(SPECIAL NOTICE: If you are submitting to the laFraise vs Popdeck contest please have at least a tshirt design in your submission, board designs alone will not be approved)

Contest time! Bing Bong Boing!

This time around the contest is with Popdeck and it will commence May 5th.

Now, we're giving away a few goodies to the winner…

If your design is choosen you'll get one skateboard with your winning design, one tshirt with your design and 1500 Euros. Now, along with your loot, your winning skateboard design will be sold on Popdeck in a limited run of 20 and will be sold as a tshirt on laFraise in a limited run of 500.

Also the runner up (2nd place) will get their design custom printed on their very own skateboard (a one of a kind item).

Pretty simple to enter, all you need is a laFraise account.

What you need to do is:

1. signup on laFraise.

2. Submit your design between May 5th - 19th to the "POPDECK" category on the European (English) site. (Remember preview image has to be 600×600 pixels and 8 colors max. Only entries in the "Popdeck" category will be considered for the contest.)

3. Win!

Things you might need include the tshirt template. Also remember you do not need to include a sample of your design on a skateboard, but it would help :)

(All winners will be chosen roughly 1 week after the final day of the contest.)

Breakdown:

-Runs from May 5th-19th

-Open to anyone in any country.

-All submissions go in the "Popdeck" category on the European (English) site

-Submission has to be 600×600 pixels and a maximum of 8 unique colors

Either way I hope to see everyone participating in this one.

(If you have any questions please feel free to post them here.)

Well, sometimes I would like to translate the French jokes, sometimes I prefer to… erm… well, here is a beautiful bottom, and… you see what I mean?

"Histoire de fesses" is in the shop, thanks to Eown :) 

Another important thing: many shirts are back in the shop, pages 5 and further. Check it out!!! Oh, and just because the weather is depressing in Berlin, we decided to switch Lost in the city to 15 Euros. 

Now I know you guys love contests. So we've come up with a new ongoing contest that everyone can participate in.

The way it works is, lets say you recruit a new artist to laFraise, I want you to reply to this post with who it was. Now lets say this artist wins our design contest… not only does the artist win, but we'll give you enough brouzoufs to purchase 3 tshirts from the shop.

All you have to do is 1.spread the word about laFraise to your artist buddies, once they submit a piece just 2.let us know in this post who you brought on board, and 3.if they win, you get 3 free tshirts.

So it's in your best interest to bring the best artists you can on board to laFraise.

This contest will not replace the "Friday Game", we will still have the Friday Game every Friday starting this Friday, did I mention the Friday game is on Friday?

Also, to avoid any time difference issues, I will make the contests range over 1-2 days to give everyone a chance to submit answers/challenges to me.

Good luck scouting guys!

(Also stay tuned for a new design contest coming up soon!)

KAPOW!

- Hey Sahadeva!! There's this girl at the office, she told me that you had a myspace, erm, a blog, erm, a… a t-shirt website??? What is it about exactly? How does it work?

- Ha! Yeah, she was right about the T-shirt website -Rumplo.com- a place to find amazing artist-produced T-shirts from around the world. You might also think of it as a community of T-shirt shops and T-shirt fans who come together to share the best T-shirts for sale anywhere. By collecting all these T-shirts Rumplo makes it easy to find great shirts and great stores that you may not have heard of before, whether they're tiny shops in Switzerland making brilliant tees or T-shirts produced by huge shops in Japan. Check it out, I think you may be surprised by some wonderfully great T-shirts people have submitted.

- Do you have a large audience? I mean, is there so many people who are t-shirt-addicted?

- We've been pleasantly surprised by how many T-shirts people have submitted to Rumplo, and how many people stop by in general, so there's definitely a large number of people who have a special affection for great T-shrits (ourselves included). We have a newsletter we send out every week, too, that highlights 10 brilliant T-shirts and that people really enjoy (we've got 1,500 subscribers and it's growing fast). If you'd like a nice weekly sampling of great T-shirts from shops all over the world check it out — http://rumplo.com/newsletter/subscribeme

- Do you think that the addiction to t-shirts should become priority number 1 in the world?

- Haha, well, T-shirts have the convenient quality of being able to take on a myriad of meanings and messages and forms, so T-shirts can be used in lots of different ways, whether they're political or social or artistic or just silly. If your T-shirt addiction takes on the form of promoting something you believe in then yeah, I don't see why you shouldn't be proud of that T-shirt addiction, even if it's just about art or something like that. My parter at Rumplo, Ian Van Ness, sent me a link to an article in the NY Times about a woman who uses T-shirts in particularly controversial ways to draw attention to social issues she cares about. It's a great idea, and makes sense to me considering people often use T-shirts to, as they say, wear their hearts on their sleeves. I don't want to gush over T-shirts too much, but they have become a surprisingly well used medium for sharing ideas, so yeah, if anyone reading this wants to make T-shirts you should do it.

- Why should we submit the laFraise t-shirts? I mean, what's the point for our members, for instance? Is there something to win???

- laFraise and other T-shirt shops should post their shirts to Rumplo for a simple reason: if you submit your tees to Rumplo you'll drive more traffic to your website, promote your T-shirt designs and designers, and sell more tees, all for free. Submitting your shirts to Rumplo makes them easier to find. People go to Rumplo because it's the easiest way to browse T-shirts from shops from around the world, so if you're T-shirts are on Rumplo they have the potential to be seen by the thousands of T-shirt lovers who frequent Rumplo every day. Again, it's 100% free, so there's no reason not to try it out! laFraise members browsing Rumplo have the advantage of being able to peruse laFraise shirts alongside shirts from other shops. And of course lots of people will be coming to Rumplo looking for one thing and end up clicking over to laFraise to check out laFraise shirts. We're hoping that Rumplo helps to broaden the audience for all artist-produced T-shirt shops, which ultimately benefits shops like laFraise more and more.

- What does the future looks like? Heaven or hell?

- I'm becoming more optimistic by the day. Maybe it's because Spring just hit New York and the sun is out, but I'm sure it also has something to do with discovering so many people doing cool things with art and T-shirts and websites. Places like ffffound and muxtape and sunlightfoundation really inspire me. It's hard not to be glad when I see people doing creative things and making a living doing it. In other words it's still hard for me not to want to say that there's a transition happening in the world right now, as knowledge and information
find new ways to reach people in so many places, and fun projects and business like Rumplo become easier to build for everyone. It's not all well in the world right now, but again, I'm very optimistic. Hopefully Rumplo some of the new projects we're working on will inspire people, too.

- And you, what do you look like? :) 

- This photo was taken by Mareen Fischinger, thanks to her!!

- What should we wish for Rumplo?

- Wish T-shirt shops like laFraise and T-shirt designers a million creative ideas for T-shirts — that's what makes Rumplo great.

- By the way, why is it called Rumplo?

- Rumplo is just a fun name that Ian came up with. I wish I could say it had some special meaning or connected with what we do somehow, but mostly it just sounds fun and rolls off one's tongue nicely : )

Thanks a lot and long live to Rumplo !! 

Yes, I know that it's a bit late for the breackfast, but for those who live in the US, it must be quite the perfect timing. So here is a t-shirt which was designed for a special "geek" contest. Were I the boss of laFraise, we would have only geek t-shirts, or designs related to videogames. Which is obviously the reason why I'm not the boss :) By the way, did some of you play to Mario Kart Wii? It's AWESOME. I had forgotten why videogames are so cool, and now I remember. Nintendo = god.

A good breackfast is what your health really needs.

Thanks to Magicien for this design! 

Hey everybody! This new week starts with a new contest, and we're proud to announce that we join Greenpeace in its fight to preserve the oceans. Why?

If we want fish tomorrow, we need marine reserves today. If we want whales tomorrow, we need marine reserves today. If we want to stop bottom trawling, we need marine reserves today. For healthy oceans — we need marine reserves today.

There is a growing body of scientific evidence that demonstrates that the establishment of large-scale networks of marine reserves, urgently needed to protect marine species and their habitats, could be key to reversing global fisheries decline and restoring our oceans. Greenpeace's plan to set aside 40 percent of the world's oceans as no-take zones could mean survival for sharks, tuna, whales, and a wide range of threatened and endangered species…

- Pitch of the contest: Marine reserves now!! In French: 40% de réserves marines sur les océans du globe, maintenant ! 

- Prize: 1500 Euros for each of the three winners.

- Timing: end of submissions on May the 11th.

- Where: please submit your designs here :) 

- Technical stuff: the t-shirts will be printed in our new Organics collection. The background must be white, beige or yellow, since it's the only colours on which we can print without chemicals.

- The logo of Greenpeace is here and must appear in green (hexa 66CC00, Pantone 382U) on a white background. If you want to see the map of the marine reserves planned by Greenpeace, it's here.

- What Greenpeace wants : no candy-like supercool dolphins with a smile. Your design is supposed to carry a strong message, with energy. It's supposed to provoke a reaction or a debate, to draw the attention, to make this project visible. Please keep in pind that a marine reserve is not just about fishes: sand, coral or seahorses are just as important as tuna. It's a global contest. Last but not least… jokes are welcome :)

I know that this contest will be a challenge for the designers, because the style and the motif are very strict. But I also know that you can do it and that Greenpeace is counting on you. I'll be looking forward to see your first submissions… good luck!!

Now you all love laFraise, why else would you be reading this? But what I want to know is, why? What makes you love laFraise so much? Is it the staff? Is it the users? Is it the constant flow of various art? What about laFraise makes you happy to get up in the morning?

Now from an artist's or even a general users standpoint, what would you like to see changed or improved? Artists, what would encourage you to submit more designs or get involved more in the community? I'm very open to ideas, and I want to know what you, the laFraise supporters want to see.

Fire away!

Just did some design work for a long time client, DJ/Producer Moussa Clarke.

I normally try and avoid this style now, but it seemed to work fairly well for this promo design.

Also figured someone out there might enjoy a good house DJ/Producer.

Check him out Here

(Detail)

This is a very poetic design, and really, it's a cute t-shirt. I'm the model and I had only a M-male sample, so I have to say: don't worry, Clouds Factory is a normal shirt, it's just that I'm small and, well, I'm afraid to be a girl :)

Clouds factory is in the shop!

And I'm really happy to see so many XLR8 designs on laFraise.  

Movies are another one of my hobbies and sources of inspiration, I usually try and go to the theatre/cinema at least once a week.

Any movies you guys are looking forward to seeing?

Which movies are your favorites, lets say top 5.

I'm looking forward to seeing quite a bit of new movies, Dark Knight (Batman) is definetly on that list of movies.

Some of my favorite movies currently are The Usual Suspects (Brian Singer), Fight Club (David Fincher), Southland Tales (Richard Kelly), There Will Be Blood (P.T Anderson), No Country For Old Men (Coen Brothers), Fido (Andrew Currie) and the list goes on and on.

What movie are you ashamed to like??

(The above image is based on a character from 2004s "Dead Man's Shoes")