Teefury

I was super pumped about what a badass the character Katniss is while reading the Hunger Games, and when something pumps me up, I tend to bastardize it with an illustration.


I was about 90% done with the second book when I started designing it, and I had to ask my son (who had already read them all) if the design made any sense.  He was like, “Well, there’s no sports teams, and they’re pretty frugal, so I don’t think they’d be wasting resources making t-shirts…but yeah, I guess it makes sense.” So, he green-lighted the project…thanks buddy!


Where are you from?

I am from Pleasant Hill California in the San Francisco Bay Area.  It’s a pretty awesome place to live.

I was designing skateboard graphics, and apparel for a bunch of companies, but my real start in t-shirt design came when Jimiyo emailed me asking if Teefury could print my Admiral Ackbar “Trap” design which I had made for practice to see if I could re-create Shephard Fairey’s “Hope” style. I had never intended it to be a shirt, and I had no idea it would be popular.  After ‘Trap’ blew up, I was left thinking, ‘Well, that was the easiest money I have ever made in my life! ‘, and I figured I’d found my true calling.  Since then I’ve had quite a few shirts printed, but nothing that matched the success of “Trap”.

Jimi Benedict.

My art is so hit and miss (in terms of $$) that I might be the worst person to give advice.  However, for me, thinking in terms of money making is a bad way to go about creating art.  I simply make things I want to see.  If I have an idea that makes me stand up, and head to the drawing table, or computer, then I know it’s an idea I have to see through.  The rest of the world may hate it, but once it’s dug-in in my mind, I have to get it on paper, or cotton, or canvas, etc.  If it sells, that’s just gravy.

I’d like to be an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.  I just can’t figure out where to send my résumé.

I love dystopian novels.  Anything with a messed up future always draws me in, and Panem is obviously pretty messed up.  

My true favorite thing about The Hunger Games is that this is the first book(s) suggested to me by my son.  He’s 12, and a voracious reader.  He’s told me that books are good before, but this is the first one where he said, “Dad, you have to read this.”  I figured it would be a children’s book, but was very pleasantly surprised…and a little freaked out that he was reading such heavy stuff.

As sappy as it might sound, my ideal house is any house wherever my family is.  Although, if it had a giant room that was wall-to-wall bed, and maybe a trampoline room, and probably some indoor waterslides, a couple statues here and there to make it classy, around the clock masseuses, chefs, wait staff, housekeeping, and a monkey butler (with a regular butler to clean up after him)…wait, is my family still there?  I think I may have lost sight of my earlier sentiment.

In order to better answer this, I’m going to broaden the scope from ‘monkeys’ to ‘primates’. (I’m also going to pretend humans aren’t primates).

So, I think it depends on the weight class. If it’s a little poop thrower vs. a housecat, I think it could go either way.  If however we’re talking about the heavy-weight division with Gorilla Vs. Lion, I’d have to say lion.  They’re both strong, but a gorilla is 9-10 times stronger than a man, while a lion is 12-13 times stronger than a man. So, the strength is an issue for the gorilla, not to mention the razor sharp claws, and teeth.

All that being said, I think the bottom line in all weight classes is that cats are predatory meat-eaters design to kill, and primates are pretty chill, and prefer salads for the most part.

I’m pretty sure I just figured out why my kids stopped asking me ‘who would win’ questions.

Cartoons.  If I were a child today, with all the channels devoted to cartoons 24 hours a day, I would fight tooth and nail to avoid doing anything that wasn’t sitting in front of the TV with my Frankenberry cereal.

When I was a kid (70’s) I had that small window on Saturday mornings where the cartoons were awesome.  Super Friends, anything Hannah Barbera, The Sid and Marty Croft shows…it was all brilliant, but you had to make the most of it, because around 10, or 11 a.m. the news and other crappy grown-up shows started coming on.  Sundays were lame, and if you happened to wake up early on a weekday, and tried to sneak in some TV before school, it was always educational, and that was only cool when Morgan Freeman or Spiderman was on The Electric Company.

Hulu, Netflix (even though their rate hike is completely lame, and I’m moving to Streaming Only very shortly), teemagnet, Teefury, I also like to use stumbleupon late at night when clicking “stumble” is about as much energy as I can put into my own entertainment.  

Any shout outs?

Mi familia y amigos, Teefury, and everybody who has ever purchased anything I’ve designed, or even thought about it.