Bands & Design» Apparel Archives – Bands & Design.

Iconic T-Shirt Designs

Rich — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:33:32 +0000

T-shirts have long been an important aspect for many bands. They are often the one piece of merchandise outside of the albums/singles that fans own. They serve several functions including: allowing a fan to show their support for the band, raise awareness of the band and raising money for the band as shirts are cheap to produce.

Below are a selection of iconic shirts featuring where possible the cast of Flickr. I do not feature in any of the images ha. I’m aware some shirts aren’t strictly original and are lame-ass re-issues. This also isn’t intended to be a complete list by any means. Just 18 t-shirts that I like a lot and are iconic for various reasons.

Thanks to this flickrer.

The most iconic hip-hop shirt of all time? Thanks to this flickrer.

The Ramones Seal. Thanks to this flickrer.

As often worn by members of Nirvana. Thanks to this flickrer.

Not only an important album cover but it transferred beautifully and iconically to t-shirts as well.

This image has brought new meaning to the word “merch”; literally, there are products never before associated with bands that carry this mark. Thanks to this Flickrer.

Not a band but iconic all the same. Thanks to this Flickrer.

Issued at the time to help promote the album with the same artwork the t-shirt became iconic in its own right.

Thanks to this Flickrer.

The boss has had some pretty sweet t-shirts over the years and his Born In the USA tour is amongst the most iconic. Thanks to this Flickrer.

Last seen being knocked off by Louis Vuitton, seriously. Thanks to this flickrer.

Another Nirvana related t-shirt…Kurt wore this shirt non-stop and the interest Daniel Johnson it caused resulted in him being signed. (Thanks DecimALs.

Constantly being ripped off by Hot topic and Nike and other dumb major retail types.

Rolo Tomassi – Untitled Ep – Reissue

Rich — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:17:15 +0000

Rolo Tomassi are one of my favourite bands and not least because of their consistently great artwork. It’s all pretty much down to one guy, Simon Moody aka Lined With Ghosts, a freelance illustrator from somewhere in Nottinghamshire. The artwork for the new Rolo Tomassi re-issue is perhaps my favourite to date. As you can see from the image below the CD packaging folds out to reveal a further four panels of the spiky looking hand drawn mountain range. Officially known as a 10 panel digi-file with foam ‘button’; whilst I haven’t met a foam button yet that can actually hold the CD in place this is still an excellent final product. The mountain range can be seen as a representation of the spiky angular synth-prog-hardcore although I don’t feel this was an intentional metaphor.

Inside the whole image is reproduced in small beneath the CD and additional panels with lyrics and information about Rolo Tomassi are all decorated with an intricate background pattern. Moody seems to hand draw all his illustrations before transferring them to his computer for colouring. The result is a very pleasing effect where the felt pen bleeds in places adding to the roughness of the artwork an effect that is very difficult to fake in paint shop or illustrator.

Of course I could be wrong about certain aspects as I’m currently basing my opinion on the reduced size images within this post. The CD is available for pre-order and will be released towards the end of this month or the beginning of March. Should you want to pick up a copy its available through the Holy Roar Records Store. It’s also available with a t-shirt which has the whole mountain range image emblazoned across the chest. That’s the one I’m plumping for.