Interview with Amy of Ming Tees

Amy is a great lady I met very early on in this crazy biz of tee designing. She has always been very supportive and outspoken. I find when I'm having a mental block that I can go check out her designs and find inspiration.

What inspired you to start designing tee shirts?
Well, i couldn't afford the shirts and clothing i loved by DaNang, Great China Wall, Lucky Brand, Johnny Was, and others. So i figured it couldn't hurt to try to design my own.


How long have you been in the industry?
Probably around 2 years.


What advice would you give someine just starting out?
To learn from my own continual mistakes? Well, don't spend too much money to start off, especially on things like advertising. Take the time to figure out a a good coherent them for your collection, and work on getting a collection together of at least 12 good designs or so. Then do some research into the POD printing companies, look at design requirements and printing, product assortment, interface, and marketplace. And figure out which one is the best fit with your type of designs, market, and interface. Then take the time to get a good website together, you NEED a good website of your own. The for marketing use the free stuff until you start making a good bit of money. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Stumble upon and other social networks,t shirt sites and blogs, and the marketplaces of the POD that you use.


What style has worked best for you as a designer?
Well, i have a few websites but all are some sort of Asian theme and based on the art and art history of the Asian countries. Ming Tees is based on Chinese and Japanese art and design, but is a tough one to market. I have also a Buddhist themed site as well as a yoga site based on Indian art and design. These have more coherent markets and get searched a lot more.


Where do you see your company in 5 years?
I don't know! All i know is that in 5 years i want to be painting. Whether t shirts have anything to do with that i don't know yet. I still want to have the time to deal with my photography too. But in the not too distant future i do want to more to more specialty products - embroidery, fabric design, silk screen, stuff like that.



What is your favorite design?
Of my own? Well, i actually prefer the more elaborate types, but the people who comment and vote with their wallets prefer the simpler ones. Images and links below. That bamboo design is probably my simplest, and it sells probably 4 times more at RedBubble than my next best selling design.


Who has been your biggest influence in your designs?
Art and art history, definitely. And flowers, I'm a botanical photographer, andi do too many flower designs.

I absolutely love Asian style designs and art. Amy nails that style like no other can. I am also proud to call her a great friend.

What is your favorite design by another artist?
I can't even pick one, way too many.


3 of my best designs.
Bamboo Kamon
Friends of Winter Kimono Shirt
Auspicious Chinese 5 Bats and Peaches

Interview with Tommy of Nekkid Tees

Tommy influenced me more than he knows, when I was first starting out. Nekkid Tees was what I imagined Tat2 T's could be. Thank you Tommy.

What inspired you to start designing tee shirts?
I had created a logo for an opensouce project called joomfish which is part of the Joomla! opensource project. They needed the new logo to meet the standards of Spreadshirt so that it could be printed on t-shirts.


After a bit of research I liked the idea of creating my own shirts and decided this could be a way to help work off some of my wifes medical bills we inquired when 2 automobiles ran a traffic light (that was red), 1 T-boned her and the other hit her head on. Needless to say we needed more money after 2 surgeries and 2 and a half years physical therapy. So selling t-shirts sounded like a good idea.


How long have you been in the industry?
3 years this June 09 and counting.


What advice would you give someine just starting out?
Don't think you're going to make it big over night, I'm still trying myself. Have good ideas and execute them well. Don't be afraid to be different.




What style has worked best for you as a designer?
Text tees are my favorite. They are simple but can say so much. It's great to have someone read your shirt in public and start laughing. Sometimes you just can't get that with a graphical tee.


Where do you see your company in 5 years?
Still trying to make it. It's a long road when you do everything out of pocket and by yourself, but I hope to grow year by year until I can dedicate 100% of my time to NekkidTees.com. It also helps
to have a good company like Spreadshirt.com behind you.






What is your favorite design?
CALM DOWN
TAKE A DEEP BREATH
& HOLD IT FOR ABOUT 20 MINUTES



Who has been your biggest influence in your designs?
Friends and fans for the most parts or just random daily happenings that I think are worthy of a shirt. :)


What is your favorite design by another artist?
Anything by Jeremy Kalgreen from Amorphia.com


3 of my best designs

An interview with David Cree, the president of soge shirts and Tim Fox the Ceo of Soge shirts

I first met Tim on T-shirt magazine and we hit it off straight away. I think everyone here will love their offbeat humor.

What inspired you to start designing tee shirts?
Dave: Seeing too many sports fans with not enough beer and too much paint and skin.

Tim:The creativity that both Dave and I have had to come out and it ended up on t-shirts. Plus we wanted to bring some originality to the table and do designs that no one had done before.

How long have you been in the industry?
Dave:25 plus years. We started with crayons and our parents best clothing.

Tim: Soge shirts started though in late 2007. We had a meeting at a park where I crashed Dave's family reunion and we decided that t-shirts were going to be the basis of our business.

What advice would you give someone just starting out?
Dave: Do as much research as possible, to find out what and how you want to run your business. Make your company a part of you, and a representation of the value you bring.

Tim: Also remember to think about your customer and target market for every facet of the t-shirt business. If you think like a customer you might get more sales.

What style has worked best for you as a designer?
Dave: The fun styles, wacky designs, and cool jokes, or puns. But we Love graphic tees, with sweet designs on them, and something written on the inside that you don't find out until 19 months down the road, when you finally wash it.

Where do you see your company in 5 years?
Dave: Answering more surveys, that we found in our spam folder. We get a lot of emails, so hard to sort through them all.

Tim: In five years we'd like to see people on the streets wearing our t-shirts wherever we go. Getting into major retail stores wouldn't suck either unless the economy gets worse in which case the stores would shut down.

What is your favorite design?
Dave: it's all fun and games till someone loses an eye. Probably because it's took so much from me to draw it. I had a little ring, that gave me inspiration, and it was hard to see.

Tim: My favorite is caution white boy dancing being an uncoordinated white guy and the kids meal t-shirt. The artwork Dave did on kids meal was incredible.

Who has been your biggest influence in your designs?
Dave: My biggest influence would be my childhood. We all had something wrong with our childhoods, and i decided to never stop growing and learning. (i also learned how to sneak out at night when i was 2 years old) I grab influence from everywhere i have been and everywhere i want to go. Family, friends, and random strangers. I've heard some funny, and wild stuff while standing on the street waiting to cross. The designs come by day dreaming about the idea, and then visualizing the worst way to draw it. (usually stick figures.) and the concepts just come. When i don't think too hard about a design, but start somewhere.. it just builds. I'll take 3-4 re-designs sometimes to get it how it should be.. and not always how i want it. They take on a life of their own sometimes.

What is your favorite design by another artist?
Dave: it's done by many companies, and because i have about 3 shirts with different designs.
"without me it's just aweso "

links to our three favorite t-shirts
Kids meal

It's all fun and games

Caution