Garrett Shirts

Had a date day in Chapel Hill/Carrboro yesterday with Brandy and we stopped in at Wootini. There I met Mike and we talked about interactive shirt ideas after I pitched him on the Super Berry Bun Buns (I think he dug them).

Wootini website
Wootini MySpace

He has a past in miniatures/toys that you can play games with. I really want to bring shirts in this direction. Somehow (haven’t gotten this part down yet). Like some kind of wearable "paper rock scissors" game where you’re wearing adorable robotic bunny warriors. And there are random numbers printed in your armpits and if your pit scores are higher then you beat the contenders? Yeesh - the mechanics are a damn mess, but I can’t shake the concept.

Anyways, Mike suggested 2 awesome ideas for interactive shirts…
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So while I was working with Neal Hutcheson recently on our how-to video project I thought of doing animation on a tshirt… the idea’s been knocking around for a couple weeks now and it won’t go away. That’s usually a good sign. So I was telling my buddy Eric Savage about the concept and he quickly found me 2 videos of tshirt animation. DOH! Half the reason I was excited was because I thought no one had done it yet. Oh well, I will have to do it better.

Here they are, for my future reference:
First and most important is the making of video…

Oh yeah, and here’s their final product:

For me it doesn’t work. I mean, why tshirts? What do shirts have to do with sandwiches? Did they do shirts just because it hasn’t been done before? That’s not a good enough reason!! (jk - I’m just jealous. but shirts don’t actually make sense)

update: according to the originators, Colle + McAvoy, they were targeting college kids. That’s why the tshirts. Plus they wanted it to spread on YouTube so it had to be a fresh, sparkly concept.

And here’s a video that I played over and over because it’s so catchy:

For the live tshirt printing at DesignBox I had to research a new method for printing… I didn’t want to use a screen because they clog quickly and have to be cleaned soon after you’re finished. Not great for one offs. I chose to use stencils, spray mount and these little roller brushes used for trim painting in houses.

While printing that night I thought of flipping the stencil and using 2 different colors. Every time you flip the stencil you’ll get the ink pressed on from the side you just printed. Make sense? So here’s an inky bear (my newest little critter) printed using this method:

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I’m subscribed to the Threadless newsletter - there’s always a design or two in there that really blow me away. This time I got hit by a tidal wave of awesome in the shape of Ghost Patrol. So first here’s their shirt:

Biro Battles and Bat Beasts:

What I love about it is the strange otherworldliness. Um, I mean it’s suggestive of a wider, broader and completely populated world. It’s something I aimed for with the Eliza and Bankman design, though without the sort of sketchy realism next to the sketchy fabulous.

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