So we’ve got everything available for sale again and I have to say, these are our best prints of the design yet. Joel mixed up new inks and somehow made them magically softer and brighter.

Just in case you were wondering, here’s the inspiration for the tee (which I personally can watch over and over and over).

Another layer of fun this year was the addition of new folks selling their wares: Cincy Apparel, Deadstar, Southpaw Prints, Rockit, and Allscreen set up for the first time. And returning there was Park + Vine, Alternative Motive, Donkey Ts, Anonymous Skate Shop, Unheardof Boutique, Able Projects, Ski Cincinnati and Proforma Albrecht.

Top it all off, there was a Reds game and music from You, You’re Awesome, Pop Empire, Flux Capacitors, The Western.

Days like this and  we’re proud to have such a vibrant downtown.

Alright, enough with the words, here’s a whole slew of pictures from the day.

Within an hour of meeting Austin, he was already whipping out a sketchbook and capturing the scene at the local BBQ joint down there in Texas. He’s always making something it seems.

Even on his bus ride to work he started marking up newspaper articles to create something new, something that straddles the line comfortably between poetry and art. In his words, “Never believe anyone who says they have no time.”

Pretty bang on and inspirational, that guy.

Now we’ve teamed up with Austin to produce this Blackout Poem t-shirt that reads “Creativity is subtraction.” It comes out right as his book Newspaper Blackout is hitting the stores and garnering excellent reviews.

But this week we’re taking the holiday break to tell the stories about some of the things we sell, so here goes:

I’m a beard man. Took me 30 years to grow one proper and boy does my weak jaw benefit from the extra volume. Mine doesn’t do very much other than get all squashed when I sleep at night or get fluffy out of the shower – but I’ve always been one to appreciate the variations that can be made with a touch of the razor (and the proper genes).

So I set out to make a design that incorporated major types of facial hair. I did some research and edited it down to these 14 varieties that I felt were a good representation. I found the images I liked and made a collage in a photo editing program. Here is the original collage:

I used this as the basis for an ink line drawing and the rest is pretty much standard screen-printing. Being our first product for sale, we also made a behind-the-scenes movie to illustrate our process:

And last but not least, here are the types all listed out. This key is printed along the hem of the shirt.

Bending is essentially taking electronics and adding dials and switches to create new results. This works especially great on old toys!

As luck would have it, the father of bending happens to live in Cincinnati and was offering a course. I was lucky enough to spend a few days with Reed Ghazala and explore his world of electronic alchemy. The Incantor shirt is a tribute to Reed’s bend of the Speak & Math.

The Incantor shirt is available online at Wire & Twine.

Back to bending!

I got a bit sentimental reading this book, remembering the afternoons of my childhood spent wandering through the woods and digging in the dirt. And while our family loves a good video game like the best of them, I thought about tweaking our notion of a Play Station.

I like to think when I wear it it’s a good reminder to turn off the electronics, head for the door, and spend some quality time outside.

The Play Station shirt is available online at Wire & Twine and at the retail stores MiCA and Park + Vine.

The Cincinnati Enquirer did a special piece on items you can buy locally that could make fine gifts. We’re thrilled they liked the Made in Ohio shirt, and also thrilled to be included with such fine companions. A few other choice pieces:

From left to right:
Lisa Robin Jewelry,
Charley Harper prints from Fabulous Frames and Art,
Cincinnati Building Footprint serigraph by VisuaLingual

It’s a good time to be making things, and this type of attention from the press helps our local creative community. Exciting stuff and very much an honor.

See the entire lists here at the Enquirer: Gifts from the Arts and Books with Cincinnati Connections

After the sale of the FM signal a few years back, WOXY has moved to an online format, and more recently, a new home in Austin, TX. Even though they’ve moved the office, we’re still happy to be selling their schwag, including this year’s Top 100 Bands of 2009 shirt.

Like every year, we do these top 100 shirts as a pre-order to keep overhead low. They’re no longer available, but the rock lives on.

Fascinating and curious thing, this Processing. We could try and describe it but they’ve given a great introduction on their website:

Processing is a programming language, development environment, and online community that since 2001 has promoted software literacy within the visual arts. Initially created to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context, Processing quickly developed into a tool for creating finished professional work as well.

And what the community has done with these tools is beautiful. You’ve likely seen work built in Processing but didn’t realize it. Below, just a few examples that showcase the capabilities:

From left to right:
Brendan Dawes “Cinema Redux”
Aaron Koblin’s “Flight Patterns”
R.E.M.’s “Animal” video by Motion Theory

Aside from the these examples, the software is also used in things from middle school math education to undergraduate programming courses. To get a better understanding of the technology and possibilities, check out the Exhibitions section on their site. For more technical goodness, this interview with Ben Frys and Casey Reas provides insight to the history and future of programming environment.

One last bit of fun before we pimp the shirts; back in 2008 the first release of Processing 1.0 was introduced to the world right across the field from our studio here in Oxford, Ohio! Pretty neato.

Now the shirts! There are two different designs available, and profits will help fund future development of Processing.