T-Shirt Reviews Blog

Posted: 22 Sep 2009 08:14 AM PDT

Ian Leino is an indie graphic designer and illustrator based in Asheville NC who has for many sneaked under the radar when it comes to t-shirt visionaries, asides a great deal of respect at Threadless and the occasional if rather brief mention at various tee blogs like Hide Your Arms, so we here at Buy Tees think it’s about time the guy deserves to get the full treatment, a real review of his work to date, with plenty of visual goodies for all. Leino’s illustrations draw from a wide range of artistic styles and eras, he’s as adept at recreating the imagery of the past as he is at clean cut vector work, and more often than not, with a healthy dose of sass to keep his following smiling all the way to the checkout.

Leino is an independent guy, he doesn’t have a store, as mentioned he’s well known at Threadless, he’s also had a fair few commissions for clients including Cinder Block, Live Nation, Cotton Images, as well as other tee contest sites such as TeeFury.com and DBH. Leino, it must be stressed, is an all-rounder, he creates just about everything under the sun, be it CD covers, posters, calendars, however it has to be said that many of his t-shirt illustrations are stand out designs, and well worth checking out. You’ll have probably spotted many of the following in your time, such as a Collection of Flies and Vampires Beware, but what the heck, great tees are great tees, and besides this guy needs more exposure. If there’s one thing we can’t stand at Buy Tees, it’s great talent going to waste. Let’s take a look at what makes a phat tee in these lean times, over to you Leino…

Chariots Retired Tee

Appropriately enough this is a ‘retired’ tee, Chariots Retired is a hilarious homage to vehicles of the 80’s, a veritable scrapyard of delights for all you engine nuts out there. It’s beautifully executed, wonderful range of subtle colours and a cornucopia of intricate details to keep any stoner amused for days. The shame is it’s no longer for sale, sold at TeeFury.com for one day, you can tell by the ream of fan comments on this page there’s definitely demand for a reprint. This is probably the worst example of high concept overriding real demand, sure printing t-shirts for a day brings in the punters, but what happens when a classic like this one slips through your hands? I am sure Leino takes it all in his stride, being a full-time freelancer he’s used to clients following whims no matter how unfathomable they may seem to the rest of us. If anyone wants to start a campaign to bring this classic back, I would sign up. As a matter of fact the design had a former incarnation at DesignByHumans.com but again no chance of buying it there either!

I Wish I Were Tee

Now this is a smart idea transported to the medium of the tee, you have to admit it, there will be designers kicking themselves that they hadn’t thought of it first. The Devil making a snow angel, so concise, perfectly drawn in a clean vector style, slightly reminiscent of a Glennz design, although far warmer in sentiment, I don’t normally do cute, but I can relate. This should be a big hit with kids most of all, it was a finalist for a Bestee Award and was reprinted yet only the kids sizes are left as all the adult size tees have sold out at Threadless now. They’d slashed the price in half which probably left the cupboard bare! You can still grab this shirt for just $9 in kids’ sizes right now here.

Medieval Knievel Tee

Medieval Knieval Tee by Ian Leino at Threadless

Medieval Knievel Tee is another superb reimagining of our reality, with slight undertones of movies like Knight’s Tale and Army of Darkness (although with a distinct lack of the undead), Leino’s design subverts history for a laugh and does it with a great deal of skill. Beautifully conceived, the almost vintage children’s book illustration style leaps of the shirt. Wonderfully exuberant, very amusing, very sweet indeed. Way beyond wordplay! Again this tee is still available at Threadless for a paltry $9, what’s up with the t-shirt buyers there, don’t they recognise talent when they see it?

How Many Licks? Tee

As featured at Hide Your Arms yonks and yonks ago, this t-shirt again is sadly no longer available. It’s a superb design and must have flown off the shelves. There are so many aspects to How Many Licks? that I adore, it is almost a snapshot of a Tim Burton movie in itself, the theory that the Earth is composed of layers of molemen, lost socks, caramel creme, diamond rings, I love it. There’s definitely a surreal side to Ian Leino that just has to be plundered, a modern day Lewis Carroll of the t-shirt world is in our midst, looking forward to many more from Leino here!

Check out the latest in Ian Leino’s creations at his site, via Twitter or Facebook.

Lifestyle World

Tuesday, 22 September 2009