orabbit wrote:I try to avoid pop culture in general when designing, but it's tough as an artist. There's such a thing as "too original". People don't vote for style or content that's too far outside the established comfort zone. Look at someone like cherylfrancis who turns out amazing art and gets very few votes.
I apologize if I've offended the theme purists with my lowbrow pandering. I don't want to get a reputation. I don't mean that sarcastically. I used to be a theme purist until I saw winning shirts tangentially related to the theme win week after week. It's frustrating to have had a few designs fog, and not be able to reproduce that success. So I'm in a "spaghetti" phase. Throw it at the wall and see what sticks.
/whiny tirade
"Spaghetti phase" hehe I like it
Yah, I don't mean to be a purist either, I've noticed the exact same thing you're saying. It's something that Adder would always harp about (though I think he was rather extreme about it), but the truth is that pop culture gets votes. It's "popular culture," it's everwhere, it's wearable and instantly understood by a large population... but when you're trying to be original and yet at the same time get votes so your shirt prints, how do you balance the two? Pop gets you votes, original gets you, well who knows. I completely hear ya.
That's actually one of the reasons I'm in favor of the new voting experiment Woot is doing, where only the first place is chosen by number of votes, and the other two are by guest judge and woot judge. I hope it works well! Unfortunately I missed the last few derbies so I don't know what the consensus on it has been
