This was for a challenge to design a tee shirt which glowed in the dark. My idea came from The Day of the Dead. I wanted to turn it on it’s head and call it night of the dead. In daylight there’s a butterfly on a lightbulb, in the dark there’s a silhouette of a moth and the sugar skull design is revealed.
I’ve not posted anything since mid-june. I’m not sure if I have regular visitors or not, but sorry if you’ve been expecting anything new. There’s been plenty of ups and downs in the past few months. I’m about to embark on a massive update session. Hopefully I can get my shit together and update this place more than I do. Cheers for now, John.
I’ve been a huge fan of Roy Lichtenstein since I went to see an exhibition in 1993 when I was teenager. Twenty years later there’s a new retrospective show that I will be making a rare trip down south to see. Nothing too interesting to say here, obvious similarities with the words Lichtenstein and Frankenstein! Just taken the classic image and given it a pop art twist.
For sale at Society 6 here.
The brief for this job was
There’s more to music than toe tappin’ and head boppin’. Music exercises young creative minds in ways that sports and other academics cannot. Studying music can improve kids’ cognitive skills, build their confidence, and help them learn that being an artsy misfit is actually pretty cool (we would know)!
For all these reasons, we are joining forces with Able Made® to amp up music in America’s public schools and support the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. The foundation works with administrators to restore music education programs and provide students with their very own instruments. Your challenge is to design a bold, bright t-shirt that sings or shouts. Amp up your design to the max, because 25% of net proceeds from the sale of the winning design will go to the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. As always, your submission should not contain any logos.
Help us spread the music love far and wide. In the name of more flute lessons, tambourine circles, and saxophone solos for all, get to tootin’ your horn and submit your idea now!
This is my design,
The origins of music often speak of rhythms and sounds that our ancestors heard in nature. So I had the idea of the tree being a music instrument, the blossom being musical notes. Music education is important, I like the idea that a tee design could help place a guitar in the hands of the next Jimi Hendrix, a drum kit in front of the next Keith Moon or a sax in the mouth of the next Kenny G 🙂
Once in a while Threadless have challenges which really inspire me, and the current “Select” challenge is one of those. Threadless have a premium range called Select, and as well as tee shirts, they have polo shirts (I was lucky enough to win the challenge), sweaters, sweatshirts and all sorts of fancy ladies wear.
The designs tend to be more understated than the regular Threadless shirts, but still have the same sense of fun. The theme this time around is a loose one, college days. So it could be a preppy shirt, or a tie for a debating class… you get the idea. Amongst the clothing available to designers are shirts, leggings, neck ties. All sorts of fun stuff that designers might not have the opportunity to try had it not been for threadless.
So this is a shirt I designed. I actually took the inspiration from an old colour theory book and that was the starting point. I was pretty pleased with this, so hope it does well. 
A series I’m creating in a style inspired by dot to dot puzzles. I loved them as a kid and I always used to like squinting my eyes and guessing what the puzzle was before joining the dots. So that’s what I’m doing with some of my musical heroes.
See my Society6 page for more.
I visited Bali whilst visiting a friend in Singapore. It was a profound trip and I’m still in awe of the place, so mysterious and beautiful. I originally did this when I came back as a tee shirt design, and whilst I liked it, I wanted it to feel warmer and more handmade, so this is my retake on it.
I was creating a logo for a decorating company and this is one of the sketches I came up with. A bit too subtle for a logo, but it got a really positive reaction in my print shop. I’d love to be able to make a real screen print of this someday.
A simple abstract of a mirrorball made from tiny circles.
What do you get if you cross an angry gorilla with an italian plumber? Super Angry Plumber Man of course! Inspired by knock off merchandise like Kalvin Clien, Hugo Bors and Tammy Hilfinger, this is a role reversal as the tiny baby monkey is tries to escape the angry plumber.
Another experiment I did by starting work on a black canvas and used a little 3D lighting.
I was pretty chuffed how this came out in the end.
Once a year there is a community challenge on Threadless where we can pick a design, get consent from the original artist and remake it. Here are three which I did.
Classical Hero by Michele Ficeli, Owl Master by Terry Fan and Space Kitty by James Murphy.