[Solmu]

I don't agree with what you say on the Threadless designers. They are 'limited in their capabilities' because Threadless has some strict rules about the designs that they accept. For example you can not use more than 4 unique colors in your design and for some of us that's hard to accept.

The point is that the truly great designers of this world, the names who will be remembered decades from now, can work within that to create something brilliant. Give them a design brief, and they'll give you brilliance. The four colour limit is hard to work with, but on the other hand you don't actually need anything more.

 

[Solmu]

Seems like the surf brands lead the way and the traditional fashion brands are losing the T-shirt wars!

Yeah, right. While the surf brands pump out the same old crap they've been doing since the seventies, I'm seeing much more interesting things coming from fashion designers who more traditionally wouldn't have touched things like t-shirts. The fact is it's extremely subjective... not just a little bit subjective

 

[Solmu]

Hi Lewis,
If you had unlimited funds to go out and buy a Graphic T-Shirt now what would you buy? Or if you had unlimited funds and could hire any graphic designer who would it be?

They're good questions, but very hard to answer.

It would depend on what I was trying to do.

If I wanted a full colour image that would make a lot of money I'd go with someone like Mark Ryden. His stuff isn't inherently suited to t-shirts, I just know it would make a boatload of cash

Shag would be good for the same kind of reason, although his stuff would suit a certain kind of t-shirt well.

They're both artists with an established fan base though, and there's no reason the general public would find that appealing (some people would think Shag's stuff is dated and boring for example, and I couldn't blame them for that).

Meh. That's a crappy answer, sorry. Like I said, good question but hard to answer. If I come up with something better later I'll post it

 

[Solmu]

In my opinion art has no limitations, only the one people or rules impose.

Sometimes limitations can challenge and inspire an artist to do things they didn't realise they were capable of. But yes, a limitation where an artist doesn't want one imposing on what they're trying to achieve is not going to help.

I often impose limitations and rules on myself because I like to work in a framework. That's certainly not going to work for everyone though, which is fair enough.