As is mandated by the Official Handbook of the International Union of Bloggers, I’m here on this eve of the new year to share with you my top ten t-shirt selections of 2007. Joe and John have both already shared their lists with you, and while some of my selections overlap with theirs, I am surprised to find how differently all our lists turned out. This just goes to show how many great tees came out this year, and how difficult it was for each of us to whittle the enormous number of incredible releases down to a scant ten.
Anyway, here are the goods:
10. Tokyo Wolfing Project from Tokyo Art Beat
The list you’re currently looking at is the result of me paring down a much, much larger list of tees. I put this design on that original list fully expecting it to get whittled away sooner or later. But with each round of cuts, I realized more and more how much I really like this shirt. As I mentioned
back in August, this shirt comes in two color-ways—but I prefer the white-on-blue version, as it does justice to the wistful elegance of the design.
9. Castle from Panic
I considered several video game-related tees for the list, but for the interest of variety, I decided to include only one. This Katamari Damacy-inspired shirt made the cut for its standout gold-foil print and haunting beauty.
8. Balloon from Timber!
I recently wrote about this t-shirt, which features a delightful blend of lumberjacking, ballooning, and the surreal.
7. The Overlook at Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Here’s another design that I kinda glossed over for whatever reason when we first blogged about it. But I took another look and realized that the amazing vanishing point that’s smack-dab in the center of this shirt is too damn striking for me to pass up. The reference to
The Shining is an incidental bonus.
6. Roboto Mori by Joe Infurnari from Bountee
After compiling this list, I took a look at John’s top ten and was impressed at how many of his picks I had seriously considered for my own. Interestingly enough, however,
Roboto Mori is the only shirt that ended up on both our lists; I guess it just goes to show how awesome this design really is. You can read more about my thoughts on this shirt
here.
5. Caliph from Beautiful/Decay
Beautiful/Decay had a ton of impressive releases this year, but this one stands out as my favorite. I’m not exactly sure why—for some reason, I just find the abstract imagery here incredibly arresting. This still floors me every time I see it.
4. Cowboy from Heavy Rotation
I’ve enjoyed so many of Heavy Rotation’s releases this year that it was a real challenge figuring out which one I like the best. But this design won me over with its cool and mysterious look. And let’s be honest—it’s awfully hard to go wrong with
robot cowboys.
3. Battles from Enclothe
While Joe and John both seem to favor
Abe from Enclothe, I’ve personally gotta go with this epic clash of titans. Don’t get me wrong—zombie hunter Abe Lincoln is genius. It’s just that of all of Enclothe’s tees, this is my absolute favorite. And considering that I think that Enclothe has one of the strongest line-ups of t-shirts anywhere on the internet, that’s saying something.
2. Parallel Universe from Imaginary Foundation
Ridiculous oversized prints with trippy messages and vivid colors? It’s all in a day’s work at Imaginary Foundation. Although it’s probably not for everyone, I simply can’t get enough of the giant hand.
1. Robots Attack! at Design By Hümans
Although Joe’s list and mine don’t have much else in common, we both agreed that Design By Hüman’s kickoff offering kicks butt. This selection probably isn’t too much of a surprise for those of you who read my
in-depth review of this shirt back in September. But it’s also appropriate that something from Design By Hümans made it onto this list, since they’ve been shooting off a non-stop barrage of incredible tees ever since setting up shop this year.
Also, you might have noticed that four of my top ten pics happened to involve robots of some kind; even though I tried for variety, I guess some personal preferences are impossible to avoid. In the unlikely circumstance that you plan on making a shirt next year and are specifically aiming to please me, it might be a safe bet for you to include a robot on there somewhere.
Well, that’s all for 2007! Hope you enjoyed the year as much as I did. And on behalf of all of us at Fantastic Bonanza, have a terrific new year!
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The theme here seems to be robots and trees…sounds about right =P
Happy New year guys! too bad minimalism has passed you by
It’s alright to have a robot infatuation. At SoS, we’re just coming to terms with our monster obsession as well.
Great to see all three of your lists. Interesting that, as Sjors seems to point out, many of the designs use as much of the canvas available as possible.
Sorry, one more comment. Don’t you find “The Overlook” to be a little too phallic?
Hahaha, I must say, that never occurred to me. Needless to say, I’ll never be able to look at that design the same way again.
The guy in the Shining shirt looks like John.
nice shirts, i’m from southamerica, i’m starting to make some of my own shirts now in days. if u can hit me back at my e-mail, i’m gino by the way. ok . hope to hear from ya.