V.I.L.F. shirt, Juno spoof of Palin, Palin Hunter, and more.  Don’t miss Busted Tee’s recent politcal releases, including this one pictured below.

Leaning on Busted Tees

The activist shirts are my favorites, because they are actually promoting involvement, despite the frustration.  Get out the vote shirts are everywhere, and some are even crude (”Please F**king Vote”) in getting their point across.  Busted tees suggests that if you don’t want to feel like an asshole, you should vote (check it out).

Tee designers are putting out quite a few shirts that mock the process.  American frustration in the electoral process is apparent.  Not including the “Everyone Poops” shirt, here are some: “Never Underestimated the Power of Stupid People in Large Groups” (iteration 1, 2, & 3), “Good Things About Conservatives/Liberals“, and I’ll Regret our Association When I’m Running for President, the latter an obvious spoof and/or protest of the anything-is-relevant attack-dog politics played by politicians in the US.

And for all those fed up with it all: here are two apathetic election shirts for you: “A New Hope” and “Bigfoot/Nessie 08″.  This year’s election has produced some interesting shirts for sure.

This week I’ll be featuring one of my favorite shirt designs of all time, one I have previously mentioned here, a Threadless classic: Splatter in D Minor.

Splatter in D Minor by Threadless

Threadless is to blame for my becoming a t-shirt addict.  Upon discovering the wonderful, artistic tees being produced by Threadless, I broke the ice and bought my first one almost two years ago.  Then I bought another, and then another, and then I started participating in the threadless community, where the community picks what the company turns into a tee shirt.  During the first time I voted for a slate of designs, I saw a design called “Splatter in D Minor“.  Of all the shirts designs I’ve voted for on Threadless or any other t-shirt design community/competition website like it, I have never since wanted a shirt design to be win–so I could later own it of course–more than I wanted ‘Splatter’.  The community agreed with me, and a few weeks after my vote, my shirt was on its way.  During the recent Threadless $13 sale, I picked up a second, because my first had faded a bit.

Splatter in D Minor by Threadless

When I first saw ‘Splatter‘, my mind went crazy.  It inspired so many thoughts and ideas, both abstract and concrete.  It made me think about the great song writers, and how they refine rough ideas into order… into great music.  It made me think of how Beethoven wrote music after he lost hearing by laying his forehead on the piano and feeling the tones.  I was reminded of the famous Beatles song, “A Day in the Life”, which features and odd orchestral bit that is difficult to describe but on paper would look the splatters on this shirt.  And then it made me think of order in choas, the principle I believe God used when designing the world.  This art also visualizes something like a reverse-entropy, or chaos becoming order, an idea which, without a God, should be impossible.  So, in a way, this shirt also helps me visualize some of the qualities of my faith.  All that, and it looks freaking great.

Clearly, this shirt is my favorite piece in my collection.  Though it has sold out at least once, it is currently still available on threadless, and I highly recommend you pick it up.  This shirt will likely be inducted into the Threadless hall of fame, if and when such a thing is ever established by the company.

Get “Splatter in D Minor” on Threadless

Splatter in D Minor by Threadless