Tell us a little bit more about Jaden Kale and your day to day t-shirt life.

Well, I’m an East Coast girl, landlocked in the Midwest. I was actually born in Virgina, and lived for a few years in Hawaii before I spent the bulk of my childhood in Rhode Island. When my father retired from the Navy, we made the final move out here to where he grew up: Wisconsin, just before I started high school and I’ve been out here ever since. I would have to say I’m a fairly easy-going person. I’m always up for something new and exciting, and among other things, I’m an experimental foodie through and through. I am one of those people who will try new techniques or flavors while cooking, but rest assured, I’m not even close to being a candidate for “Worst Cooks in America”.

I frequently like to curl up in a blanket and feel all tucked in for the evening while I draw. I absolutely must have music on when working and it’s not uncommon to find me sketching in one of my books or, in a pinch, grabbing scrap paper and doodling to my heart’s content outside of the house. My sketchbooks usually travel with me. And if I’m in a particularly good mood, you’ll likely hear me singing along with my tunes. No worries… I can actually sing on key. On any given week day, I watch Woot, DBH, TeeFury and Threadless like a hawk to see what kind of new trends and styles are printing everywhere. I keep an eye on smaller sites like Goodjoe, and here at Tilteed, as well as others, because I want to see how new companies progress and fight it out against the big boys. And when I’m not doing that, I will check out artwork from any number of designers out there to see how they’ve progressed as well.

As an artist, how did you get into t-shirt design specifically?

A couple years ago, at the beginning of shirt.woot.com’s infancy, a friend introduced me to the craziness of competitive t-shirt derbies. I started them for fun that fall and by the beginning of March in 2008, I had my first print. I must say, it was a nice birthday present to have bestowed upon me. I’ve been hooked ever since.

As a Winconsinite, what’s your favorite cheese?

God, there are so many choices! I will first point out that, if you really want to try something cheesy from Wisconsin, indulge in beer-battered cheese curds. It sounds bad, but trust me, they are heavenly little melted balls of fried cheese. Since I have to choose one favorite cheese though, I’ll have to say garlic havarti cheese. It satiates my love of garlic while still getting that creamy, dairy product I’ve come to know and love.

Of the big kids, who do you own the most tees from: Threadless, DBH, or Woot?

Since I was introduced to Woot first, I believe they are the store I own the most tees from. And I’m not afraid to say, I own approximately 90 some tees (not including all the randoms I’m selling or trading off at http://www.TeeTrade.org) just from Woot alone. All in all, I probably own over 300 tees combining all from Woot, DBH & TeeFury, Threadless and all the smaller sites I frequent.

What kind of artwork are you looking for and what do you hope to accomplish as a curator?

I’m hoping to find a wide range of artwork. I enjoy the bizarre and the structured. The charming and the creepy. And artistic, artistic, artistic!! I like high amount of detail in what I decide on, and I’ll even consider a few pop culture pieces… provided, of course, that they are done well and are outside your traditional cheap joke tee. I can only hope I do Tilteed justice while I curate here.

Tell us about AdderXYU in at least 5 sentences.

AdderXYU is me, if amplified: the passion is real, for better or for worse. It’s a passion that extends to my first loves of literature and music as well. It’s a desire to see greatness in a world that has seemed to give up on it. It’s a desperate plea that we start re-educating ourselves in a culture where education is seen as elite and almost wrong. And somewhere under all that, it’s a dashing young man who likes a good martini and a scintillating conversation.

We have too few days to settle for being tied down, limited, and forced into generic experiences. I’ve wasted enough of them, as we all have. As a person, I’m trying to waste as little more as possible. Online, I’m hoping that people will get out of their own ruts and live for the unique instead of the bland. One could argue that alone is a waste of my own life, but I don’t buy it. It’s not all I’ve got.

Tell us about AdderXYU in 3 words.

Impossible. Too loquacious.

Singularitee - Give us the story, why did you start it, when did you start it, what it means to you.

SingulariTee was born of frustration in many ways. It was created because the shirt world, and consequently the art world, has forgotten what art means. There’s a huge movement toward creating solely for money, as opposed to creating for the love of art. I started the blog in hopes of showcasing people I felt really deserved the support. All artists deserve to make a living off their work, but right now it’s as though you can’t make a cent without treading the same old ground, or ramming tired pop-culture tropes into the ground. So the blog was started in September ‘08, in hopes of getting more exposure for work I felt deserved it, to counteract the much more powerful influences of “whatever sells best”. Art at its best needs to be praised, and the art world has become so cynical that even amazing, talented illustrators will ignore their talents and their creative sparks and everything that makes them amazing just for a quick buck. SingulariTee is in many ways the equivalent of college kids lending each other a Pixies tape while the rest of the world praised Milli Vanilli. It’s remembering that what’s popular is not always what is important, or what will last, or even what’s real. It’s giving some glimmer of exposure to the gems hiding behind the work that is all sales and no substance.

If the blog could have one widespread effect, it would be inspiring some group, large or small, to start putting themselves back into their art, and to start appreciating art which contains more of the designer. To understand that there is good parody and bad, times when someone is using style and times when they are aping something else. To remember that there is a difference between making money from art and making art for money, and that one is always less respectable. It’s not elitist to demand quality, and I strive to bring the tee world diverse work that proves that point. A t-shirt graphic is its own artistic expression, and the widespread idea that a shirt is just a shirt is an insult that I strive to correct. I love finding new things, love seeing my favorite designs print, and through the blog, I hope to be able to share that.

Describe your own personal favorite t-shirt.

That is almost impossible, but one of my faves is an old Woot tee from Monsieur Pimpant. It’s a black and white graphic of a man inside a huge cat suit, or possibly being eaten by a huge cat. It’s bizarre, the graphic is sketchy, and the whole graphic sits at the bottom right corner of the shirt. But the colors (it’s on cranberry) are perfect, and it’s just too interesting to resist. I got it in my first random bag… it struck me immediately, and remains one of my favorite tees. And in some ways, getting that tee and seeing how perfect it was made me the persona I am today. A great design is one that can grow on you like that, not necessarily something you need immediately.

What kind of artwork are you looking for and what do you hope to accomplish as a curator?

If I could put it simply, surprise me. I love strong, smart concepts. I love powerful abstraction. I probably like animals more than I should. But I’m willing to consider anything. Just keep quality your first aim. I’m way more likely to fight to print something original and unique to this site than one more tired rehash of the same roaring bear photo. And that’s pretty much what I’d like to accomplish. We all have a very real ability to build fanbases for what we do, instead of doing what builds fanbases. Independent artists of all sorts have done it for years. If I could bring anything to Tilteed, it would be to help the site build a customer base that loves what this site does, and is open to the diverse, quality work that I feel the site has built its reputation on until now.

If you’ve been watching, you might have noticed a few changes here at Tilteed. Our last two t-shirts have been part of a new series that we’re running - the Tilteed Limited.

The Tilteed Limited Series features a new t-shirt every 72 hours. These t-shirts will only be available for 72 hours. After that, you’ll be able to visit them in the Tilteed Limited Archive, but you won’t be able to wear one.

We were really happy to feature artist and designer Studioelle with our first Tilteed Limited design. Her design The Gift was curated by AdderXYU of the blog Singularitee.

AdderXYU also brings us our 2nd Limited t-shirt. This one is called “Joust” and it’s a design by video game artists and t-shirt designer Sokowa.

If you are interested in participating in this new adventure here on Tilteed, you can get your t-shirt design featured in 1 of 2 ways.

You can either contact one of our curators directly:

AdderXYU: adder(at)tilteed(dot)com
dunz0: dunz0(at)tilteed(dot)com (0 = zero)
JadenKale: jadenkale(at)tilteed(dot)com

Or, you can post a jpeg of your design in the Tilteed Forums. For complete instructions on submitting in this manner - check out this forum thread.

*As always, you can stay up to date with all of the Tilteed News by following us on Twitter or Facebook.

It only took 6 months, but we’re now able to accept Paypal! So if that’s the only thing that’s been holding you back from picking up your favorite t-shirt, here’s your chance to grab one.

To purchase a shirt using Paypal, just follow the checkout process like you normally would. Once you get to the payment information in your shopping cart, just click on the Paypal radio button and press checkout. You’ll be asked to sign into Paypal to make a payment to Tilteed and voila! You’ll have a brand spanking new Tilteed shirt on the way.

As always, you can follow us on Twitter or Facebook for all the latest Tilteed news and updates!

The wonderful crew here at Tilteed has given me the opportunity to share my experiences on this blog. I am working on a series of articles that will showcase the nuts and bolts of what it takes to print a shirt, what small companies are doing in the business, and artists making waves. I mean, really, have you seen some of the work that came out of the 31st Impressions Awards?

First off let me introduce myself, my name is Trish. I’m an Account Manager for a screenprinter and part time blogger (check me out at Gaunt Designs). When I started in screenprinting, two and a half years ago, I thought I knew a thing or two about the business. Needless to say, I was naïve.

Over the past few years I have dealt with a lot of marketing companies that use screenprinters as a part of their ad specialties programs. While this is one large part of the business the other part is the amazing art that family reunions and restaurant employee uniforms afford companies to be able create. This is why I think Tilteed is the perfect platform for graphic artists. Anything that promotes the artistic side of printing is tops in my book.

I’m here to share my experiences, both good and bad. I hope you take something away from this. Suggestions and questions are always welcome. Stay tuned for my very first article on what it takes to actually put print to shirt. I’m a visual person so expect lots of full color photos. Until next time…