What I Got - P is for Panda

Lemme tell you, sometimes reviewing stuff has its perks. This made my week. And I've been having a real horrible week. That's what P is for Panda do. It fills your crappy days with flowers and rainbows. Sometimes unicorns.

A little background on P is for Panda. They have a sound profit sharing plan (profits are split three ways: the company, the artist and a charity of the artist's choice) and Chad Pearson, creator of P is for Panda, is also the manager for several musicians.

They sent it out on the 09/11/07 and I got it 09/14/07.


Behold! As I slit the belly of the packaged beast, its contents spilled forth in glorious colors --


Among the extras that came with the t-shirt - a sticker, an info card on what P is for Panda does, a 15 credits for downloading music from discrevolt.com and buttons. A lot of buttons. If the world runs on a currency of buttons, I'll be... moderately well-to-do.


Now the t-shirts. I got the Unisex Dirty Panda tee designed by Brian Manley...


... but I want to go in depth with their latest t-shirt designed by Mark Penxa.


Now, when a t-shirt company has a name like P is for Panda, it's assumed that they would have a line-up that's Panda-centric like France's Stereo Panda. This means, they have to come up with a lot of panda variations to keep fresh to the uninitiated public and returning fans. This kind of pigeon-hole tactic may limit you but it'll cause one to be more creative than usual.

But. What if you could rise above your namesake and delve into something that's not predictable. That's what P is for Panda did when they roped in Penxa, who designed the cardinal. By having a t-shirt that isn't oriented around pandas, they've opened up newer avenues of ideas.

It's a wonderful design. With the careful consideration of color and placement, it adds a certain intensity to the cardinal. Note the placement of the splash of red that immediately draws the eyes to the art. I can't stop raving about this. It's well-executed and Penxa does awesome work.

I can't wait to see future designs from this company.

Note: Penxa's designs are limited to 36. Penxa's cardinal prints are also up.