Japanese apparel company Beams T wants to make art more accessible. Since original art is way too expensive for the average Joe, the company focuses instead on printing art on the wearable blank canvas: T-shirts!
Every year since its launch in 2001, Beams T has invited hundreds of international designers, artists, musicians, and pop culture icons to add their own T-shirts designs and promote the "art on T-shirt" movement.
The culmination of that collaboration is featured in the book T-Shirt Factory, where Beams T showcased 300 of the hottest art and designs to ever graced its shirts. Included are designs by artists like Kevin Lyons, Ryan McGinnes, Unnon, Yoko Ono, The Wonderful! Design Works, Tsuyoshi Kusano, and more.
With a company motto of "Art for Everyday," it's fitting that Beams T included a CD-ROM with 10 original T-shirt designs that you can print (onto transfer paper) and iron on a T-shirt. You'll get designs by Palm Graphics, Tomoki Kurokawa, Hiroki Tsukuda, Adapter, UJT, Tsuyoshi Hirooka, Tsuyoshi Kusano, Hi-Dutch, The Wonderful! Design Works, and Kiyoshi Kuroda.
To launch the book, HarperCollins has been kind enough to sponsor a book givewaway (more on that below) in addition to creating a nifty video showcasing samples of the book's artwork:
Okay - T-Shirt Factory is an art book afterall, so let's take a look at some of the cool T-shirt designs:
Designs by Hiroshi Iguchi (The Album) (L) and Enlightenment (R)
Design by UNNON
Design by Ryan McGinnis
Designs by tw2ntyf4urse7en (L) and sunjoong (R)
Design by Geoff McFetridge
Now, onto the free T-Shirt Factory book giveaway, courtesy of HarperCollins. Go to Beams T's website and tell me your favorite shirt design or artist and why in the comment section. Please, one comment per person, best 15 will get a Free T-Shirt Factory book (Note: I can only ship to US addresses, though).
And please, check the book out: T-Shirt Factory, a must-have for T-shirt junkies and art lovers alike.
The review above as well as the giveaway are sponsored by HarperCollins.
http://www.beamst.com/cgi/item_detail.php3?qId=75-04-1987-423&qLang=en#
A lot of designers these days are jumping back to the eighties with simple geometric patterns and design, as well as kitschy, cartoony illustration. This shirt takes both qualities, and adding an occultish, esoteric veneer makes the shirt absolutely awesome.
Not only a great shirt for its hip uniqueness, but its definitely one people might stop and ask you about.