What I Got - Artcotic

And now another installment of a review.

I like art and whenever I see a piece, I like to know the artist's identity. This allows me to keep track of more work coming from the artist. So along came a package from Artcotic, a t-shirt website that gathered well-known artists like Frank Kozik and Todd Slater, you know you'll be getting some primo shirt design.

But first, I like to thank the delivery man, who thought it best to toss my package onto my balcony that I never venture out into because it's covered with leaves and a copious amount of bird crap. Not only did I not immediately find the package (is it that much of an effort not to leave it with the leasing office?) but when I finally did find it, it's already two weeks!

Behold the package.

Behold the contents.

One of these now graces my Macbook.


This is the promo card for Steve Niles' comic book The Sinner. He's also designed a t-shirt on Artcotic. Yeah. I didn't know he draws too.

Bill Sienkiewicz illustrates it and all is right with the world.

Here's the crux of the review - the shirt. I guess, I got this shirt because I lived in Austin and the designer, Christian Helms of The Decoder Ring is situated in Austin.

What Made Milwaukee Famous, the band, is also from Austin. Here's videographic proof.



I like the design, which is really reminiscent of what The Decoder Ring usually do. I'm not entirely sure if the words surrounding the inkwell are lyrics to a What Made Milwaukee Famous song.

Another thing about this shirt is the material of it and how Artcotic choose to make it.

Artcotic shirts tend to run slightly larger than your average AA, so make sure you look at sizing chart. There are also prominent stitchings on the shirt...

... running down the sides...

... around the armpit, at the end of the sleeves...

... near the bottom of the hem. You get the idea. This is an interesting aesthetic choice of the shirt. Too often, I see shirts that are just shirts but Artcotic chose to add some zest in their material. It's not much but it does work.

And Artcotic has a menagerie of artists that does their designs. I've mentioned Christian Helms, Kozik, Niles but that's just scratching the surface. You have David Slade, director of Hard Candy and Liz McGrath and others... these people are no slouches.

There are comments from people, who signed up with Artcotic about the artists' work (though I wish the artists would also comment back) and it goes to show how committed Artcotic is in the "making art for art's sake" mentality.