The Unraveling Tee - Rumplo, A Place for T-shirts

Dave Decat's French Thugs

An Interview with Dave Decat

Rumplo Mr. Decat, these T-shirts are amazing -- some of the best we've ever seen. Can you tell us the story behind these illustrations?

Dave Decat First of all thanx for the compliment!!!
The story is simple ... Lionel who's the boss of [SIXPACK] saw the portraits of french thugs I did a year ago on my MySpace page and asked me if I could do some more to print ... He loved the idea of french tattoos, which are very exotic by the way, even for french people. At first I wasn't that interested cauz I always wanted to print shirts on my own, but I checked SIXPACK's site and discovered that they had a lot of cool and well known illustrators and graphists .... so I told myself why not... they have a amazing stock and are very well distributed all over Europe and now a little bit in the states.

Rumplo Where does the man labeled "Child of Misfortune" (or "Enfant du Malheur") come from?

Dave Decat It's a traditional tattoo from the underworld ... mostly all of the tattoos I drew used to exist .. I just invented a few.

Rumplo Quite a few of the illustrations on your MySpace page include shady or criminal looking characters... What in particular interests you about these people?

Dave Decat I love those misfits... the scum of the earth deserves a little homage ... they're just the other side of the mirror, the real victims of society and they look so fucked up!!! That's why I like those dark figures.

Rumplo Do you plan on making more T-shirts? What do you think of the medium?

Dave Decat I already did three others (something different but in the same spirit) for SIXPACK and I'm working right now on three new ones!!! For those I'm totally changing the subject ... more of a freak show stuff I think.

Rumplo Thanks Dave!

Check out Dave's MySpace Page for more of his illustrations and (hopefully) news of his upcoming T-shirts.

→ 0 comments | Posted Aug 5, 2008

Tiny Trends, Part 3

Re-purposed Classic Art

Warhol would have loved it, no doubt, but we'll have to guess at how Escher, Brockmann, and even Lichtenstein would have felt at the sight of these tees. Too bad T-shirts weren't in style back then, 40 years ago, or maybe we would know. Know of some classic art on a T-shirt? Post it to the classic art tag on Rumplo.

The 3D glasses effect

It is a cool effect, and a neat way to add color (blue and red that is) to a tee. Yep, it's the 3D effect.

OMG, HUGE TYPE!

People LOVE big type T-shirts. Check out how many faves these tees get. If there was ever a T-shirt trend this is it, the big mamma of trends.

See an interesting T-shirt trend? let us know.

→ 2 comments | Posted Jul 23, 2008

Tiny Trends, Part 2

Sunglasses

Yes, sunglasses. The things you pay a lot of money for and lose so easily. A graphically interesting solution: Get your glasses printed on your tee instead :D Browse more via the sunglasses tag.

Destructive Neon Animals

Who'd have thought turning these cute little things into laser shooting, spray paint carrying punks would be a trend? Well, it's not a trend with the power of, say, mullets, but we were surprised to see it nonetheless.

Sewing Machines

Ok, three or four shirts don't make a trend, but we liked these tees, just like we like a trend we do see; tees that poke fun at themselves. Browse more Sewing Tees.

More Trends are coming your way soon : D

→ 1 comment | Posted Jul 21, 2008

Tiny Trends, Part 1

Wolves

See more Wolf Tees.

Lightning

See more Lightning Tees.

Chucks

See more Shoe Tees.

More Trends are coming your way soon : D

→ 0 comments | Posted Jul 16, 2008

The Print Liberation Book Giveaway!!!

We spotted Print Liberation early on (about 4AD in Rumplo years) and instantly fell in love with their bold, go gettem' style. We exchanged some internet mail with them and after a while the clever lads and lasses from Philadelphia let us in on plans for their new baby, a beauty of a book, a gem, a real get-your-hands-dirty screen printing primer for the rest of us. We thought if there was ever a book for an aspiring T-shirt artist to put under his or her pillow at night this is surely it. The Print Liberation crew was kind enough to offer a copy to one of you clever guys or gals, so WE'RE GIVING AWAY A COPY, along with a great Print Liberation T-shirt, to one smart Rumplo user (that's you, dear reader).

How to Win this Amazing Book (& T-shirt)
A book winning guide for all ages
Step 1: Find an Amazing T-shirt that isn't already on Rumplo and submit it via the super quick Submission Page.
Step 2: Be sure to tag it "Print Liberation Giveaway".
Step 3: Make sure you've registered on Rumplo with a real email address (or else we can't contact you!).

That's it!
The folks at Print Liberation and Rumplo will pick our favorite new submission by this Friday, July 4th, announce the winner on the Rumplo Blog, and send the winner her or his booty. Remember, it's really really easy to submit a T-shirt to rumplo, and there are tons of great T-shirts out there! Just browse around Rumplo, find shirts you like, and look for new tees at the shops that sell them, and be sure to do some sleuthing on the many T-shirt blogs out there (including our own). Good luck!

Rules: 1. No Cheating. 2. Your tee must be submitted after 1:00 AM on July 1st. 3. No professional T-shirt bloggers may enter. You know who you are, don't spoil the fun! Contact us if you have any questions.

Who is this book for? As Nick from Print Liberation put it, "The book is for New-bees, offering helpful tips and troubleshooting so you'll be able to print on the bottom of a ship in a hurricane. It also contains a good amount of information that could be enlightening to experts and artists." Sounds great! And thanks to Nick for making this happen. Be sure to read up on the book on the Print Liberation website and buy a copy if you want to start making T-shirts.

We're really hoping that the winner starts their own T-shirt line, like so many of the great small shops on Rumplo. Want some inspiration? Check the awesome Print Liberation tees on Rumplo here, and have a great day.

Pssst, looking for hints on where to find some great tees? Check these places out:
ILoveYourTshirt.com - TeeShirtBlog - SetYourStyle - SmokeFred.ch - Beams Tees - Graniph - YourEyesLie - Uniqlo UT - Marthuba

This book is beautiful! Sample pages below.

Genius...

→ 0 comments | Posted Jul 3, 2008