Shirt.Woot

Wow, so last week was really disappointing. I saw no reason that jasneko shouldn't have printed. One of the three should have made sure it happened and they all dropped the ball. I'm ever more depressed because I think if I see one more "Keep calm...stupid catch phrase" shirt I might murder the next person I see in it.

Anyway this week, I'm not making the choice I probably would have otherwise. There are basically three choices for me. There's the shirt that I like the best, the shirt I think has the best design, and the shirt that best represents propaganda for science. As someone who is getting close to a doctorate in science, I feel I must choose the latter and this one pretty much nailed it:

Become a scientist by wirdou


Everything on the poster is true pretty much, and I think it was about the only one that actually had anything to say about real science and not science fiction memes or just general nerdery. That's why it won for me. I'm a little sad that genes aren't included in the things you can name because you get to do that too, but it's a minor omission.

As for the design I think it uses the shirt very well and the colors are good. I'm not sure I'm bothered by the text being on the notes and the shirt like some others mentioned, but overall I think it looks very wearable. I'm sure there's a typography snob out there who hates everything about it, but I thought it looks good there too. Like I said I don't think it's the best design, but it is the best shirt in the derby.

mrwednesday wrote:the shirt that best represents propaganda for science. As someone who is getting close to a doctorate in science, I feel I must choose the latter and this one pretty much nailed it

I cannot disagree more.
As an ex scientist(ish) this design represents propaganda AGAINST science. Propaganda posters were designed to sway for a cause via enticements or against it via scare tactics. This shirt does the opposite.

My pick pending.

mrwednesday wrote:I'm ever more depressed because I think if I see one more "Keep calm...stupid catch phrase" shirt I might murder the next person I see in it.

Honestly, I was hoping that those designs would get rejected based on the "no pop culture riffs" rule. I'm so tired of that phrase/poster being recycled.

There were a lot of designs that I liked in this derby for a variety of reasons. Science has never been my forte (I was the kid who failed with a tutor), but it was interesting to see the mash up of science and history. The smart folks in lab coats can do some pretty amazing and creepy things, so it works well with the tone that propaganda posters had.

Of the designs I voted for (and there were a few this time), the one that really is standing out at this moment is paxdomino's Obey Gravity.



BUT IT'S JUST ANOTHER CUTE DESIGN WITH PENGUINS! some may say. However, I think the design goes way beyond that. First off, paxdomino really nailed the propaganda style, particularly the coloring and the incorporation of the text into the graphic. A lot of propaganda posters played with text format - size, color, capitalization - and this really captured that element, particularly highlighting the three key words (obey, gravity, law).

The design of the central graphic really impressed me too. The searchlight draws your attention in, pointing to the penguins and the first half of the message. I also liked how the purple hue on the main cop penguin matched part of "gravity," further connecting the pieces. And, as I said in the entry's thread, the other cop penguin on the left, shaking his little flipper fist at the flying penguins was an amusing side detail.

j5 wrote:I cannot disagree more.
As an ex scientist(ish) this design represents propaganda AGAINST science. Propaganda posters were designed to sway for a cause via enticements or against it via scare tactics. This shirt does the opposite.

My pick pending.

I suppose if you narrowly define propaganda as only telling lies (and I don't). It is most certainly swaying for the cause, it is simply presenting many of the unfortunate facts but in an EXTREME way so as to make them seem like positives. You can argue whether ironic propaganda is relevant (I see no reason why it should not be), but you'll be hard pressed to find much traditional propaganda that actually focuses on science rather than fiction.

I don't normally participate in these, because as someone with a dog in the fight, I feel biased. But this week I have a clear favorite:



Maybe I got stuck on the idea that it should be vintage propaganda, but none of them capture that feel for me quite as well as this one. A big problem for me is that quite often, amazing artists are ham-handed with type. Either it's cheesy fake cyrillic, or some modern font like Impact. This one isn't perfect, but it's not egregious. Also, it's original, and not a spoof of a well known poster, although I'm probably in the minority of voters in counting that as a pro.

But that deco style shading and optimistic utopian pose are what really sell it for me. And I'm a sucker for orange and blue. The only drawback is it would look better as a poster than a t-shirt, but I'd still wear it.

orabbit wrote:I don't normally participate in these, because as someone with a dog in the fight, I feel biased. But this week I have a clear favorite:



Maybe I got stuck on the idea that it should be vintage propaganda, but none of them capture that feel for me quite as well as this one. A big problem for me is that quite often, amazing artists are ham-handed with type. Either it's cheesy fake cyrillic, or some modern font like Impact. This one isn't perfect, but it's not egregious. Also, it's original, and not a spoof of a well known poster, although I'm probably in the minority of voters in counting that as a pro.

But that deco style shading and optimistic utopian pose are what really sell it for me. And I'm a sucker for orange and blue. The only drawback is it would look better as a poster than a t-shirt, but I'd still wear it.

Oh goody, now I get to think of another choice.. ;)

My choice this week is
For the simple fact that I would always welcome any opportunity to print a Kasey Fleming design, but also because it fits the theme perfectly and is so well executed. My one critique is that is is a bit large on the shirt, but Woot would probably scale it down anyway....hopefully.

I do love me some art-Deco however, so that other one is close.

orabbit wrote:Maybe I got stuck on the idea that it should be vintage propaganda, but none of them capture that feel for me quite as well as this one. A big problem for me is that quite often, amazing artists are ham-handed with type. Either it's cheesy fake cyrillic, or some modern font like Impact. This one isn't perfect, but it's not egregious. Also, it's original, and not a spoof of a well known poster, although I'm probably in the minority of voters in counting that as a pro.

But that deco style shading and optimistic utopian pose are what really sell it for me. And I'm a sucker for orange and blue. The only drawback is it would look better as a poster than a t-shirt, but I'd still wear it.

Wow, I totally missed this one. I had to look through a few times just to find it. The thumbnail shows basically the whole design but doesn't really do it justice at all. I think this is about the only box design I think is done well. It looks really nice on the shirt and the colors are awesome. I'd be more than happy to see this one print.

I generally like to pick one from further down in the field, and there were a few down there that I liked alot (Kharmazero is often a bit abstract for my taste, but I really liked the characters he came up with this week) but I think this I'll have to go with

Radscoolian's Tesla



Humans often look wonky on a tee shirt, but I love the style of this. I love Tesla's dramatic propaganda pose and the font and slogan remind me of old horror movie poster too.

There were people that complained that this was a Twilight reference, but I don't see it that way. Team *something* existed before Twilight and will exist after that fad has played out.

I think this has a good shot to print, either from winning the vote or from Woot picking it since it's in the fog already and is a solid nerd reference that will probably make them decent money.

Lets see, pixel's makes me laugh but I don't think it is wearable. One of the newer artists (I'd post name but closed the tab) has the design I like best, but seems off theme.

Of the two on theme that I like, I'm going with the simpler looking one.


Edit- the tesla designs annoy me because they are perpetuating the fallacy in the debate - one or the other, but you can't appreciate both! Oh no.

For fogged entries there are several that I like, but bigblued's appeals to me on several levels. Yes it's a box, but it's clean, simple, and propaganda-y enough that I still think it's wearable.




For non-fogged entries, I have to go with j5's vote. That shirt is awesome, and I was sad to see it drop out of the fog.

Since wirdou's and Kasey Fleming's shirts have already been mentioned, my pick list has been narrowed a bit. I don't like to echo, so I decided to go with:

Save the Human Race, Progress Into Space by kurokami



The design uses its colors effectively to convey a gloomy situation, yet imploring the science of space travel/exploration. However, I'm not sure if shirt woot has the text color available. The artist has a 2nd version using red text, but I prefer the details in this one.

Also, this pick makes me recall The Twilight Zone episode, "To Serve Man": The Kanamits would have loved to use this design!