We Blog Indie T-Shirts
Sub Urban Riot, an indie t-shirt label, have uploaded a handful of interesting movies to their site, including Living Book:
While most directly an advertisement for Sub Urban Riot, Living Book is nevertheless my favorite of the bunch.
Link: [movies at Sub Urban Riot]
When t-shirts reference recent films, it seems that the movies in question are overwhelmingly frat pack flicks or Judd Apatow comedies. Which is okay, I suppose… but how many McLovin shirts does the world really need?
That’s why this glorious t-shirt from 24/7 Magnum’s Etsy store is oh-so-refreshing:
And hey, here’s a design from 24/7 Magnum that’s based on yet another critical darling from last year! Clearly this t-shirt vendor has good taste in films.
But why-oh-why must the prints be heat transfers?! Alas and alack! I understand that heat transfers are a ton easier for small shops—still, I hope for the day that these designs get proper screen-printings.
Link: [I Drink Your Milkshake from 24/7 Magnum]
Expensiveness: $18.99
What’s the only thing better than watching The Road Warrior?
Wearing The Road Warrior.
Now that dream can come true, thanks to the artistic talents of Ryan Berkley, because the above t-shirt is part of Monsieur T.’s brand new Fall/Winter 2007 line (the second part of which will be released shortly)! The dramatic shadows work perfectly to evoke the kill-or-be-killed ethic of a world gone mad for oil.
If the original Mad Max is more your style, this t-shirt by Matthew Fleming is available at Kindred.
You might remember me writing about a few upcoming sci-fi movie-inspired t-shirts from Kindred (1, 2). Well, the time has come: they will be releasing new movie-themed shirts every week until they run out of things to release, starting… NOW! It’s worth checking them out a) just to see if you know the movies that Todd’s designs refer to and b) because they look really cool. Here’s the schedule (with pictures that you can click on to be taken to the appropriate page on the Kindred website!):
That’s all for now! There are some t-shirts that you can see on the Kindred site that aren’t a part of this list; as soon as I find out their planned release dates, I’ll update it!
Link: [Kindred]
Expensiveness: $24.95
Kindred are in the habit of releasing strong new t-shirt designs with little or no fanfare. Well, they certainly deserve some!
In their large and growing series of movie tees (which includes the Planet of the Apes t-shirt that I mentioned before) are two new gems: Last One to Sanctuary Is a Sandman! and Time to Make the Donuts.
The former, Last One to Sanctuary Is a Sandman!, you either get or you don’t get; it’s a direct reference to Logan’s Run, the 1976 sci-fi film based loosely on William Nolan’ and George Johnson’s novel of the same name. If you haven’t seen it, you should!
The latter, Time to Make the Donuts, refers more obliquely to a less obscure movie, Soylent Green. Even though this design may not be an obvious reference (although the dump truck full of people and the little green squares should be familiar!), the tagline ought to ring a few bells: ‘This shirt is brought to you by Soylent red and Soylent yellow, high energy vegetable concentrates, and new, delicious, Soylent green.’
NB: Unfortunately, neither of these 70s sci-fi movie tees will be available until the end of June. Fortunately, the end of June is nigh!
Link: [Movie Tees at Kindred]
Expensiveness: $24.95
Seeing as how we’ve recently blogged about some typeface-centric tees, and in fact one of them specifically mentions today’s featured typeface, I figured I’d let you all know about this new documentary I read about in the Tribune this morning. It’s called Helvetica, and it’s a film that talks about design, visual culture, and typography by taking an in-depth look at the history and use of this seemingly unexceptional font.
Yes, it’s a movie about a font. To some of you, that might not sound very exciting. However, I know that all three Bonanziers have at least a passing interest in the subtle art of typography; in general, I think a lot of people are secretly fascinated by the subject. At the very least, you’ve probably spent a few lazy hours perusing some free font site, downloading every third font you see because it looks cool and you might just get to use it on some poster or handout in the not-too-distant future. And who hasn’t spent untold minutes cycling through an endless multitude of fonts in Word or Photoshop, patiently looking for just the right one?
So a movie about a font doesn’t actually seem that crazy at all. If I’m right about people and typography, then the film taps into our secret curiosity about this somewhat mysterious art.
And what does this have to do with t-shirts? Admittedly, not too much. Not directly. But we here at Fantastic Bonanza are concerned with visual culture and graphic design in all its forms, be it web design, typography, or t-shirt design. As evidenced by the shirts I mentioned at the beginning of the post—as well as plenty of others, including Threadless’s entire line of Type Tees—there’s clearly some interest in typeface design amongst the t-shirt crowd.
Helvetica is being shown today in Chicago, but seeing as how I only just heard about it, tickets are sold out and I won’t be able to see it. So if you are interested in seeing the film, you should check to see if it’s coming to your town any time soon in order to avoid being stuck in the same unfortunate situation as myself. Regarding American cities, there will be screenings in San Diego, Cleveland, Seattle, and Washington D.C. in the coming months. If you’re more interested in locations outside the U.S., it looks like the film will be traveling to Thessaloniki, Dublin, Melbourne, Vancouver, Cologne, and no less than three (3) cities in beautiful New Zealand. They also have a big list of other cities that are supposedly “coming soon!” at that site I linked to. Or you could just wait until fall, which is apparently when the DVD is going to be released.
I’ll leave you with a link to some clips from the film on the off-chance that your curiosity has been piqued. Enjoy!
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