Matt Simner - Creative Geekness

Blog moved to mattsimner.com

mattsimner — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:16:06 +0000

I’ve now moved to my own hosting at mattsimner.com, (and have also moved the content) so won’t be posting here any more (I’ll this here for a while though). I’ll still be writing about t-shirts from Redbubble, myself and elsewhere, as well as keeping everything else under one less roof, so hit the subscribe link and join me over there…

www.mattsimner.com for t-shirts, software and design

Qwitter (or) Twitter T-Shirt by Warren Hart on Redbubble

mattsimner — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:42:38 +0000

Qwitter - T-Shirt by Warren Hart

Everyone’s obsessed by Twitter at the moment, and whether you’re into it or not, this is design by Warren Hart is a rather fun statement to make.

There’s nothing like a cross for an eye to convey ‘dead’, and this little birdy’s gone up to the social network in the sky.

See Warren’s other designs on Redbubble

Helvetica Envy and Times New Roman – Font T-Shirts on Redbubble

mattsimner — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:05:49 +0000

Times New Roman and Helvetica Envy - Font T-Shirts

Helvetica punches above its weight for a simple rounded sans-serif font.

Arial (originally Sonoran Sans Serif) was made popular by Microsoft through packaging with Windows, and is often seen as a ubiquitous equivalent to Helvetica.

‘Equivalent’ is rather a subjective word in this case and for some it’s easy to spot the differences between the fonts. Arial could be said to have ‘Helvetica envy’.

Meanwhile poor old ‘Times New Roman’ is now languishing into relative obscurity based more on the fact it’s an older style serif font. The ‘new’ is therefore something that people now gloss over (new in 1931).

These two designs are just a small celebration of how the world loves Helvetica.

Buy ‘Times New Roman’ | Buy ‘Helvetica Envy’

See more Helvectica font tees on Redbubble

Home Improvement – MC Escher T-Shirt by Zomboy

mattsimner — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:47:06 +0000

Home Improvement - MC Escher T-Shirt by Zomboy

MC Escher is an inspiration to countless creative people, partly for the genius in the detail, but also for the mathematical somersaults your mind does when you look at one of his images.

Zomboy produces some amazing designs, and this Escher ‘Relativity’ inspired vector shirt is also a stroke of genius. The limited colours just bring out the detail amazingly well, with the shapes and angles being pixel perfect.

The added bonus with this design is that each decorator is painting with revolutionary transparent paint, so choose your shirt colour (from the 20+ colours in the Redbubble pallette) and that’s what colour they’ll be painting. You’ll be a designer too!

Star Trek Reboot – T-Shirt on Redbubble

mattsimner — Sun, 31 May 2009 12:44:09 +0000

Star Trek Reboot - T-Shirt

Remakes, sequels and prequels are out. Reboots are in.

The new Star Trek movie has a whole new cast and a whole new feel.

It’s just lucky your favourite vulcan was around to issue the three fingered salute to reboot the franchise.

See other cool sci-fi shirts

Clone stamped and walking the cash tightrope (Photoshop meets modern life) – T-Shirt

mattsimner — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:22:42 +0000

Clone stamped and walking the cash tightrope - T-Shirt

Ever feel like you’re one of the crowd?

This shirt came from an idea of using the Photoshop Clone Stamp tool to make a pattern on a shirt.

It soon turned into a bit more of a social statement where the ‘dollar-chasing’ clones are walking an uphill tightrope on their quest for fulfillment, while down below are people enjoying a more simple existence.

The clone stamp may reappear in a slightly more ‘fun’ design in the future.

Gone Phishin’ – The virus spreads

mattsimner — Tue, 26 May 2009 03:34:07 +0000

Gone Phishin' T-Shirt by Matt Simner

This is officially the first picture I’ve got of someone (other than me) wearing one of my shirts – so many thanks to Wil for making and sharing his rather excellent purchase. Never trust an IT student

Sounds Like Traffic – T-Shirt by Diesel Laws

mattsimner — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:07:03 +0000

Sounds Like Traffic - T-Shirt by Diesel Laws

Diesel Laws is going places

The quality, inventiveness, and uniqueness of the designs really sets the brand apart from the crowd.

Now concentrating on audio-inspired shirts, Diesel’s found another great concept here and made it their own, with the trademark logo on the green light.

The colours, shapes and subject just make this shirt rock!

Check out their great range of shirts at diesellaws.com

Updates to Redbubble Greasemonkey goodness

mattsimner — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:41:09 +0000

To keep up with Redbubble’s most recent visual changes I updated my collection of Redbubble GreaseMonkey scripts.

More info on my RB journal

Spitfire vs Messerschmitt BF-109 – T-Shirt on Redbubble

mattsimner — Wed, 13 May 2009 04:10:24 +0000

Spitfire vs BF-109 - T-Shirt by Matt Simner

The Supermarine Spitfire is a legend of British military aviation.

This particular one won out over the closely matched Messerschmitt BF-109 and is on its way back to Blighty.

In reality the skill and bravery of pilots on both sides eclipsed the performance and technical differences between their aircraft.

This shirt’s for people who like to remember why they existed, or just appreciate beautiful engineering.

tokeil: pirate god of time – Artwork by fydbac

mattsimner — Sat, 02 May 2009 05:03:44 +0000

tokeil: pirate god of time - Art by fydbac

There’s good illustration and ‘great’ illustration. This is just a great image. I don’t have much to say about it as the detail, perspective and quality speaks for itself.

This is from a new US artist ‘fydbac‘ on Redbubble who will be making quite an impression if this artwork’s anything to go by.

Available as high quality cards through to canvas and framed prints. Maybe they’ll be persuaded to re-do for T-shirts?

Urban Oasis – T-Shirt

mattsimner — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:56:03 +0000

Urban Oasis T-Shirt by Matt Simner

Green grass. An urban oasis. This tee started off life as a collection of photos intended to become a mosaic of urban ‘furniture’. with simply the word ‘Urban’. The type was always going to be filled with some sort of texture, but an old picture of green grass I had from England seemed to fit rather well. The original idea then went out the window and this became Urban Oasis. Funny how these things happen

Can you recognise any buildings?

Las Vegas, economy of gambling T-Shirt

mattsimner — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:53:13 +0000

Las Vegas, economy of gambling - T-Shirt by Matt Simner

Everyone loves Sin City – Las Vegas! You know that gambling’s bad but the place is just so much fun!

The global financial crisis is hitting hard everywhere – including Las Vegas, but you know the funseekers will be back as soon as they feel rich enough.

Welcome to Las Vegas, as the economy of gambling salvages Nevada.

See other cool slogan tees

No ice this summer – T-Shirt by Viktor

mattsimner — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:57:40 +0000

No ice this summer - T-Shirt by Viktor on RedBubble

Global warming’s no laughing matter if you’re an arctic dweller like these guys.

You can of course just kick back and watch TV like the rest of the planet and try to forget about the whole thing

There’s a really nice style to this vector design as it conveys the (more serious) message in a really friendly and fun way.

There’s some nice details too, like the beach ball for a pillow, the killer whale popping up through an ice hole, and the very effective typography merged in with the ice.

Check out Viktor’s other cool work on RedBubble

Pylon Love – T-Shirt by Natalie Tyler

mattsimner — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:25:06 +0000

Pylon Love T-Shirt by Natalie Tyler

I love simple and effective – oh and if you combine it with industrial ‘stuff’, then further bonus points.

Natalie Tyler’s got a great eye for typography and shows it here with a really cool homage to the poor unloved electricity pylon.

Study the letters for a moment…

Just don’t try and climb them to get your kite back (like the ‘scare’ films they used to show in schools in the seventies)