Here in our little half of the world we’re getting ready for Earth Day celebrations for Aprill 22nd 2009.
So, recycle that hippie, hug that tree, and conserve organic beer and all that jazz.

This design is available at www.TornadoRepublic.com on new organic apparel, too, of course.

Someone suggested that I’m now “the sign guy” and frankly, that’s totally great with me! I’ll admit I have been pretty obsessed with signage-style pieces lately and it’s only a portion of what I’ve wanted to do for a long time. So, there’s only going to be more.

Done mostly for my own enjoyment. I just wanted to do a little “woodwork” style signage and, well, once you throw a little brass in it’s easy to get carried away, right? So, in a long, convoluted way I ended up doing this vintage, 1930’s-1950’s style barbershop sign with barber pole. It’s not exactly correct in the sense that I’ve never seen a sign attached to the pole itself but it works for me. It’s a “Main Street USA” kinda’ thing – Americana, small-town, simpler times, etc.

Thank you very much to those who answered my request for feedback on my work-in-progress. I think I’ve incorporated most of the points as I agreed with them, too.

Available on various products at www.TornadoRepublic.com

Have I mentioned I love vintage signage and bottle/brewery style labels?

It seemed like a good time to have a little fun with something a little “stronger” than a beer bottle label.

Ballyturk Irish Whiskey, from the little village of Ballyturk, where there are more sheep than locals, was a great place to start. BIW is the pride of this little farming community that uses the unique soil and peat created by the salty air of the cold, North Atlantic ocean to blend its excellent, single malt spirit. The cold, foggy and humid climate is perfect to create a robust, flavorful whiskey in the old tradition.

So, if you’re not able to stop by the local Ballyturk pub on Thursday night to listen to Teagan the barmaid tell stories and sing local folk songs then enjoy a little Ballyturk from the Tornado Republic.

This and other designs are available from www.TornadoRepublic.com

Some of you know that one of my favorite design styles is that found in beer and wine labels, brewery, and tavern signage. I don’t get to indulge in it as much as I’d like. However, I decided I’d be self-indulgent a little and combine a bit of my daily life (that of artist and designer) with this style. So, here’s a little treat to myself and perhaps others, who enjoy these things, may have fun with.

The Student Utility Building. I’m not sure if it’s a point of pride that college was the best five years of my life because, well, it wasn’t pre-med nor law school… it wasn’t supposed to be longer than four years at tops. What can I say? I liked electives.

At any rate, even though I lived in the same town as the college the SUB – Student Utility Building – was still my second home. You could go to the bookstore, grab a soda and chips, order finger steaks for lunch, or just grab a quick game of foosball or watch tv with friends. I certainly have fond memories of our SUB and the many hours I clocked there (including one really bad snowstorm that prevented me from making it home until after midnight).

So, I’m going to indulge myself by commemorating something I think a lot of others who loved college will relate to… the college SUB in all its student comfort goodness.

Available at the TornadoRepublic.com

I’m not sure if it’s just funny or poking fun but seriously… what will an Emo kid do if he doesn’t like it? Write me a sad poem?

Black printing on a black shirt using black machinery, in a darkened room where emotional high school students read poetry and toil away cranking out tshirts.

Occasionally the goth kids bust in to start trouble – wearing their own black shirts printed with black ink using black machiner… hmmm, maybe Darwin was right?

www.TornadoRepublic.com

John Battelle rightly asks “Why isn’t this part of DoubleClick?”

Thanks to Mary for the heads-up.

Link to Spreadshirt announcement.

UPDATE: Newer post about this here.

This is very preliminary information and I only had the most tertiary review of the subject but one of my peers said that an email from Zazzle indicated they were flagging, to some degree, designs that might be considered stronger than PG-13. The preference being toward more family-friendly PG-13 or milder designs.

We’ll see what comes of all of this. The Zazzle forums will surely be abuzz talking about it sooner or later.