Threadless Muppet T-Shirt Design Challenge

[frogboy4]

That's amazing! All my 1's came within the last few days of the contest. I was at a 4.0 the Wednesday afternoon that the scores vanished from sight. Second place was the pretty Banjo Kermit one at 3.6. We both had about 1100 total votes at that time. This seems to have been the turning point.

It appears that one particular contestant somehow inspired a whole bunch of relentless "1" votes for all the competition and 5's for himself. How these were inspired is anyone's guess. I won't speculate, but it is a little fishy! <----new smiley addition by yours truly. It's possible that he campaigned on facebook like i did, but I campaigned for myself. I didn't inspire others to sink the competition.

I'm so glad to have never stopped promoting my design! I was hard-core after that Wednesday and especially once that stripey design somehow rose to the top. Facebook friends invited Facebook friends who invited Facebook friends to vote for my design. I probably wouldn't have bothered if the Mosaic hadn't maintained a strong lead for the first 20 or so days it was up. I never expected that.

The votes don't really mean anything I guess. And I pulled out all the stops in my promotion. There are others who probably didn't do that so maybe it's best that these are actually picked by a panel rather than the popular vote. That way we'll get a real assessment of what's the most marketable design instead of who knows the most people. There's actually one one design that I think they'll pick. I'm not going to say which one, but it isn't mine. I still have hope.

Nonetheless, if I were on the panel, the Lew design would have been first place!!

 

[redBoobergurl]

Jamie the new smilies are awesome!!! Fishy!

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

It looks like Disney spilled the beans on the winner. Sorry, James, you didn't win unless this is just a template, you can see it here.
http://www.muppetsmusic.com/

 

[TheMonsterAteMe]

Sorry. This is bull crap. Why even vote if they choose the winner? That design DID NOT deserve to win over Jamies. That's crap. Screw threadless.

 

[rowlfy662]

oh thats not fair threadless must be doing evil laughs and very true the winner should be the won placed first on the site after the voting was over shame on threadless

 

[frogboy4]

Congrats to the winner. I admit to feeling kind of strange about this.

On one hand, the Green Album cover designer had a very similar idea to mine and somehow this was closely linked to the tee-shirt contest. It could be pure coincidence and I can understand why they wouldn't want competing visuals for their package deal. It's a compliment that the official album cover designer and I have the same thoughts on composition so I'll take that.

On the other hand, I completely expected the *blue balloon* design to be the selected winner over mine. It's fun, beautifully drawn and is printed on a base-color. It's truly the most marketable of the final contestants. I've sold shirts in shops before and white ones are a tougher sell. That one would have moved a lot of units.

The fact that the stripes holds the highest number of total votes on the Threadless site makes it appear that either the contestant or the site padded the votes. That's 2049 total for him that came all at once, 1722 for mine that was up for a week longer and 1028 for the third place design. Someone really wanted that Benetton Muppet stripes design to win, but the votes didn't matter anyway. I'm disappointed to have lost, but I'm a little offended to have lost to that particular design for both aesthetic grounds and its swift last-minute rise to the top. I'd feel better having been edged-out by any of the other top contestants. Ultimately Threadless and Disney pick the winner and that's the way they decided to go with it so I concede to their wishes.

I've always maintained the Lew Zeland was my favorite over all of them! Thanks everybody for the support. Once Threadless makes the announcement on their site I will figure out the best method to distribute my design if you guys want it.

 

[Slackbot]

Boo on it not winning. I won't speculate on contest politics; I'll just say that the one that won isn't the one I'd most like to buy. Ah well.

I definitely want this design, James. If not on a T-shirt, on a poster for my wall. In fact, I'd love a version I could color in. Hint hint!

 

[Sgt Floyd]

While I do congratulate the person who won, I really do not like that design and would never buy it. It feels too much like a background made in 10 minutes to be used on a low budget fan site.

I wonder, given the simplicity of the design, it was chosen due to it being cheaper to produce? I would assume that the shirts are going to be screen printed. The molds for even small basic designs can run thousands of dollars. I'm not sure if complexity of the image is taken into account when pricing for the molds, but if it does, I can see why this particular design won.

 

[Kermieuk]

Real disappointment James. Your design was great. Is great. I will not be buying this tee. I would love high res images of your design. I love the black and White version also. Really sorry for you not winning. You must be gutted.

Chris

 

[TimmyMonsterIL]

James you were robbed! This is a bad decision for Threadless. Having been a long time shopper of Threadless, both online and their stores in Chicago, I doubt it will sell and highly doubt it will get a reprint...

I'm a Muppet fan since infancy, and I don't plan on getting it...

My 2 favorite designs were yours James, and the blue ballon shirt. Both of which I would love to purchase, own, and wear often. I would probably buy 2, just in case I wore the first one out!

There are plenty of options for you to get this design out to your fans James, I look forward to seeing what you decide!!!