Use the things you enjoy as tee design inspiration. This can be anything such as that morning cup of coffee or a jog around the block.

No matter what you find joy in it can inspire everything from cartoons to songs. All you have to do is apply the thoughts associated with such interests to your graphic design works. Even incorporate what’s happening around you while you are indulging yourself with your likes.

Maybe you are sipping a cup of coffee when your dog runs by and it starts sliding on the kitchen floor. This gives you an idea for a cartoon. For instance, maybe the dog always makes its master spill his coffee on himself as a running gag. The point is to take what goes on in your day to day life which makes you happy and work ideas around them.

Perhaps you can draw out the lyrics to your favorite song, recreating the scene from your own head as you imagine them being played out as if you are directing a music video. Maybe you like that Sunday drive out to countryside and something that you see works its way into your art, perhaps the from the perspective of your rear view mirror.

Things You Enjoy As Tee Design Inspiration.

The point is to sit back and do what you usually do, by being yourself and just go with that positive flow. Your rituals and routines can prove to be a great untapped resource.

Causes as tee design inspiration can be great and often there is no better source. What can be better than helping people and doing the right thing?

Unfortunately, causes are usually a direct result of something negative. Disasters happen such as tsunamis and hurricanes, earthquakes and floods. The bright side is that the best in human nature reveals itself at these times of crisis. We band together and help one another out and fix the problems at hand.

In the world of t-shirt design, we create images for the tees that invite people to donate to the causes. We create memorabilia and tribute art for the fallen. Then we get inspired by the humanity and create designs based on that as well.

There is an odd and ironic beauty in destruction, in that sense that it is giving birth to the creativity and hope. It is sad that it takes such reminders as those to put us back on the right track, but at least we are reminded.

Causes As Tee Design Inspiration.

So remember that next time while watching the news, that there is a flip side to every coin and that every story has the potential to have some good spin as a result. So indeed, causes as tee design inspiration is a wonderful source.

Use the public or school library for Tee design inspiration.

Just about every topic imaginable exist in some form or another in the books, video, and other media made widely available to us all over the years. Non-fiction and fiction, and the creative arts. There are all kinds of reference materials and tools for the visual artist.

One could be inspired by classic novels such as Moby Dick or something as whimsical as anything by Dr. Seuss. Someone might even try mashing up the the two. Flipping through the art books and seeing what others have created over the course of human history can also help steer an artist into a creative mood. This might also help the designer come up with a brand new style that has yet to exist, like an evolution of the arts by looking at what has been done previously. On a similar note, one could work backwards for a nostalgic or retro perspective.

For an even zanier experience follow in the traditions of the Steam Punk movement and combine elements from the different time lines. Imagine ancient Egypt with a modern day power grid. Pharaohs with the internet. The possibilities of the art styles and time line mixes are infinite.

Library For Tee Design Inspiration.

So next time any of you find yourselves in a design slump, buy a piping hot cup of your favorite coffee and then head on over to the public library and grab some random books and begin to browse. You might be surprised at what inspires you, maybe even more so at the end results when you step back from your creation.

From furry beasts to insects, animals as tee designs are some of the best looking T-shirts out there. Mankind has been inspired by and borrowing design patterns from the animal kingdom for ages. Think of leopard and zebra prints in the fashion world and other markets. Think of the honeycomb patterns and sharkskin texture we utilize in our construction and aerodynamic industries. Designers and inventors look at nature, especially the animal kingdom when looking for fresh and innovative ideas. They do this in search of patterns, colors, and textures. Often combing one elements from one animal with another. Like the pattern of a snake skin with the texture of a feather or fur.

Sometimes it’s what animals make from bird nests, to spiderwebs that catch the imagination. If it wasn’t for a fly walking upside down on a ceiling then Stan Lee would had never came up with Spider-Man.

The fashion market, though seemingly overcrowded, is full of: frogs, sharks, kittens, wolves, etc., on all sorts of apparel especially t-shirts and there is always room for more. If one was so inclined to make their own version of the same or create something completely new it would fit in well with the others.

Individual components of the animals make just as much of an impact as the complete animals, perhaps even more so. From paw prints to a single eye, the moods and themes are almost limitless. Snakes and spiders tend to provoke fear, birds such as hawks instill that preciseness and power. Think of school and corporate mascots. There are reasons these animals were chosen, that reason is their symbolism.

Animals As Tee Designs and Inspiration.

So whatever the mood and objective desired, there is an animal that will represent what needs conveyed. Take a walk around your own neighborhood and see how animals interact with each other and you. Search online for more exotic and even dangerous animals. The inspiration you seek will strike you as soon as you lay eyes on the animal that will be the mold for your next design.

Looking to play as tee design inspiration can lead to masterpieces. Be it sports, music, video games, board games, toys or whatever. Sometimes to get in a creative mood one just needs to partake in something fun and stimulating. But remembering to take breaks is not always as easy as it sounds. Especially with deadlines, and while struggling to come up with something for a project. Play is a sure fire way to get our of a creative rut.

Taking a break just to chill and do something… anything different than the normal day in day out routine can refresh and energize the human mind like nothing else on earth can. It is why people take vacations and why there are breaks throughout the work day at offices and other places of employment. Corporations like PayPal and Google (Googleplex) have Gyms and arcades and stuff like that for their employees to unwind. This allows for happier and more productive workers. This has been proven as fact and hence why these companies implemented it into their business model.

But that is not all there is to it. The activity one chooses to engage in plays a vital role in the brain stimulation and exactly which part of the brain is affected. Activities involving exercise as well as hand and eye coordination involving colors and shapes will stimulate creativity a lot more than taking a smoke break. Please watch the video via this link of Tim Brown’s Seminar at the 2008 Serious Play Conference regarding the same subject.

Play As Tee Design Inspiration.

In conclusion, just go out and play like a kid and your creativity will soar. Just remember to play nice.

If you are reading this then you probably searched for "The Big Bang Theory tees". We got you covered. While I will not post every tee worn by Sheldon or the others here I will guide you in the right direction.

Well officially 80's Tees sells the licensed shirts that you see on The Big Bang theory show. But that may not be what you meant. Maybe you want the unofficial stuff, the parodies and mash ups. Then NeatoShop is your best bet. Many of TBBT tees that you see in our Tee Fetch's The Big Bang Theory Tee gallery come from these two retailers.

Or maybe you are looking for the FLIPFOLD device that Sheldon used to fold his T-shirts (Shown in the clip below). You're welcome. If you own a lot of tees or ship a bunch out then that would be handy. It has been on my wishlist for a while.

The Big Bang Theory Tees.

Dedications as tee designs work surprisingly well. Homages and tributes such as to a favorite author, poet, artist, friend or family member, or to their respective works often make designs that are as great as the people and things that inspire them in the first place.

Consider all of those t-shirt designs paying tribute to Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven or Anabel Lee as examples of how another’s work or actions can be transferred over and translated into the art world.

Paying homage to someone, or to a favorite story by or about that person could not be more fitting than a tasteful graphic. People even get tattoos of a white rabbit and a pocket watch, so going as far as to create a t shirt is not that uncommon at all. There are artworks based on the descriptive works such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, and The Lord of The Rings by J.R. R. Tolkien, and countless other authors. Furthermore, there are pop culture references to shows like The Big Bang Theory, Firefly, and movies such as Fight Club and Star Wars.

Besides all the fan art out there covering the pop culture market and the living, you see designs popping up that honor those that have passed on such as designs featuring Steve Jobs of Apple and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and will continue to do such for many years long after their passing. Think of the heroes such as Neil Armstrong and Martin Luther King Junior and their inspirational words that have echoed in our minds, repeating for generations.

Dedications As Tee Designs.

It is about people inspiring others through their creatives and by the way those people express their creations, ideals, and the impact that they all have on us that make dedications an excellent source of T-Shirt inspiration to tap when needed. Many of us would not be the same people that we are now if certain songs, stories, or movies hadn’t touched our lives in one way or another.

To use parodies as tee designs, one needs to know exactly what a parody is as to avoid copyright infringement and other issues.

A parody (/ˈpærədi/; also called pastiche, spoof, send-up or lampoon), in current use, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, “parody … is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text.” Another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as “any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice.”[1] Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, music (although “parody” in music has an earlier, somewhat different meaning than for other art forms), animation, gaming and film. The writer and critic John Gross observes in his Oxford Book of Parodies, that parody seems to flourish on territory somewhere between pastiche (“a composition in another artist’s manner, without satirical intent”) and burlesque (which “fools around with the material of high literature and adapts it to low ends”). ~Wikipedia

Parodies as defined above, open an almost endless universe of possibilities in art because everything can be made light of in one way or another. The Simpsons is a parody of Matt Groening’s own family modeled after his parents, and sisters. That would make him Bart. Looking around you can see images where famous paintings are parodied with pop culture references. For example, there is The Joker from Batman posing as Edvard Munch’s The Scream with a mash up of both styles.

Parodies As Tee Designs.

Political parodies and caricatures is a gold mine come election time. Tshirt designs and comic strips featuring mockeries of political figures and issues fly off the shelves almost as fast as they are produced. As well as “Topical” tee shirt designs which are based at what ever is generating a social buzz like Charlie Sheen’s “Winning” phrase a few years back. So when looking for inspiration just remember that parodies are everywhere.

This will be a list of Useful T-shirt related websites. Or more accurately a discussion of such sites. Send an e-mail to submit a T-shirt Website that is a resource for Designers or for Brands. Do not list Brands that do not take design submissions.

• Mintees