My first t-shirt design
I am about to submit a t-shirt design into a contest to have it printed (and win cool prizes!). I didn’t want to blatantly rip off Affliction’s style, but rather create my own that was influenced by Affliction’s oversized hand drawn prints. The result is a style I like to call “dark whimsical”. Want to see the full t-shirt design? Click the link below.
My t-shirt design is a unique blend of my own hand drawn art mixed with a modern “vector design” style. I wanted my design to be rough and dark, yet not completely grim like Affliction’s skulls and death images. I’m very happy with the results, and I’m very much hoping to win the contest so I can wear my new design. If I don’t win, I will still consider printing it myself, but I will need to line up some advance sales first (the screen printer requires a minimum order of 50 shirts).
So what do you think? All comments and suggestions are welcome! I’m also very curious to hear what you might think would be a good title for the t-shirt. I’ve temporarily named it “The Yummy Tree” but I need something better. Post a comment and let me know! If I use your title, I’ll give you a limited edition version of this very t-shirt.
A7
EDIT: I have finished the final design of this shirt, and I can’t decide which color to choose. I can only choose one color for the submission. Below are my three color choices… place your votes! What do you like best? (I have a preference for one of them, but I want to hear what others think first)
Tags: a7, affliction, art, clothing, design, fashion, style, t-shirt
May 6th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Bloomin’ Hotcakes! Bloomin’ Hotcakes!!!! I love the tree concept! If you get these printed on a black tee, count me in Andy! I’ll put in an order! But to make it more personal for my limited edition T-shirt (’cause I am so sure that I am going to win… hehe heh…), you would have to put a heart on the tree that says Alfredo plus Tina on it… How about that? ;P
Tina
May 7th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Ya know what? The little girl on the T-shirt kind of makes me want to say…”Holly wants her Hotcake….”
Tina
May 7th, 2009 at 7:42 am
I know, I know…..
“Grab life by the Hotcake and Eat it!” Or “Grab Life by the Hotcake and Bite into it!” :p
I knew a good night’s sleep would help me come up with more….
Tina
May 7th, 2009 at 10:23 am
The tee is pure awesomeness…and I’m not being sarcastic either
Here’s what I came up with for titles:
- Temptation Tree
- Sweet Temptation
Like you Tina, I had a few other suggestions that included Hotcakes in the title, but an inside source tells me HE does not want any Hotcakes references on the t-shirt. Guess it’s back to the drawing board for you, my friend
Bloomin’ Hotcakes was a great idea, btw 
MC
May 7th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Hey Tina. Thanks for all the suggestions.
As MC said… I’m trying to stay away from the word “Hotcakes”, because even though it does feature the Hotcakes logo, it’s not affiliated with Hotcakes New Media in any way. It is going to be promoted under the line ” A7 is : “.
I wouldn’t be able to print this design on black either, because it has to be a water-based ink, and the colors wouldn’t show on black. It has to be on a lighter shirt.
So far “Temptation Tree” is very high up on the list. It’s the one to beat. It sounds cool, and it also captures the modern day “Adam & Eve” temptation theme I was going for.
Anyone care to de-throne MC?
A7
May 7th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Ahhhhh….okay….that clears it up for me. It’s good to know….I do like the “Temptation Tree”….good one MC…
What about a teaser phrase to create buzz….like these ones….
“It all starts with a taste….”
“Get ready for your first taste…”
“It all starts with one bite….”
“Want to try? Take your first bite….”
And then you could add The Temptation Tree….or something….
How’s that MC?
You see, that way, we can both win and get our limited edition T-shirts!
Tina
May 7th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I actually had no idea you were going for a modern ‘Adam and Eve’ theme…I must have tapped into your intuition, babe
Temptation Tree was the first thing that popped into my head when I first saw your design, funny eh?
Tina: I’m always up for a friendly challenge!!
To elaborate on your idea, ‘A bite of temptation’ has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?… For the record, I do want both of us to get our limited edition A7 is t-shirt 
MC
May 7th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Sigh… Fine. Free Limited Edition t-shirts for the first 5 people who participate, winning or not!
A7
May 7th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Oh, Oh, ME!! I’ve got one…or two
To go along witht the Adam and Eve concept of Forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, I was thinking of “(The) Forbidden Treat(s)”- T-shirts. (from the Hotcakes Tree of Knowledge (Ha!)
unfortunately the shorter version “Forbidden” is already a tshirt name from LA.
Or
TTT shirts or Triple T shirts (Taunting Tree T-shirt(s)) as the tree appears to be teasing the poor little girl. She clearly is not tall enough to get that nice tasty hotcake…what a tease
But I have to say that MC’s use of Temptation is really good especially on its own, such as with Affliction.
Temptation T-shirts, now thats got a ring to it.
very cool design and I’ve got dibs on one, or two, or three……:-)
Good Luck
D
May 7th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Hey Dave. Thanks for the good suggestions. Just to clarify… I am not looking for a “brand name”, like Affliction (though I do like the brand name Temptation, as you suggested). I am looking for the product name within my “A7 is : ” brand.
Example:
Affliction has a t-shirt called “Reaper”.
Affliction = A7 is :
Reaper = the name I want help with for this shirt design only
Hope that clears things up.
A7
P.S. Speaking of Affliction… The original creator of Affliction recently launched a clothing line with a new partner. The new line is styled in a similar way, but full of color and bright designs to combat the grim look of the Affliction line. The new brand is called “Remetee”. Get it? You have an Affliction, they have the Remedy (Remetee). Pretty clever, huh?
May 7th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Also note: The reason for the “A7 is : ” brand name is that the product name should ideally follow the brand like a sentence. Such as “A7 is : The Tempation Tree”.
And yes, http://www.a7is.com is registered and the site is in progress.
A7
May 7th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Well aren’t you full of surprises
… Never a dull moment in A7MC land 
May 7th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
ok, no problem
A7is : The Forbidden Treat(s)
pretty cool how quickly I cam up with that, eh
May 7th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Okay, Okay…some great ideas flowing here…..it helps generate even more ideas…..
How about naming your T-Shirt “T.R.E.E.” – Temptation Really Excites Everyone…..or something like that….
Oh the pressure!!!
Tina
May 7th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
It’s amazing how a little contest can inspire so many comments. This is the most comments this blog has seen in months.
All very good suggestions so far. There’s still room for 2 more commenters to join the fun. Don’t be shy!
A7
May 8th, 2009 at 2:50 am
UPDATE: Final design is complete! This post has been edited. Please vote on your favorite color.
A7
May 8th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Silver
May 8th, 2009 at 10:05 am
I’m TORN LOL. I think the colors pop more on the cool blue, but the light yellow also looks really good and I would ‘buy’ the silver too. So…they all look good dammit
MC
May 8th, 2009 at 11:17 am
BTW Andy, who are your models?
how much they getting paid for this?
May 8th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
The t-shirt site provides images of models wearing every shirt color they offer. Looks so real with my design on it, doesn’t it?
So… so far, people like silver, yellow, and blue. Great. Thanks.
May 8th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
HAHA, you’re welcome
Out of curiosity, what color do you like best?
May 8th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Silver! Silver!!! But it was hard to pick just one. I do like all of them…
Tina
May 8th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I’ve actually made the final submission design with the three shirts. I couldn’t decide on the color either, so I’ll let them decide.
Silver was my top pick because it looks nice and is probably the most neutral (i.e. popular) color. I’ve made that one more prominent on my design. I think the blue looks nicest though (it creates a nice contrast with the brown and pink), and yellow is really cool too (there aren’t enough yellow shirts out there).
Want to see the final design I’m submitting, and see who won the naming contest? Just visit my new visual art site: http://www.a7is.com . Add it to your bookmarks! I’m looking into a way to merge the two sites (iMakeArt and A7is) in some way (i.e. when I post on A7is, it also posts the same content here) but until then, you’ll have to visit that site directly. The new site is going to be less wordy than this blog, and focus strictly on visual images of my work.
A7
May 9th, 2009 at 1:36 am
VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! GO VOTE NOW!
Visit my new site at http://www.a7is.com for all the details.
GO NOW!
A7
May 9th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Awesome! Man..I just got to see them now…have been teaching full days and travelling this week…I don’t know if its too late but I vote silver and the name: Persuaded with Temptation by A7…does that work..??.perhaps tooo long?….
Good luck Andy!
Anne
May 10th, 2009 at 9:05 am
mabye it should just be called persuasion by a7
what do you think?
May 10th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Hey Anne,
I think you were on the right track with the first one. Persuaded By Temptation would have been pretty cool. But I already submitted it to the contest. Please visit the site (Design By Humans) and vote for the design, or visit my new website (A7 is : Art) for more details.
Thanks!
A7
May 11th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I got my vote in as MC DaBunny
May 11th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Hey guys!
Cool we`ll vote! Good luck! Great work!
May 11th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Thanks Anne! I appreciate it. Spread the word and let others know as well.
A7
May 12th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Hey Andy,
I voted on the weekend, but I could not find my profile on the site after I voted. I did create an account for myself on the site. I did notice that at the time of my vote, you had 13 votes and there were only about 5 profiles that showed up under your design .Any ideas why?
Tina
May 12th, 2009 at 11:03 am
When you signed up, if you put in your proper email address, you should have received a confirmation email. If you didn’t, perhaps the signup didn’t work.
The “profiles” under my design are just comments. If you didn’t comment, it won’t show up there. I have no way of know who votes, so I can’t tell you if it worked or not.
A7
May 12th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Hmm, come to think of it, I never received a confirmation email when I signed-up. Your count of votes went up immediately after I voted, so I’m pretty sure my vote was registered! I did add you as one of my favorite humans too
May 12th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Hmmm… maybe it only sends you a confirmation if you sign up as an artist. That must be it. So don’t worry if you didn’t get a confirmation email.
A7
March 9th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Hi, maybe i’m being a bit off topic here, but I was browsing your site and it looks inviting. I’m making a blog and trying to make it look clean, but everytime I touch it I mess something up. Did you design the blog yourself? Could someone with little experience do it, and add updates without messing it up? Anyways, good information on here, very informative.
March 10th, 2010 at 2:25 am
I did design the blog myself, but I also own a web design company, so take that as you will.
This particular site is a heavily modified WordPress blog, but there are a number of free templates you could use to create your own WordPress blog. It may not be as unique as this one, but it will do the trick, and should be fairly easy to maintain.
Good luck, and thanks for stopping by.
A7