We recently stumbled across these brilliant t-shirts by The Unrefinery.com and couldn’t help but love them. They sort of speak for themselves – but what really impressed us is that they’re so simple, yet very witty and very clever. It just shows you don’t have to think up long-winded, elaborate designs in order to create successful artwork for t-shirts.

Want to print your own t-shirts and hoodies? Get in touch! We specialise in screen and direct to garment printing. Our email is: sales@iconprinting.com or give us a ring on: 0207 183 8431

The T-Shirt Deli puts a new twist on personalising shirts. The concept is pretty simple: your t-shirt design, served hot-off-the-press and wrapped to-go with a side of chips. Awesome!

Owner, Ninel moved to Chicago 13 years ago. After years of copy-writing for beer commercials, she left the advertising industry to start the T-Shirt Deli. She first envisioned the deli when she thought of several funny sayings to put on t-shirts. Rather than simply customising a few of her own shirts, she decided she wanted to help others produce shirts too – “Much like you can customise your sandwich in a New York-style deli.” She says, “After all, not everyone shares my sense of humor, and as it turns out, people absolutely love the opportunity to get creative, and see their own idea turned into a wearable product.”

She searched far and wide for gleaming white deli cases, rolls of perfectly waxed butcher paper, brightly colored stickers, and open-air wicker baskets to display our freshest selection of tees. She also chooses to use “homegrown” American Apparel brand shirts, and started to stock as many font choices and colors as cheeses in a New York deli.

Today, there are two stores in Chicago – one in Bucktown and another in Andersonville, and they just celebrated their seventh anniversary. They take orders on their website, and offer a fun ‘catering’ service. Like any other caterer, they travel to parties, work events, etc., but instead of dishing out spaghetti, they make and serve shirts on-site for the attendees.

Over the years, customers have had many creative ideas to share, though often their designs or text are based on inside jokes, nicknames and other cryptic items only known them and their friends.

It’s always so refreshing to see something done with such a twist! Good job!

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Come chat to us if you’d like any custom t-shirt printing done (sadly ours don’t come with chips, but hey – that’s not a bad idea!…) Drop us a line at: sales@iconprinting.com or phone: 0207 183 8431

We’ve been meaning to do a blog post on this brand for a little while now. Not only because they’re a fan of Gotham typeface as much as we are (our new logo is Gotham…keep your eyes peeled, it’s coming soon – along with our new website!), but we’ve recently noticed just how successful they’ve become in their unique market. They’ve perfected the blend of chilled, surf lifestyle combined with the sophistication of a big city. We can’t fault their brand identity, we’d happily sport a plain white tee with their black Saturdays logo across it. It’s wonderfully simple but equally as eye catching.

You’ll be surprised to know that they actually are a surf shop in NYC, it’s not just a fancy name. You may have also seen their logo sitting upon paper coffee cups – don’t worry that’s not some kind of mistake either, just another string to their bow.

In late ’09, downtown Manhattan became the site for Saturdays Surf. The store, which caters to New York’s surfers and coffee drinkers alike, is a small boutique focused on clean, stylish apparel, classic hardgoods, and a sampling of finer accessories and footwear. In little over a year the store has become an icon of sorts, and its private label is becoming a brand in its own right.

Out the back our their store is a fully planted yard that acts as a wood-decked sanctuary from the streets. It is a place to enjoy their coffee, hang out with friends or have a quiet meeting. Sounds ideal!

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For any info on creating your own branded merch or custom tshirt printing, feel free to get in touch…

email: sales@iconprinting.com
phone: 0207 183 8431

Digital artist Bram Vanhaeren, has epic typography skills. He’s put these said skills to good use in his “An Idea Everyday” series. This was a self initiated body of work based on self improvement.

“I promised myself, if I want to become better in what I do, I have to work harder and produce more. A fun way to stay creative and work on something you like, is by working on an habit. I aim to create a typography treatment every single day and keep it interesting. That way I can share quotations from books I’m reading, films I watch and random thoughts I’ve had that I would like to share with others.”

We’re really into our typography here at Icon Printing, as good type work can make or break a design or piece of artwork. We thought these pieces by Bram were too good to not share – as not only is the design work really strong, but the quotes are pretty great too. Enjoy!

If you’re stuck for fonts and feel like your collection isn’t quite cutting it, here are some helpful links…

Good free font sites – dafont.com | 1001freefonts.com

Great “for sale” font sites – YouWorkForThem.com | Veer.com

For any more information on t-shirt printing uk, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! We’d love to hear from you, you can contact us at sales@iconprinting.com or give us a ring on: 0207 183 8431

Claudia Doms is a graphic designer from Germany who is currently living and working in London. She’s recently done a bit of work for Topshop, including coming up with these screen printed canvas tote bags. They were created in time for fashion week, promoting NEWGEN winner Mary Katrantzou and other up and coming fashion designers.

In 1993 the British Fashion Council created New Generation (NEWGEN), one of the world’s most internationally recognised talent identification schemes. NEWGEN continues to showcase and promote new designer businesses and since 2001 the scheme has been sponsored by Topshop.

Claudia has captured these bags really nicely – utilising everyday back drops for some, others are livened up by printed fabric swatches from the designers current collections.

These tote bags make a great canvas for almost any type of design or logo. Check out our range here. For more info on tshirt printing uk, get in touch!

Matt Chase is a Washington based designer & illustrator, with a wonderful array of design-based things to look at on his site. We’re especially enjoying this limited edition letterpress print poster…we know nice letters when we see them.

This caught our eye recently at Icon Printing, as we actually print onto sportswear too, if you didn’t know? So this little gem didn’t go a miss.

Inspired by the sports brand PUMA’s – “Make Football Anywhere” DIY campaign, London design studio GBH wanted to capture the “raw, passionate enthusiasm” of grass-roots football. Tape plays a pivotal role in amateur footy, from securing the nets to holding shin pads in place, so it seems appropriate that GBH has created PUMA’s new typeface out of gaffer tape.

“The start point was to order 150 rolls of tape and begin experimenting with folding, ripping and sticking it into shapes, to form a full Roman alphabet and the all-important kit numerals,” GBH’s Jason Gregory.

See the full article here.