The Great GWJ T-Shirt Design Contest

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It's been a long time since Gamers With Jobs has sold any kind of merchandise. We're under a constant barrage of requests for new mugs and shirts, but we've been hesitant to climb back into bed with yet another abusive merchant partner to bring you the goods. Now that we're significantly bigger than we were back then, it's time to wade in and give everyone a chance to represent. My own Sway Classic shirt is getting ragged too, so this time ... it's personal.

We will be bringing back the classic shirt and mug as part of this new initiative, but we wanted to tap into the creative whirlpool that is the GWJ community and get some hot new designs too. This is your chance to be totally famous, all while signing over complete ownership of your creation to the GWJ Mega-Corp. What fun! Read on for details.

What We're Looking For

- Three colors or less. This keeps the cost-per-shirt down.
- Incorporating Stan is a plus, but not 100% necessary if you have an awesome idea.
- Nothing too in-jokey. Wiener Bomb says hi.
- A design that can easily be put on other stuff like mugs or baby diapers would be excellent.
- Something understated that could be worn at work would be interesting.
- No giant graphics splashed across the whole front of the shirt unless it's something House would wear.

Deadline is September 7th, 2009! Send your submissions to [email protected]. You can also hit us up there if you need some high-res assets of Stan or other artwork we may have laying around. Thanks and good luck!

Wait a Minute, What's In It For Me?

Aside from the undying gratitude of the site staff and community, we'll also give you a bunch of free shirts and stuff with your awesome design on them. You'll also get super powers.

Comments

Stylez wrote:

Well mine pretty much breaks all the rules laid out, but it was in my head and needed to be applied to paper. Lots of memories here... Also going over old threads really slowed me down.

LINK

It's still pretty prelim... Thinking about adding transparencies to the dropshadow and alternating shades of grey for the text. Bet that'd look cool. Anyhow, lemme know what you think!

Don't know how it would look on a T-shirt but awesome none the less.

Lots of requests and ideas floating in! I'm about to enter the mountains, so you may not get high res assets until Monday.

Stylez wrote:

Well mine pretty much breaks all the rules laid out, but it was in my head and needed to be applied to paper. Lots of memories here... Also going over old threads really slowed me down.

LINK

It's still pretty prelim... Thinking about adding transparencies to the dropshadow and alternating shades of grey for the text. Bet that'd look cool. Anyhow, lemme know what you think!

That's a cool idea, but I'd recomment a portrait layout (taller than long), rather than landscape. Works much better for a t-shirt.

IMAGE(http://rps.net/QS/Images/gwjwp.png)

Gaald wrote:
Perhaps Borges is misspelled? Okay, I suck.

Nope dead on. Now that's surprising, no one ever gets that name right.

I dunno why, you share a last name with one of the best writers evar, even if I didn't know that until I saw it in writing just now. Different pronunciation and all that.

Stengah wrote:

Hooked me up with the awesome sauce

I was thinking of putting that on the sleeve. It'd have to say something else though. I'd never dream of wearing a shirt that said sh*t on it. Any ideas?

"I won the Goodjer
T-Shirt Design contest
and all I got was
Super Powers"

It's all done in Vector graphics so I can change layout to please whatever people want.

Zombie Skate: One Fist in the Gold, One Fist on the Floor

I would suggest these resources for those who are going to submit.

IMAGE(http://media.threadless.com//imgs/text/online_resources.gif)

[list][*]Threadless blogs: Tips & Tricks section, Art & Design section The Threadless blogs are a great resource for learning how to design for a t-shirt. Specifically, check out Jellyes' blog: The Complete Guide for Starting Adobe Designing.
[*]Emptees Resources Section The resources section of Emptees is an incredibly helpful catalog of t-shirt design related articles, links and downloads!
[*]COLOURlovers An incredible resource for colors! Adobe has a great resource for color as well called Kuler.
[*]Online Tutorials: There is a ton of great online tutorials out there... Adobe Video Workshop, The Learn List and GoMediaZine to name a few.

Edwin wrote:

"in's and out's"

Am I really going to have to proofread our shirt designs?

Am I going to have to walk up to Threadless this week and slap someone around for that .GIF gaffe?

wordsmythe wrote:
Edwin wrote:

"in's and out's"

Am I really going to have to proofread our shirt designs?

Am I going to have to walk up to Threadless this week and slap someone around for that .GIF gaffe?

My t-shirt design has no text, so that one should be easy.

Minarchist wrote:

That's a cool idea, but I'd recomment a portrait layout (taller than long), rather than landscape. Works much better for a t-shirt.

Definitely portrait, its more slimming on those of us who aren't super svelte.

Also I am all for the polo version for work.

I whipped this up pretty fast so it's a very rough draft. Is this worth pursuing or should I move on to another idea?

IMAGE(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg293/tempestblayze/gameryang-1.jpg)

Working on a new one with Stan in it. I think its much better than the above. It's 5 colors right now so don't hurt me.

TempestBlayze wrote:

I whipped this up pretty fast so it's a very rough draft. Is this worth pursuing or should I move on to another idea?

IMAGE(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg293/tempestblayze/gameryang-1.jpg)

I think the idea is pretty cool. If you want to stick with this one, I'd suggest fixing up the controller layout, perhaps making the one side a white color, and changing the font. You could arc the font around the top or bottom of the image. Perhaps "Gamers with Jobs" on the top and "www.gamerswithjobs.com" on the bottom.

I give up!!! I've looked for about 4 hours and I can't find the stupid "Legendary Thread" image with the Goodjer logo on it.

(It did, on the other hand, give me a chance to go over the commandments and learn about the awesome Roo story. That's one hell of a life-is-greater-than-cheap-chick-flicks-because-this-one-is-actually-true moments we all should have! .. except you know, the heartache of losing your wife, and dogs, etc etc).

My google-fu is laughably weak, can someone help me with that image?

Yeah panda that one is now totally trashed. I am putting the final touches on one that is so much better. Definitely shirt and mug worthy.

Got it down to 4 colors.

This isn't the Great GWJ Wet T-Shirt Contest?

Quintin_Stone wrote:

This isn't the Great GWJ Wet T-Shirt Contest?

It will be. Remember to design your tshirts in white.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

This isn't the Great GWJ Wet T-Shirt Contest?

I feel ashamed that I didn't think to ask this first.

TempestBlayze wrote:

Yeah panda that one is now totally trashed. I am putting the final touches on one that is so much better. Definitely shirt and mug worthy.

Got it down to 4 colors.

Well, here is a version based on yours that I threw together.

IMAGE(http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/1003/gwjshirtyy.gif)
or
IMAGE(http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/2617/gwjshirtyy2.gif)

Alright, one of my favorite T-shirts that I designed in college was for the tradition we had of drinking 40s on the 4th floor of the frat house on Tuesday nights... every Tuesday night. It was called Foth Flo Foties. The T-shirt I helped to design was like nose art on a B-17, a fine young pin-up girl in the mood of the foties. She rode a full foty as it fell onto the enemy below, emblazoned on the back of the shirt. This is my image for the Gears and Beers t-shirt.

Oh, and I think that the site t-shirt thing is a good idea as well. Ceramic mugs all the way.

Edit: When I say designed, I should probably say consulted. I don't "art" so much, but I do observe well.

Can it be hand drawn?

Juve fan wrote:

Can it be hand drawn?

My guess is that the image needs to be solid colors if it's printed and not shades of gray. If you submit the drawing in shades of gray I don't know if it will be accepted, but it will eventually have to be edited. That part is pretty easy using Photoshop unless there needs to be a lot of touch up work. Going over the drawing (or a copy of the drawing) in sharpie or other pen or marker might make it easier.

PandaEskimo wrote:
Juve fan wrote:

Can it be hand drawn?

My guess is that the image needs to be solid colors if it's printed and not shades of gray. If you submit the drawing in shades of gray I don't know if it will be accepted, but it will eventually have to be edited. That part is pretty easy using Photoshop unless there needs to be a lot of touch up work. Going over the drawing (or a copy of the drawing) in sharpie or other pen or marker might make it easier.

i will have it fully colored using high end prisma pencils, I was thinking of a comic style of art.

Juve fan wrote:
PandaEskimo wrote:
Juve fan wrote:

Can it be hand drawn?

My guess is that the image needs to be solid colors if it's printed and not shades of gray. If you submit the drawing in shades of gray I don't know if it will be accepted, but it will eventually have to be edited. That part is pretty easy using Photoshop unless there needs to be a lot of touch up work. Going over the drawing (or a copy of the drawing) in sharpie or other pen or marker might make it easier.

i will have it fully colored using high end prisma pencils, I was thinking of a comic style of art.

If you need it, I'd probably be able to turn your drawing into an illustration in either Photoshop or Illustrator. Let me know if you want me to. Again though, if you submit it with a note about the colors, it will probably be fine.

A bit of a downer.
IMAGE(http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/6656/gwjshirtwo.jpg)

Here is a rough sketch of an idea I had...

Edit: I must learn to read. I'll submit my idea by email

I think I sh*t the bed on this one, I may not be sending my tripe in.