T-shirt design contests evaluation method

Design contests in equation

juillet
2009

Comments

What would be the customization without illustrators and graphic designers ?

I am interested in art and graphic arts for a long time … Browsing through the exhibitions with my friends as soon as possible, through my readings and on the web. For magazines, beyond the most famous referees Beaux Arts magazines or Etapes, I expect with great impatience the publication of the Frog publication or « revue livraison » magazine delivery . Pending these appointments I am always looking for catalogs, which offers a graphical overview like Grand Hotel Orbis for « independante » illustrations , from the Pyramid or new proposals around typography and graphic design with fanzines as Ink. Of course such research continues on the web with so manystuff that I will share with you regularly through links which have attracted my attention or completed my Netvibes univers…

Issue
But as scientific background and marketing, despite the sincere interest in the visual attractions, I can not be regarded as an expert or a critic of the profession of graphic design. As design is one of the 4 core essential components of customization, I find myself in a situation where I would like to introduce creative designers able to apply their artistic surplus-value to product lines, without imposing my personal tastes which are not representative of many professional and without legitimacy. So I found a method …

A solution mixing notoriety weighted by quality…
If I look at the model of creative portals exposure, as found for the selection of visuals for the production of t-shirts, posters, and skateboards, they offer a gallery of images uploaded by the designer and submitted to the votes of visitors. UnSigne™ blog does not plan to create this kind of galleries but I like the idea of the popularity that I find « democratic. »

As a first step I will try to model a solution where I will present a site of customization that I like to pull a presentation of the artworks of an illustrator recognized and appreciated by his peers and more. This level of recognition is measured by comparing the profile in a Social Media more widespread among creative portals like : myspace.com, flickr.com and deviantart.com.

The number of friends in a network in my opinion is more significant than merely quantitative but also reflects the dynamism of the designer and his ability to unite a community of « friends » who recognize themself in its proposals with the ability to relay its work in their own sphere. In terms of Branding we would talk about influence on the landscape of graphic art in a period, based on quantitative criteria but certainly strengthening quality (who would like to share its web sphere without loving the quality).

Design challenge

Let’s do this modelling test on the most common custom product, the t-shirt, with one of the creations web site I prefer on the matter: threadless with its challenge of the moment on « the joy text».
At this time of writing the challenge has 16 participants including 7 which proposes a relay on flickr.com, (the social reference of this site). The number of contacts reflects their social and popular recognition that quantifies as follows:

FlyingMouse is the data output in my new model. So as a first step I will vote for him because I like his proposal, and then present you a selection of his achievements applied to the customization of t-shirt, although many of his other illustrations are just beautiful. Hoping that it will also be selected by the jury of the site and pocket the $ 2,000 price, or have the pleasure to cross one of his t-shirt design on shoulders or illustrations applied to others lines of products.