Threadless Muppet T-Shirt Design Challenge

[frogboy4]

This truly looks amazing Jamie!
I can't wait to pick up my copy. Congratulations!
I'm glad they decided not to snub your hard work.

Do you get the same prizes as the other guy? or just some of what he was given?

Thanks! I'm very excited too. I get the cash and the Threadless gift certificate, but my shirt isn't part of the package deal with the poster and the CD. It would have been great to gain that exposure, but most people just get the $10 mp3 versions of things alone anyway these days so that's not a big deal. The CD cover, that they first unveiled 2 weeks after my entry, looks similar to my design so I understand wanting to go a different way for this particular promotion. That package is mostly for completists and such fans would probably know about additional shirts and pick them up too.

The other difference is the Disney prizes. The first selected contestant received the Green Album CD , the Jim Shore statues, a framed and signed Muppet version of the shirt and a signed Muppet photo. I don't know what the replacement package will be. It is rather gluttonous and should have been distributed among the runners-up. If I had won all of this, the plan was to give some of the statues away to fans in a creative way. Now it's unlikely those are included with this "2nd selection" deal. I don't know what I'll be getting so It probably won't be all of this.

I'm a freelance artist having a very challenging year and even though I love the Muppets, much of me entered for the cash prize. That's what made this perfect for my skills and knowledge. I knew my chances were pretty good upon picking up my sketchbook, so I worked around the clock over 6 days and put in at least 30 hours into the design. In essence I treated this contest as artwork on spec. I didn't expect the long-standing popularity of the design throughout the contest. That was incredible and humbling. I knew what my inner fanatic felt was missing by way of Muppet products - illustration of the Muppets looking like the iconic puppets rather than stylized cartoons or parodies. The original plan was to have the characters fill the entire shirt, but I needed to reel it in and put it in a template. Kermit framed them all in kind of a group photo theme of friendship beneath the anarchy.​

Wow, that was a longer answer than anticipated. Ultimately this ended up just like a Muppet movie. Opportunity knocks and then is thwarted until the last minute when supportive friends and colleges make the impossible happen. The only thing that would make this better and even more Muppety is if they included everyone else they could too just like in "The Muppets Take Manhattan". Their announcement of potential multiple winners indicates a great chance of that happening.

 

[outerelf]

I'm a freelance artist having a very challenging year and even though I love the Muppets, much of me entered for the cash prize. That's what made this perfect for my skills and knowledge. I knew my chances were pretty good upon picking up my sketchbook, so I worked around the clock over 6 days and put in at least 30 hours into the design. In essence I treated this contest as artwork on spec. I didn't expect the long-standing popularity of the design throughout the contest. That was incredible and humbling. I know what my inner fanatic felt was missing by way of Muppet products - illustration of the Muppets looking like the iconic puppets rather than stylized cartoons or parodies. The original plan was to have the characters fill the entire shirt, but I needed to reel it in and put it in a template. Kermit framed them all in kind of a group photo theme of friendship beneath the anarchy.

I think this is in the spirit of what Henson would've liked; for it to be treated as Serious Business, but for you to also have fun with it.

Wow, that was a longer answer than anticipated. Ultimately this ended up just like a Muppet movie. Opportunity knocks and then is thwarted until the last minute when supportive friends and colleges make the impossible happen. The only thing that would make this better and even more Muppety is if they included everyone else they could too just like in "The Muppets Take Manhattan". Their announcement of potential multiple winners indicates a great chance of that happening.

I'm glad that we managed to be supportive enough. And I think there may be more winners- come on, a company pass up on dragging money out from more fans? No way that's gonna happen!

 

[beaker]

On a purely biased level, my top 5 picks would have been the balloon faces one, Jamies Symbiosis shirt, the lew zealand shirt, muppaphone shirt, and then purely because all the hipsters who worship threadless would go gaga for it: the jim henson beard/kermit collar one. And, a part of me really dug the Henson doodle design even though people may be confused that that's not actually an authentic JH doodle.

At the end of the day, Im just happy threadless had this contest and that non corporate made Muppet shirts will be out there. I've been wearing various Muppet and Fraggle Rock shirts to shows, clubs and midnight film festivals and people are always coming up to me and stating their love of the Muppets. Disney and sadly, JHC 1991-2004 really dropped the ball for the most part and underestimated the public's love of these guys.

Im sick of Shrek, Im "meh" on Pooh(despite previously having been a big Pooh fan), Im burned out on Pixar characters, not into Disney princess characters...Muppets are probably the only troupe of characters in commercial land that I can still be excited about.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

If anybody wants the winning shirt like I do, it's for sale on Threadless now.
http://www.threadless.com/product/3034/Together_Again/tab,girls/style,shirt

 

[jacobsnchz]

If anybody wants the winning shirt like I do, it's for sale on Threadless now.
http://www.threadless.com/product/3034/Together_Again/tab,girls/style,shirt

I might get it, but I want the Mosaic shirt more... I may just buy both, though... lol. As long as they are printed and arrive in time for the film so I can wear it to one of those should-be-up-and-coming midnight premieres!

 

[frogboy4]

10-12 weeks is the manufacturing estimate I was given, but they usually come sooner. I hope they make a few more shirts too! I'll totally get the balloon shirt if they make that one too!

 

[frogboy4]

Since this is a thread about Muppety shirts and this artist helped promote my design on his facebook page, I'll do the same for him here. This is a shirt I just bought. He's one of my favorite artists who's worked for Disney and Nick. His Puffer shirt just went on sale today. Any beautifully and delightfully odd misfit can understand the subject matter in his artwork. I love this shirt. I'm passing on purchasing the Threadless selection this week to get this. Check it out!!​

 

[dwmckim]

This thread pretty much took off during the time my attention's been divided away from the forum - but i of course did keep up with the contest and the entries via the Usual Suspect sites...and here's my brief recap after reading through the thread...

there were SO many entries i would want on shirts and hopefully now there's some really cool shirts out there we will be able to officially (or by other means) be able to get!! Lots of talent and cool ideas out there! I also hope this opens the door to some Muppet artists to have Disney take note of their work and scoop them up in some way or another instead of having to get caught up in the game of "not accepting unsolicited work/how does one GET noticed and solicited" cycle.

The running and administration of the contest was quite a hot mess, wasn't it? I'm glad Threadless seems to be looking at getting several wonderful options out officially to the public besides the official winner...

...about which - i'm not saying i wouldn't have bought that shirt if i saw it in a store under the usual circumstance of "well, there aren't always a lot of Muppet shirts out there and this is available and kind of okay so i'll pick it up" but if i was in a place that had a HUGE selection of Muppet shirts (like all the various contest entries) to choose from, that one wouldn't have even been on my radar amidst so much other awesomeness.

I SO want a Mosaic shirt and that was one of my top picks all along but i will admit as much as i love it and would want to wear it, i also dread thinking of what would ultimately happen after a certain number of washings. This would be the kind of shirt you buy at least two of - one to wear and one to preserve.

Since the contest was announced, it immediately reminded me of an idea i had late last year covered in this thread...

http://muppetcentral.com/forum/thre...identifying-ourselves-as-muppet-freaks.46652/

I was seriously toying with the idea of revising that thread post into a Muppet Mindset article just before the contest came out and then when it did, i figured i'd better wait since there was a good chance that just the kind of shirt i was thinking of would come out of said contest and it would probably be best to wait til after the contest was over so i could include not just the shirt (or pick among several) but also include all the info on obtaining one...would want to be sure we all could realistically get the shirt on our bodies in time!!

But yeah - i definately think seeing almost ANY of the contest entries on someone in a movie theatre would DEFINATELY ring a Big Ben-ish bell and signal "yes, you're one of us!" I REALLY would want to wear Muppet Mosaic to the local opening...but if for some reason i couldn't get one in time, there's lots of other wonderful alternatives i'd be happy to sport as well!

Finally i really have to express my admiration to all the people who entered (or tried to and faced some kind of external obsticle!) I've always admired and envied the ability to take a visual idea in one's head and translate it to a physical image - drawing and the like has never been among my scant talents (even making my handwriting remotely legible is a challenge enough for me!) Of course even if i did have any such ability, i proably still would have faced a technical barrier so again, my major admiration goes out to literally hundreds of people who did something really wonderful here. (Too bad there aren't similar contests or opportunities for say, singers whose voices have been destroyed by bronchitis or people who write rambling essays about Muppets that are too lengthy and heady for mass consumption, but i digress...)

To quote a title from a favorite song, this contest has produced "1000 Beautiful Things".

(By the by, what do i need to press or click to rate that Official Exclusive Poster a "1"? For using ugly poser photos we're all tired of in a quick hack rendering?)

 

[jacobsnchz]

Threadless needs to choose their words better because now, it says "Featuring the Threadless Chosen Design"... :-P

 

[j3h]

Yes, Threadless chose that design. Not "voters choice".