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OCTOBER 2011 WINNER – WILBUR LIKE SMITH

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Monsoon, Assegai, River God?…..nope wrong kinda Wilbur!

All hail our October King of Comments, Wilbur Like Smith!

We are happy to announce a winner that really impressed us with his positive nature. Considering that he made lots of comments of our Positive Heroes competition entries we feel that he is definitely the right choice.

Wilbur Like Smith is one of those guys who gets involved and helps build the confidence of designers!
Honestly he comes across more as a friend and less of a critic, which is certainly a great quality that we look for in our King of Comments.
As with most people who comment, there is often a fine line between being helpful and just plain patronising of the artist work.

Wilbur Like Smith gets it right every time!

Just have a lookie at his comments and you will begin to see what we look for in a King:

“This is also a great pattern concept. Wanted to say that the logo could have been one of the four blocks, but I like the off-balance composition, nice work”

“Really like this as well. Would have maybe put the Positive Heroes logo above the shield, but it's great :)”

“I really like the image, but it's a bit comical for the topic :)”

You see what I mean? He is helpful and very good-natured in how he gets his opinion across.
Notice that at the end of every one of these comments he puts a smiley face…you can’t get more happily optimistic than that!

This is what our King had to say when he received the crown:

This is so orsm!!1! That's why I love Springleap!! You guys rock, apart from not just having great designs, fantastic print work, Springleap has gone and created a sense of community as well.

Winning this reminded me of something I read the other day, the words are by Feenix (designer of the Goodjoe logo) - 

"Everyday throughout the nation, ordinary people are doing small things, acts of kindness that make a huge difference in the lives of others and continue to inspire and provide hope to so many."

To all the designers, keep up the good work and good luck. Springleap's all about the designs and real people. (I still have to submit my first design)

Thanks again to Wilbur Like Smith. It was tremendous to see your comments coming through and we know we will see more and more of you in the future.

We appreciate all your hard work.
Enjoy your awesome prizes!

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SEPTEMBER 2011 WINNER – UNCLEHANI

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NICE ONE!

Time to crown our King of Comments for September!

Springleap sends out a big highfive to UncleHani for all of his contributions to the competition this month. It is great to see a Leaper who takes the time to get involved and give some feedback for our design submissions.

One of the best things about UncleHani is the fact that he is very to the point!
Now I’m not saying that he is rude, but he doesn’t tip-toe through the tulips when he gives his opinion. If he sees something that he feels should be tweaked he says so.

In many cases this is the most effective way to help designers out. They don’t want to hear false congratulatory nonsense, they want somebody to call a spade-a-spade and help them grow.

I liked these comments below most. The reason being he is so friendly and supportive of the designers work in both cases:

“Loveliest design, I like the idea of the baby, attached to the plus sign, big ups!”

“I love the message in this design "Life Never End", it shows that whether you are positive, it is no death sentence, big ups!”

He also made me laugh when he made a typo on one of his comments and then quickly ‘rectified’ his mistake:

“So lovey Macuz.”
“I meant lovely lol.”

Yup don’t wanna be giving the designers the wrong idea there, hehehe.

This is what UncleHani had to say about why he loves Springleap:

I love Springleap because it allows you to express yourself in a artistic manner, it keeps you out of trouble like drugs, crime etc. and I am thankful

UncleHani has sent through so many great designs to our competition. It has been really amazing watching his style develop over the past few months. His latest submission Sesame Street meets Twilight was a really fun design, which had us all in stitches here at the HQ.

Thanks again UncleHani…we know we will see you around!

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AUGUST 2011 WINNER – EFFIN’SWEET

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WINNER WINNER WINNER!

SUPER CONGRATS go out to Effin’Sweet for winning our King of Comments competition for August .

What we love about Effin’Sweet is that he is not at all condescending when he makes his comments about designs. He is helpful and gives suggestions for placement, but is never cocky or elitist when he does so.

It’s cool that he is always mega chilled and friendly!
So often we get comments that are negative and at the same time don’t give any worthy feedback to help the designer grow. We can all learn from Effin’Sweet in this regard!

Here are a few recent comments from Effin’Sweet which I felt illustrated his style of commenting:

1. “I quite like this one...out of the three I like the red version best, but I also like the red and blue version, I think that the randomness of colour becomes a bit busy, maybe try doing the Rev counter Red, speedo white and fuel gauge side blue.”

2. “Haha...cool glasses. If you break up some of the solid black it could look really good.”

3. “Nicely Done! I dunno why but I’m feeling like a slogan of sorts could have gone well at the bottom of the illustration.”

You see what I mean? Zero aggression or negativity....just useful and happy comments.

Effin’Sweet most recently collaborated with none other than local South African design guru, CHUCKY, to put together one of the most memorable and unique designs from the LEXUS  ‘CT 200h’ competition. There were so many people at the Springleap HQ who felt that this one was a winner.

To find out more about Effin'Sweet why not check him out on his Twitter page.

Thanks to Effin’Sweet for all the positive energy, we LOVE IT!!!

The Springleap team salutes you.

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JULY 2011 WINNER – MATSANNI

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Weeeee have a WINNER!

Well done to Sannidya (AKA: Matsanni ) for scooping our King of Comments prize for July .

We are always impressed with the awesome contributions this Springleaper adds to the website. Not only does he always have a positive word to say about a design, but he is also very helpful with insights that can help designers improve their work.

We often talk about the “balance” of the ‘perfect critique’ and how if you are too negative you could scare off designers , or if you are too positive, the designer never learns from their mistakes.

Matsanni has his comments down to a fine art and always seems to leave the designers informed and confident about what they produce.

Take these examples of his comments below for instance, if I was the designer I would be so amped about my design:

1. “BADASS character , I love the firm line, nice coloring and the distressed effect. I can’t imagine how cool I am when I wear this tee on the summer and I will wear the sunglasses, I don’t wanna have too much eyes LOL well done”

2. “Heya mr.Barmalisi
I always love your work. Overall, it looks great on a black tee, very well execution, but why don’t you put the design at the bottom? I guess it will be better. yay!”

See what I mean? He is open and friendly , makes you feel good about your design, but also shares insights in a controlled manner.

Many of you will already know Matsanni from his amazing winning design No place for Hubris! Which blew away the competition in the April 1 OPEN THEME compo.

So, not just a talented designer , but a helpful member of our community too!

You are a legend Matsanni, thanks for your contributions . You are most certainly the deserving winner of our King of Comments for July HIGH FIVE

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JUNE 2011 WINNER – BLEET

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Once again it is time to crown our monthly King of Comments .

Congratulations go out to Warren (AKA: Bleet) for his contributions and genuine feedback!

The designers he has helped will no doubt grow from his advice and comments.

What we like most about Bleet’s comments is the fact that they are critical without coming across as harsh …which is paramount to helping improve designers, without crushing their spirits altogether!
So often we have people making comments which come across a tad….well, venomous.

Bleet uses a bit of humour to get his message across, for example he said, “Reminds me of snakes and ladders, would have been cool if u connected the 2. Snakes and ladders with the dude, ok that concept is free, next one you will have to pay ;) “, haha.
Here is another example that I liked. Simple and to the point. He is critical, but balances his critique with positive aspects of the design, “The characters are a bit cliché, would have been way better if you made text out of the foam or something else, really well executed and the T colour choice is spot on”.

Bleet is already earning himself huge praise from the Springleap community and his skills seem to be growing at an exponential rate.

When you consider how good he is it is abundantly clear that he will very soon have his first Springleap victory under his belt.

It’s one of those ‘It’s not if he will win, but WHEN’ kind of a situations.
His latest submissions to the Hansa Pilsener ‘Special Ingredient’ competition stands testament to his growth. Until the last drops 02 and HANSA FLAGS are both highly rated by the community and stand a BIG chance of scooping the win!

Thanks again for the great comments Bleet, enjoy your prize ;)

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MAY 2011 WINNER – IZZICANE

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May has been another amazing month here at Springleap, both of our Open Theme winners were absolutely brilliant and we announced the winner of the Stepdog competition.

We have had an equally impressive amount of informative feedback and comments from the community.
The King of Comments, Queen of Quotes winner would likewise have to be somebody who really deserved it .

The great news is that we have our very first Queen of Comments.
Congratulations go out to Elzaan , aka: Izzicane , for her HUGE contribution to the competition.

What I really like about our South African winner is that she may not be a designer, but she is passionate about good design. Izzicane says, “I’m not a designer or arty person but I love creativity and a good shirt :)!”

Not only did Izzicane get involved with most of the submissions up for vote, but she also tweeted on just about every design too.
Wow that really is awesome!
Springleap appreciates you going out of your way to bring awareness to our designs.

Izzicane had loads of insightful comments, but this is my favorite:

“Great design Hanno, the layer affect really works well. I feel that the design or logo just needs a bit more colour though as it has a lot of white open space, which could be a bit distracting. Maybe if you put some more shading into the moon or dirty the white up a bit? Maybe consider enlarging the logo a bit as well to give it a bit more attention and like Maike said maybe place it closer to the moon. I love the hand drawn feel and I think you nailed the eerie and sombre feel you where going for, over a great piece of art.”

I like that she compliments the design, gives constructive criticism , but at the same time isn’t patronizing .
That’s the way to do it guys and girls!

Thanks again to Elzaan and well done!

Find out more about the King of Comments, Queen of Quotes competitions.

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APRIL 2011 WINNER – SIMON

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Greetings one and all.

First off, thanks to the community for their awesome feedback with the April competitions.
Seriously, we are lucky to have a community that goes out of its way to make constructive comments about design submissions.

It is usually a very difficult, or at least a close race, when it comes to making our choice.
However, April 2011’s King of Comments winner was a relatively easy decision for us!
This was because one Springleaper really went out of his way to make positive yet ‘helpfully precise’ suggestions.

Huge congrats and thanks go out to Simon for his comments which undoubtedly helped raise our designers A-game .

Here is one of his comments that I really enjoyed:

Hey, you know what, I am a GUY and I love the pink, so bleh! This gives me the feeling of a vintage cake shop, I don’t know why, but I like cake so hey, what the hell! This is one of those shirts that I reckon would be quite “fashionable” when worn with some nice dark faded jeans. It has a ‘vintageness’ to it, and that seems fairly popular these days. I think the way you’ve used the typography as the “chair” is a clever touch. Because she is sitting down, one would naturally be drawn to the “chair”, in this case your words. Looking at your design preview on white, I think the design has been placed too large. Another thought, I could see this working without the background pink and it’s containing border, so if the girl just sat on the words to the left or right of the bottom area of the shirt I reckon that could work too? Agree?

For those of you who have been Springleapers for a long time , you will definitely recognise this talented designer’s work. Perhaps one of the greatest ‘designers designs’ ever to grace Springleap, came from this man.
Take a look at the design on the left of the above image, CMY… was an instant hit with creatives and sold very well indeed.

How long is a piece of String? , feature on the right hand side , is another simple yet effective design that helped raise Springleaps cred back in the day.

Thanks again to Simon for being a true all-around Springleaper , who adds value to our platform and community.

Enjoy your prize ;)

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MARCH 2011 WINNER – ACME

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Hi there friends .

It’s time to announce our King of Comments winner for MARCH 2011!

It has been really fantastic to see so many people getting involved and sending through positive feedback to our designers.

We would like to send a big THANK YOU and CONGRATULATIONS to our winner acme !

This designer had plenty of helpful hints for our community of designers, whilst still being a nice guy ;)

Take a look at two of his comments below. This is just the sort of thing we are looking for from the King of Comments, Queen of Quotes winner:

“I think the concentric circles make it a bit stiff overall, specifically the outer ones . It could loosen a bit then it would be really great. The fist and electric shocks are the most powerful elements of this design so that should be the focus”

“That unicorn is EPIC! Would have loved to see more of the unicorn and clouds without the geometric elements though”

Acme is already very well known on Springleap!

You will surely know his hilarious Mule Bear and beach-arific Big Wave Challenge submissions.
Both were very well received and got impressive high scores . It is not a question of whether or not acme will win on Springleap, rather when he will win.
Which we have a feeling will be soon .

Most recently acme’s Happy Dolphin design made a huge impression on our March 1 OPEN THEME.
You didn’t know whether to laugh or be horrified , hehe, awesome work!

Thanks again acme, we hope you enjoy your prizes .
Please send us a few pics of you in your t-shirts ;)

So, who will be our King of Comments, Queen of Quotes winner for April?
Wanna get involved? CLICK HERE .

SL team.

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Thanks Ya'll.. im super stoked.. glad i could help out. and i'll aspire to continue the good comments and crits shoutBack on 29/8/11 by Valesidecc

Well done Matsanni! You continue to motivate and inspire the community :) shoutBack on 1/8/11 by CathRon

Rock on Bleet dude! Well deserved :) shoutBack on 14/7/11 by DuncanBoxie

jeeepers shot dudes…thats awesome case of beers and cash…def quitting my job (just kidding dig my job.) but thanks my friends u da shizzle in the dizzle shoutBack on 12/7/11 by bleet

Well done Bleet! shoutBack on 1/7/11 by amyabrahams

Well done Simon. I especially log in to read your constructive and inspiring comments. I think you have done a great deal in motivating our designers to push the limits, so this win is well-deserved! Thank you for your imput and keep it coming! shoutBack on 4/5/11 by CathRon

Well done Acme! shoutBack on 6/4/11 by CathRon

Greetings all you designers out there,

Times are hard!
Of course I don’t need to tell you that. With the economic upheavals of recent times it’s becoming harder and harder for individuals, from any professional sector, to make the money they truly deserve.

These problems affect the freelance designers maybe even more than those who are sitting in full-time employment. Sure the full-timers more often than not are making less money, but it’s far less frightening than being pulled this-way-and-that by companies who are looking to get the cheapest deal out of you.

It’s all cool that a company looks for the best deal, but where does it end? Crippling the design industry and demoralizing designers who just want to earn what they are worth, is not the way forward.

The designers that have just stepped out of college are in for a shock when they come face-to-face with hard core business peeps, that’s just a given.

In order to survive the recession you need to keep a level head and never let yourself stagnate....keep moving!

However, it’s not just the ‘noobie designers’ that are being taken for a ride!
That’s right all you design gurus out there, don’t feel bad, some of the biggest names in the industry are having to bow to pressure in order to survive.

Akira Yasuda, AKA: Akiman, who is best known for his breathtaking character design for a myriad of Capcom works, which includes Street Fighter II and III, Breath of Fire and Darkstalkers, recently found this out the hard way!

Akira was recently asked by Japanese based developer/publisher Enterbrain to create 6 of his amazing characters for a measly 8,000 yen each….that works out to like $100 a character.
For somebody of his calibre that is a ridiculous insult! These were characters that would be used as central elements for a game project. What irks me is that Enterbrain are not a small company. They know the industry standards and definitely seem to have manipulated a talented designer because he “has no money”.

Yasuda would normally charge around US$1,300 for each character, but decided that he would take the job for US$1,000, on condition that he would get to do more with the project. I don’t know about you guys but these kinds of arrangements usually lead to disaster. The whole ‘foot in the door’ project is often a tasty looking ‘carrot’ dangling in front of you when you are desperate for work.

So, as I said….everybody is feeling the pinch…even legends!

Akiman is simply doing what he can to survive the recession - but it doesn't make his case any more disastrous :(

I’m not sure if this puts you more on ‘edge’ than at ‘ease’, but this is more just to put things in perspective. If you are lucky enough to have a job, hold on to it with razor sharp claws. In the same breath, try not to be taken for a ride or accept dodgy sounding deals, which hold the illusion of future promise.

If I could dispense any advice for ‘the times’ I’d have to say BE CONFIDENT!
While I know this isn’t exactly the answer to all of the worlds ‘pain and suffering’ it is important to keep away the “bad energy troll” which breeds desperation…employers can smell this a mile away.

Otherwise it’s important to never turn down work (as long as it’s not sketchy). After all, you never know when the next job may come along! There are very few designers out there who are ‘rock star’ enough to have the privilege of being picky with jobs. You have to adopt the philosophy of “Fake it, till you make it”.

There are plenty of opportunities out there for designers who are trying to make extra cash. The most prime example of course being right in front of you – Springleap.
Yep, competitions are often a great way to build your credibility as a designer as well as make some much needed cashola. When you consider that you can win anywhere between $500 and $1850 there is tons of incentive to get involved.

Not all doom and gloom my friends!

Do you have any tips or advice for the rest of the designers out there who are trying to survive the recession?
We would love to hear some good news on this subject...some refershing optimistic words would be soothing right about now.

Peace.

A design contest with a conscience!

Positive Heroes is a group of ordinary people living extraordinary lives .

The Heroes work within their communities – both local and national – telling their stories of living with HIV . They show by personal example that HIV is a manageable and survivable disease . Encouraging and supporting anyone affected by HIV with powerful messages of hope .

The Heroes’ vision is to prevent millions of South Africans dying needlessly as a result of the stigma , fear and ignorance that still surrounds HIV.

Positive Heroes promotes the belief that living positively is about living life to the full. It is about embracing opportunity , about self-expression , about feeling healthy and looking good.

… and that’s pretty much what design is all about! Filling people’s lives with hope and beauty – lifting the veil on the awesome world that we live in.

The Challenge: Use your design skills around the theme “Inspire Courage” and create a greater awareness and understanding of HIV and global acceptance of the people who live with it.

Springleap.com in association with The Cape Town Fashion Council  and Positive Heroes invites designers to create a design which truly illustrates the COURAGE that is needed to overcome the stigma surrounding this epidemic and to live life to our fullest potential.

There is no reason why people living with HIV shouldn’t live long, happy, healthy and fulfilling lives, just like everyone else. Help us create a picture of courage.

ANYTHING is possible if you know and manage your status!

 

 

The Brief:

Positive Heroes is looking for designers to create a design – which shows that acceptance is the key to ending the stigma around the HIV epidemic – for their Unique Fashion Event to be held in Cape Town in October 2011 .

Your design must reflect a positive outlook and acceptance of your fellow man, which serves to reduce the stigma surrounding HIV. Everyone is affected by  HIV in some way – so your perspective should reflect both those who are living with HIV and society as a whole.

Courage must come from both sides. Stigma starts with the HIV+ individuals feeling shame about themselves, and is mirrored in society turning away from them. The result: people become isolated from friends and family and end up dying alone. Beating stigma and shame mean admitting and accepting your status and that of those around you. Acceptance and connection are key to beating this disease. We need courage to ask for help or support and courage to give it to those who need it.

Positive Heroes is all about “ordinary people living extraordinary lives”. Be one of them.

Your design should inspire people to get tested, to know their status. To get help, find support, stick to their medication and keep them from infecting other people if positive. And to stay HIV free if negative .

Help “inspire courage” – end the shame – and save lives!

 

COMPETITION DO’s and DON’TS:

1. Designs must please include the Positive Heroes logo in the original colours
2. NO BLACK T-SHIRTS . WHITE is the ‘preferred’ t-shirt color choice, however other colors are welcome.
3. The Positive Heroes corporate colors are pale grey and two shades of orange. However, designers are welcome to experiment and come up with their own interpretations for the design layout. Remember that the logo needs to stay in its original colours.
4. Positive Heroes intends to dress their staff, Heroes and Ultra-Marathon team in the winning t-shirt design when they are out in public. This means that the design needs to illustrate clearly who they are and what they do.
5. Positive Heroes currently gives away t-shirts throughout South African communities, both rural and urban when doing outreach work. Ideally the winning design will replace, or become one of these promotional t-shirts.

 

TO GET STARTED, DOWNLOAD THE BRAND ICONOGRAPHY / INFO PACK BELOW

                        

DOWNLOAD the Springleap t-shirt Submission Kit  to get all the templates and submission guidelines.

 

CLICK HERE to go directly to the VOTE PAGE.

 

Dates:                   

Submissions for designs open: 03 August 2021

Submissions for designs close: 07 October 2021

Voting starts: 29 August 2021

Voting ends: 26 October 2021

Winner announced: 27 October 2021

 

Prizes:

PRIZE MONEY:

First prize       – US$1250
Second prize  – US$300
Third prize      – US$300

 

FASHION SHOW:

The winning designs will be printed to be worn and displayed at the Positive Heroes Unique Fashion Event (held in partnership with the City of Cape Town), which will take place at the Cape Town Civic Centre on the 03 November 2011.

 

AUCTION:

The winning designs will be auctioned off on the night of the event on A0 stretch canvases for fundraising.

 

CROWDFUNDING:

Winning t-shirts will also be used for corporate and consumer crowdfunding packages, the proceeds of which will go to Positive Heroes intitiatives. Once we announce the winners, we will inform the community of links to the crowdfunding site we will be working with.

These packages are:

Bronze       – $30 will get you the winning T-Shirt
 

Silver          – $80 will get you the winning T-Shirt and the runners up
 

Gold            – $160 will get you the winning T-Shirt and the runners up for yourself, plus a pack will be sent to kids at a school / to members of an HIV support group / grassroots HIV organisation

Platinum    – +$790 will get you the gold package plus listing on this post, and on the Positive Heroes site, plus a high quality A0 size stretched canvas print of each of the prints

DIAMOND –$5700 will get you 220 t-shirts with your business name on the back of the t-shirts sent to you kids at a school / to members of an HIV support group / grassroots HIV organisation plus a high quality A0 size stretched canvas print of each of the prints

 

GALLERY EXHIBITION:

The winning designs, as well as a selection of other top designs from the competition, will be put on show at a gallery exhibition in Cape Town and auctioned off as canvases.

 

RULES:

1. No obscenities or hate speech.
2. Only original works will be accepted.
a. Positive Heroes should be the focal point of the design. The Positive Heroes logo should appear somewhere on the garment. You can download the logo here.
b. WHITE is the preferred t-shirt color, however all other colors besides BLACK are acceptable.
c. The Positive Heroes Corporate Identity guidelines should be followed in terms of the color palette. See the color palette here.
3. Each designer may submit up to five designs.
4. Winners will be chosen by the Springleap design panel, in conjunction with Positive Heroes.
5. Standard Springleap terms and conditions apply over and above.
6. Positive Heroes and Springleap reserve the rights to request the high-resolution artwork of any entry submitted into the “Positive Heroes” design competition for non-commercial benefit such as media covering the process.
7. Positive Heroes reserves the right to display all procured designs in the Move! magazine, on the Positive Heroes website, on promotional materials and at any Telkom Pinnacle exhibition or event.
8. The winner consents to having their photograph and works displayed in/on/at any of the above items.
9. The competition will run from 03 August 2021 to 19 September 2011. Winners will be chosen by a panel from 03 October 2011. The winner will be chosen and announced on 7th October via the Springleap.com website, in the following issue of Move! Magazine and on the Positive Heroes website.

Confused or uncertain about anything?

Post your questions about the Positive Heroes theme competition below or click our online support button to the left of our header.

Good Luck and Happy Designing!

mhh shoutBack on 8/8/11 by turtledude

Nice one UncleHani :) Looking forward to your sub! shoutBack on 4/8/11 by DuncanBoxie

Come Mozambique floods, come snow, Imma do this! shoutBack on 4/8/11 by UncleHani

Totally, this is for such a good cause! We have never done a compo quite like this, so its very exciting :) shoutBack on 4/8/11 by DuncanBoxie

What an awesome and inspiring campaign! I cannot wait to see the submissions. shoutBack on 3/8/11 by CathRon

Intricate vs. Simple design!

This is a seriously tough question! Indeed in the final analysis it always boils down to personal preference.

At Springleap.com we have a pretty wide variety of designs from either camp. In recent times the more intricate illustration style has been on the increase. We have designers like Vcalahan and JeBe who have added their considerable might to this faction.

There is however plenty of simple illustration that still comes through to Springleap…and WINS!

Firstly please don’t think that when I say “simple illustration” that I mean it with some kind of derogatory accusation of its merit. Indeed it is far from the truth. I mean it merely in the comparative sense that the design is created with less line-work and detail focus. OKOK! :P

Simple art is often looked on in some artistic circles as a lesser form of design. The fact that a design took longer to create, or has masses of illustrated line-work, does not make it ‘better’.

T-shirt design is the perfect platform for simple design, because it is all about creating a visually explosive design which has a concept that is clear and concise at a glance. The more detailed, or busy, a design is, the more difficult it is to understand its meaning at a distance, or by only catching a brief glimpse. Simple style designs are easily recognizable from any distance and make the job of ‘decoding’ its meaning less of a hassle.  

This is why the ‘age old battle’ of Intricate vs. Simple design will be a war that will stand the test of time.
Fine artists will often say that intricate design is the pinnacle of design, but then they get refuted by those who love minimalism and more simple forms, such as Picasso’s famous work.

You will see that throughout this post I have added doubled-up images. One is an intricate design, the other a simple design. The reason for this is purely that you can see that regardless of their complexity they are all absolutely amazing.  Take a look at Drying by Dephedwiputra and Vcalahan’s Killer Rabbit design above for example. The characterization and concept of Drying is what makes it an eye-poppingly good t-shirt design, whilst the pure intricate mastery of Killer Rabbit is what conveys not only the concept, but more importantly a sense of time and reference.

How could you say which of these 2 are better?
It’s an impossible choice…unless you have some kind of affiliation to the design and its message.

Personally, I’m a rather difficult character to please when it comes to t-shirt design, because I could never decide which of the two design styles I prefer.
Indeed for me it depends from design-to-design. There is plenty of artwork from both intricate and simple corners that I dig and just as much that I can’t bear to look at, LOL.

How about you guys and girls what do you prefer?
Do you think the Intricate vs. Simple design battle is something that can never truly be won by either movement?

Hi there one and all,

Well another Monday arrives and most of us are probably feeling smashed from a busy weekend….c’mon, hardly anybody has chilled weekends anymore hehe.

I wanted to pick a designer who would give us a serious kick in the ‘Julies’ to help jump-start our week with a bang. This is design inspiration which will leave you feeling like you just took a nitro uppercut to the jaw!

The designer I decided to use is a talented Portuguese character artist named Jose Alves da Silva.

I have seen his designs around, but it wasn’t until I spotted his K.O. design, featured as the ‘Image of the day’ on ImageFX, that I knew for certain that this was the type of work I want to show you.

This mega-designer has been rocking the industry for around 15 years and seems to improve and evolve his design prowess exponentially. He has won the coveted Master Award at the super competitive CGSociety Challenge XXIV. Not to mention that he has appeared in many publications, such as d'Artiste, Digital Art Masters and 3D Creative….to name but a few.

Jose Alves da Silva’s ‘devilishly’ cool K.O. design is bursting at the seams with massive personality, which makes you wanna recoil and hide from its demonic central figure. Sheesh, nobody wants to go toe-to-toe with the champion of the Infernal Pits Boxing Club.
I mean just look at that chin. He could jam your head underneath it and pop your head like a grape…sploooch!

I have a serious penchant for character design and let me tell you, this is some of the best I have seen in a very long time. The amount of emotion and depth every single one of his characters exudes is astounding.

It’s not just the characters, but the ‘mood’ of the worlds he creates for them which sets him apart. Take a look at his Mr. Reaper design below. It has an amazing constructed fantasy landscape which suits the epic undead hero perfectly. Not to mention that Mr. Reaper I so nicely incorporated into the scene…proportionally I mean. The movement of the design is really something!

If you would like to check out his tutorial for Mr. Reaper CLICK HERE….it’s awesome ;)

You must also have a lookie at his 3D design work, in particular his ‘bootilicious’ Booty Bobbler, it will make you chuckle, hehe.

To see more of Jose Alves da Silva’s amazing art and get even more design inspiration, please cruise across to his official page.

If you have him in mind for some freelance work you can contact him at: jose.zeoyn [at] gmail [dot] com

BAMBAMBAM!
Hows this for some serious design inspiration on your Monday morning….hurts so good doesn’t it.

JOSE ROCKS….I’m INSPIRED!!!