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

submitted my designs the other day. Good luck to everyone!

I had nothing in this case, though I can't wait to see what some of you guys came up with.

Already set aside 50 clams to buy some shirts.

Love the Polo idea. Sick of seeing little men on horses and lizards over my tit. Stan belongs there.

Hobbes2099 wrote:

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.

Is this what you were looking for Hobbes?

IMAGE(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/LupusUmbrus/gwjlegendarythread.jpg)

EDIT: I don't suppose there's any chance of getting a silk screened t-shirt, with the pillow of heterosexuality pic on it?

VicD714 wrote:

I don't suppose there's any chance of getting a silk screened t-shirt, with the pillow of heterosexuality pic on it?

The what of what?! Share this picture, please!

Amoebic wrote:
VicD714 wrote:

I don't suppose there's any chance of getting a silk screened t-shirt, with the pillow of heterosexuality pic on it?

The what of what?! Share this picture, please!

Can't find the original, but I'm sure it's floating around somewhere. All I can find at the moment is my goofy 'shopped version:
IMAGE(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/LupusUmbrus/ely_hitit_1.jpg)
Someone will have to jog my memory of which convention this was from/during.

Edit: Ah, more searching reveals it was during E3.

Personally, I like your version is better than the original, Lupus.

LupusUmbrus wrote:

AWESOME PICTURE

This just made my day. Thank you!

I would like to request a pillowcase with the newly designed GWJ logo on it with PILLOW OF HETEROSEXUALITY stamped across it. I will put it on the pillow we designate for lumbar support during heterosexual coupling activities for maximum literalosity.

{homophobic slur}.

Rezzy wrote:

Also, please please pick a vendor that carries XLT shirts? Please?

Pretty please, with a cherry on top!

Make that three people who need a XLT or a long but thin xxl.

Maybe Elysium's thought bubble should read "I wanna friend you up!" "I'd hit it" is sort of my bag, isn't it?

Rat Boy wrote:

Maybe Elysium's thought bubble should read "I wanna friend you up!" "I'd hit it" is sort of my bag, isn't it?

I'll have to update it at some point. "I wanna friend you up" or "Blight on the industry" would probably fit much better, although in my defense that image predates those taglines by a couple years I think.

Edit - Betterfied?
IMAGE(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/LupusUmbrus/pillow_of_heterosaxuality.jpg)

Much better.

*Ducks to avoid banstick*

My first t-shirt attempt. I haven't submitted it yet because I'd like to get some feedback. Maybe too generic? Thoughts?

IMAGE(http://webdevel.chakracentral.com/jchow/GWJ_shirt_sm.jpg)

hard1victory wrote:

My first t-shirt attempt. I haven't submitted it yet because I'd like to get some feedback. Maybe too generic? Thoughts?

I think the front works well, but the back is too crowded. It also focuses on the podcast aspect of the community, so maybe something more general would work better.

PandaEskimo wrote:
hard1victory wrote:

My first t-shirt attempt. I haven't submitted it yet because I'd like to get some feedback. Maybe too generic? Thoughts?

I think the front works well, but the back is too crowded. It also focuses on the podcast aspect of the community, so maybe something more general would work better.

Seconded! I don't want to look like a gangsta heading down to the mall food court. I do very much like the lettering on the front, and some elements on the back design are cool too... just a bit much.

Also, the GWJ podcast is called the Conference Call. Seems out of place to have just a generic "podcast" written across the back.

hard1victory wrote:

My first t-shirt attempt. I haven't submitted it yet because I'd like to get some feedback. Maybe too generic? Thoughts?

The lowercase 'g' on the front registers as a '9' to me. A capital G might avoid any potential confusion.

Ok, thanks for the feedback. I guess I'm on the wrong track with this. I read the "house" comment and thought I'd work in something "designy." I'll see if I can come up with something a bit more conservative.

hard1victory wrote:

Ok, thanks for the feedback. I guess I'm on the wrong track with this. I read the "house" comment and thought I'd work in something "designy." I'll see if I can come up with something a bit more conservative.

I don't think any of us were suggested that you should start again. We all really like the lettering on the front and the back is good but it has a few too many elements.

This is probably one of the reasons why they wanted us to just email them. Posting work to the public is basically an invitation to an unbridled, honest critique : )

I'm open to the critique. I didn't mean for my last comment to come off defensively. I know I could have just submitted, but as a designer I find it helpful to get a sense of what the audience is looking for (in this case members of the community). I'm kicking around some ideas, so hopefully I'll get some time to put something else together.

**Edit** Server error double post

Here's an update on the old design (can't sleep). Still working on the new ideas.

IMAGE(http://webdevel.chakracentral.com/jchow/GWJ_shirt3_sm.jpg)

hard1victory wrote:

Here's an update on the old design (can't sleep). Still working on the new ideas

Better, but I'd compress the image so it isn't the full back. (The GWJ logo is in the tramp stamp region :)) Maybe cut the space invaders to half their height (take the top half of them) and move everything else up a bit.

It's also a bit weird that he is so in love with the back of the NES controller.

PandaEskimo wrote:

It's also a bit weird that he is so in love with the back of the NES controller. ;)

finger --> memory slot

Rumble Pak, baby!

Based on PandaEskimo's suggestion I have tightened the composition a bit. I'm not sure what to do if anything about the back of the controller issue. I'm also debating if I should do the controller in a line art style like the characters or leave it as more modeled. Any thoughts?

IMAGE(http://webdevel.chakracentral.com/jchow/GWJ_shirt3b_back_sm.jpg)

hard1victory wrote:

Based on PandaEskimo's suggestion I have tightened the composition a bit. I'm not sure what to do if anything about the back of the controller issue. I'm also debating if I should do the controller in a line art style like the characters or leave it as more modeled. Any thoughts?

If it is going to be printed in solid colors (as is seems from the rules), then you wont be able to use all the shading that is in your image. You already have red, white, gray, black (shirt color) which comes to 3 colors (the limit). If you remove all the shading and make it a line drawing, that would work. You'd also have to make sure that all the grays are the same tone.

I can't find any reference to using percentages vs solids. Can you point me to this?