Teefury

Now here's a Q&A conducted by you ... that's right: you, the shirt-lovin' crowd out there (Qs collected via facebook)

Tell us about this design. (Michelle, TF staff)

The Bluth Co. Seal of Approval will only be awarded for rock-solid achievements (or for a rock-solid bribe). This shirt is also a reminder of that fateful day when the Bluth family suddenly found themselves one hand short of a complete Buster due to a seal that had the „lust for mammal blood“  … something revealed to be Gob's fault, and to involve a seal deal, a magic show, a yellow bow-tie and cat in the wrong place at the wrong time (hence the cat skull in the design).

How did you get into this kind of art? (Rosh Shem Williams)

Back in the days when LOST was still on (and a good show) I came across a great shirt with Des, Faraday and a DeLorean on it. When I finally found where it was sold (here, on TeeFury), the sale had been over for days … first I was like WTF? WHY?! But then I thought „I can do this!“ and began submitting to TeeFury. Not much later they printed my first design. And here we are ...

What was your first Teefury purchase? (Crystal Bam Fontan)

That was Dead Control Collector by Blair Sayer aka. Mr. Rocks. I wear it quite often.

What are the requirements for something (TV show, movies, etc) to be made a design based out of? (Noel Penn)

I have to be an actual fan of it. I really have to love it to bits, otherwise I couldn't put the amount of work & detail in it I like to see on good pop-culture tees. I just don't care for the generic „look, I love that show“ shirt. I want people who love the show to go „Ah, I see … that's clever … and funny … and about my favourite show! DO WANT!“.

Do you work only as an artist or do you have other forms of generating income that doesn't have to do with art? (Bruno Conti)

In fact I do have a more secure (yet much more boring) source of income. I work part-time at a publisher's office, as a clerk I guess. But I hope to break away from that soon to live of my art without having to go back into advertising (which is what I studied right after school). In between my cubicle job and t-shirts I also try to finish a graphic novel I already wrote & sketched, but days are only 86.400 seconds long … which can be not enough sometimes.

So how often do you work on your designs? (Richard Jarrett)

I'd love to say „every free minute of my life“ but that would be a blatant lie. I do have a social life, and then there's my not-so-social life of reading, music, TV-shows and occasional gaming. I mostly work late evening / night shifts on my drawings & designs. Whenever something's in the making, I will spend 4-5 hrs a night for about a week on it depending on how much detail or reworking it needs. I am kinda slow, but that's mainly because whenever I hit a brick-wall, design-wise, I'll just lean back and do something else instead of trying to force it. It works … but it takes some time. But I'm about to change that.

Why is it so important that you rule the world, and how are your shirt designs involved? (Stephen Yeager)

You probably can't rule the world with tees … but you can make it a better, a funnier, maybe even more aware place. Show the world what's really going on … but leave them with a smile in the end. Then again I'm working on a mind-controlling print that makes everyone who sees the shirt follow my every word (it's still WIP though).

If you could see one of your shirts being worn by any fictional character, who would you like to see? (William Chapman)

As much as I don't care for this chap … I gotta say Doctor Who. And why? Because you won't find a better, more peer-group targeted advertising space for this kind of merch anywhere (there's me, back in advertisement agency mode *sigh*).

If you were a tree what kind of tree would you be and why? (Daniel Albert)

The larch because … the larch ...

Any shout outs? (Michelle, TF staff)

Yes. First I'd like to thank whichever deity brought back Arrested Development back from the dead. THANK YOU SO MUCH, really!

Second: Thanks, Steven Gelenter aka. CoDdesigns. He gave me some vectors from his own collection from which I could create a brush for the rope around the life-belt. Such a nice guy.

Third: thanks to TeeFury for printing another one of my designs and thanks to everyone who sent in questions for this interview. You're great. And thanks whoever read this far. You're also pretty great!