Our February shirt is kind of special. It was designed by our amazing screen printer Dan Padavich. He owns Vahalla Studios in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District. It’s an amazing shop that primarily specializes in posters, letterpress and other types of old-school printing craft. They’re the ones who’ve been hand screening our prints every month for the last ~2 years.

Graduated 2004 from the University of Kansas. Visual Communications Bachelor degree, emphasis in Graphic Design and Printmaking. Bringing years of experience as a printmaker and designer, Padavic has printed work for just about every band and musician you could care to mention. Dan prints work daily for artist such as Hydro74, Frank Chimero, Meg Hunt, Blake E. Marquis & A. Micah Smith, of course his own work and all that they do together with pal Tad Carpenter under the Vahalla Studios name. Dan’s continual attention to detail as a printer is evident in his designs that show strong examples of typography mixed with unexpected compositions.

Check out Dan’s site (especially the poster section!) if you want to see some amazing modern art.

All that aside, this month’s shirt is called “Eye Drops” and it’s another one of our design’s that I can’t wait to wear.

“Eye Drops” goes on sale on the home page February 1st, 2010 at 12:00am (US CST). Enjoy…

If you like this shirt, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.

A special note about this shirt: Considering the large amount of ink on this shirt, it will be printed with a water-based ink. The colors are not as brilliant, but the printed areas of the shirt will be softer and breathable unlike traditional plastisol screen prints.

Ah, security theater! Is there nothing more achingly banal than taking off your shoes, throwing away your nail clippers and showing a disinterested wage-earner your shampoo so you can get on an airplane?

Quick! Who knows what the terror alert level is right now? Who is affected by it in their day-to-day activities, or more tellingly, who cares? I suspect the answer to both of those questions is, “very few” and rightly so.

The terror alert scale is more like a punchline or a political tool for scaring the masses than something useful. The threat levels are, by DHS’s own admonition, meaningless to the public; they won’t say what triggers an alert level, which means it can be anything from a true threat to this country to political manipulation. (An accusation that officials within the department itself have made as well as resigned over.)

FDR said it best…

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

That’s the whole point of terrorism, after all, is it not? To paralyze? To turn advance into retreat? It seems to me like the Department of Homeland Security in the United States (along with quite a few of their counterparts in other countries) has acquiesced nicely to terrorist aspirations by creating quite a bit of useless fear themselves.

Here’s some things you should spend your time worrying about instead of terrorist threats: (source)

• You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack.
• You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack.
• You are six times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack.
• You are eight times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack.
• You are 11,000 times more likely to die in an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane.
• You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack.
• You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack.
• You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack.
• You are 1048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack.
• You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack.
• You are nine times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack.
• You are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist.

So the real problem with terrorism is fear itself. Considering the above, we should all get on with our lives, otherwise they win.

‘Nothing But Fear Itself” goes on sale on the home page January 1st, 2010 at 12:00am (US CST). Enjoy…

If you like this shirt, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.

Alright guys, this one came down to the wire. I really wanted to get this design, by the artist doesn’t speak English, so we had some interesting back and forth working it out, but I think it was worth it. I love this print and it’s a breath of fresh illustrated-air after my wordy graphic designs of the past few months. It’s called “Club Guns” by Loic.

I had Loic provide me with a translation of all the words in the design (they’re in French) as well:

• fragiles – fragile
• J’aime le fait – like
• de travailler – work
• quartier – neighborhood
• entier – whole
• de connaître les gens – to know people
• la musique – music
• ordinateur – computer
• la réalité – reality
• Qui es-tu ? – Who are you?
• Nice – beau
• Yeah – Yeah
• un – one
• gangster – gorilla
• ghetto – ghetto
• Off – vide
• Style – Style
• New – Nouveau
• School= école

And a little more about this French Artist (It’s pretty rough, so I’m trying to get him to send me a bio in her native language, I’ll post it here if/when I get it.):

Verlauf artist of modern times (Illustrator, Freelance Web designer). He arrived on Earth in order to work with pencils and imagination. His finest satisfaction is the gallery that was created in the womb of his mother for his little sister. It took 3 years for it to be available. From a patient’s temperament, likes to work on all types of media. Search and appreciates the challenge in his profession. A native of France, loves the world and life for its diversity. Her philosophy is love. I’ve attached pictures to my profile and Ai file.

And in French:

Verlauf artiste des temps modernes (Illustrateur, designer Web Indépendant). Il est arrivé sur la Terre pour travailler avec ses crayons et son imagination. Sa satisfaction la plus excellente est la galerie qu’ il a été créée dans l’utérus de sa mère pour sa petite soeur. Il a pris 3 ans pour que celle si soit disponible. D’un tempérament patient, il aime travailler sur tous les types de médias. Il apprécie le défi de la recherche dans sa profession. Originaire de France, il aime le monde et la vie pour sa diversité. Sa philosophie est l’amour.

You can find Loic’s portfolio here.

Club Guns goes on sale on the home page December 1st at 12:00am (US CST). Enjoy… If you like this design, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.

Hey guys, we’re aware that the home page is acting erratically and are racing to get it fixed before the midnight launch tonight. If we don’t get it fixed to go within the next 20 minutes or so, we’ll postpone until tomorrow night.

My apologies, watch this space for an update.

UPDATE: Carry on, carry on… Nothing to see here.

I Need Bacon T-Shirt

What do you really need? Is a life sustained, but only just, worth living? I can’t say with any authority because I’m not a philosopher; I’m a web developer, but it seems like the kind of question that could easily be answered with pop-art…

I Need Bacon T-Shirt by 200nipples

I’ve amended the standard list of needs here to include bacon. Why bacon? Well… I’m pretty sure it’s what they serve in line at the pearly gates when you’re waiting to get into heaven. Bacon is the champagne of meats; a total indulgence. I don’t even own a pig. If I did, assuming the pig was ready for slaughter, it would still take weeks to properly make (cure?) bacon. It’s also bad for me, salty and full of fat. Mmmmmmmm…

So I’m actually saying that life survived, but just, is not worth living. Along with certain things we must have for survival, we also need at least something that we want. This could be laughter or love, I suppose; your thing may not necessarily be bacon, but honestly, it probably is.

I Need Bacon goes on sale on the home page November 1st at 12:00am (US CST). Enjoy…

If you like this design, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.

Alright gang, we’ve got more words for you this month. This is a shirt by yours truly. It’s simple, but every detail was slaved over. This is a shirt I’ve always wanted, so I’m finally printing it. It didn’t take me very long once I got down to it, but it’s been at least 4 years in the making. Let me explain…

I had a self-made 11×17″ poster of this hanging my cubicle for the last 8 months I was a Marketing Assistant at a construction company. I’d had it printed on the expensive paper at Kinkos when I was broke because my wife was in Dental School. For those of you not “getting” it, this is a wink and a nudge to all the typography geeks, programmers and art history majors out there…

You see, in the 1920’s René Magritte painted a picture of a pipe with the words Ceci n’est pas une pipe. scrawled underneath it. Ceci n’est pas une pipe literally means, “This is not a pipe.” It’s contradictory at first, but then you realize it’s not actually a pipe. It’s just a representation of a pipe. This was all very self-referential and clever, and made people think about art and talk about art at a time when art was mostly about how it made you feel.  I’m being snarky here, but René Magritte was a genius and stuff like this was exactly why. (Side note: if you like Magritte watch the movie Toys. It’s perfectly surreal and most of the imagery in that movie is based on Magritte. If you can stomach the Robin Williams all over it, it’s fantastic.)

Moving on… that poster I made for myself was to remind me of the reason I went into marketing and design. (I landed in SEO and usability, but that’s another story.) It’s a reminder that communication is an art, utility can be beautiful and that written characters, are just as real as a pipe you can smoke.

This ” | ” is a semi-obscure glyph called a pipe or vertical bar. In math it can indicate absolute value, it is also used in computing, programming and in general typography as a separator. Much like Magritte’s pipe, it’s a representation of an idea, but since glyphs themselves are representations of ideas, it actually is a pipe.

I digress. Call it recursive pop art if you like. (Call it bullshit for all I care, my last foray into being clever with words and type was ill-received, so I’m steeling myself for backlash.)

This is a shirt I’ve held off on for the better part of two years. It was one of the original concepts I had before we’d even started coding the site. I didn’t print it, though, because I wasn’t sure if anyone else would think all this obscure typography and philosophy of communication & the written word was as cool as I think it is. This is also a composition that has been very personally dear to me for a long time and I didn’t want to hear anything negative said about it, but damn the torpedoes! I want one of these desperately, as do a couple of my programmer and designer friends, so here it is.

This is a pipe design detail

This is a pipe goes on sale October 1st at midnight (US CST). Enjoy…

If you like this design, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.

UPDATE 10/08/09: I’ve had my French corrected (not surprising) in the comments here and in real life, so I’ve updated the design to reflect a more accurate translation of “This is a pipe.”

UPDATE: This was scheduled to post this morning and didn’t go off somehow. However, since we’re on a regular 1st of every month new shirt schedule, the changeover will still happen at 12:01 am, September 1st. (Even though I’ll probably catch hell for it.)

We’re getting all philosophical on ya’ll for September. Ben Chlapek is back. He’s done two of my favorite designs that have sold on the site in the past, both “RIAA RIP” and “Delayed Travels.”

This one’s is the first text-based design we’ve had in a long time and it’s going to help people everywhere emote, I just know it.

Ben is a freelance illustrator, designer, and printer. You can catch up with him on his personal site at NeverSleeping.com, his MySpace, or his Flickr account. You can also find his hand-screened posters for sale at Etsy.

As always… this is also your last chance to score “Of Two Minds” currently for sale on the home page. Once this one goes up at 12:01 am, October 1st; “Of Two Minds” goes into the archives forever.

If you like this design, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.

"Of Two Minds" - Angel and Devil T-Shirt

Hey, who wants to stay home on a Friday night to score a creepy-cute shirt with quasi-religious overtones? You do!? Awesome, because this new shirts kicks ass. You don’t!? Well, we premier shirts on the first of every month, so you lose…

“Of Two Minds” by Shannon Rene’ Justice is a silver shirt featuring a devil and angel on opposite shoulders, whispering in your ear and doing their best to hypnotize your free will right out into the ether. Good or bad, you can walk down the street in this shirt and claim your actions are an external power’s responsibility. Excellent.

You can check out more from Shannon at redbubble, you can buy her book titled The Lighter Side of Dark here, and you can catch her on Zazzle as well as on ShopHomeMade.

“Of Two Minds” goes on sale tonight at midnight. This means it’s your last chance to get a print of “Cherry Bomb”, currently on our home page, before it goes into the archive forever on August 1st. As always, if you like this design, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.

Cherry Bomb T-shirt

Metaphorical linguistics get in a head-on collision with pixel art as pseudo-fractal art rides shotgun! Yeah yeah, that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue I know, but it does make for a bomb-blast of cherry goodness across your chest. So what are you waiting for? It goes on sale on July 1st at midnight US CST. (GMT -6) There no artist to credit on this one-it was done in-house, so I hope you like it.

Due to the nature of this shirt’s design, I’m attaching two more photos so you can get the effect from different distances…

Cherry Bomb Sizes

Extreme close-up on the artwork from the bottom right of the bomb:

Cherry Bomb Close-up

Of course, this means it’s your last chance to get a print of “Creative on Amber” currently on our home page before it goes into the archive forever on July 1st. As always, if you like this design, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.

This day in 200nipples history 100% awesome covered in awesome-sauce with a warm awesome center…

At around 6am this morning our hosting company, Dreamhost, borked our site. It was down for the following 9 hours until just a few minutes ago. This is such perfect timing, let me count the ways…

1. A new shirt notice went out today, because we have a new t-shirt going on sale tonight at midnight. This service has over 1700+ subscribers and our traffic on new shirt notice days is always order of magnitude higher than normal. (About 7k hits vs. 200-500) So all those folks got to see a big fat blank page for the last 9 hours.
2. The new shirt notice that went out was the first one we’ve had in over a month, almost 7 weeks, actually, because we just changed our release schedule to the 1st of every month instead of every 4 weeks.
3. It’s also the first new shirt notice we’ve had go out since we got covered in the local news paper, which gave us a huge traffic spike and had 100+ new subscribers to the new shirt notice service..

Brilliant. Smashing, really.

Yes, I’m passing the buck to my hosting company by publicly bitching. I could pony up more cash and buy better hosting, but honestly Dreamhost is down rarely. Like maybe once every 6 months and it usually never lasts more then a few minutes. It’s just that their timing was extraordinarily crappy this go-round.

Thanks for your patience. We’re all clear now. So cheers and buy the new design because it’s rad. Not as rad as this, but rad none the less.