t-lab Experimental

DnA

New design blog DnA (bringing together a diverse range of contemporary creative practices) has just launched - see it here

blog.autoinjected.com

Just found this cool collection of t-shirts for car fans - and very pleased to find one of ours in there - plus lots of classic vintage race car stuff - at blog.autoinjected.com

Design notes: 012 Dolimiti

It may be just us, but we've always had a fascination with continental bars. The clashing colours, the exotically named liqueurs, the heavily moustached landlords.

Following on from the success of our earlier Bar Suisse design, we were keen once again to dip into this treasure trove of graphic possibilities.

We chose an Italian theme and we thought the three barred Italian flag would present us with a great starting point. But it took us a surprisingly long while to come up with the a design that we really liked. Here's some of the earlier roughs:

It was only whe we added a tail to the flag that it suddenly started to work - the new design adding shape and an asymetrical energy.

From a distance the design just says 'dolimiti', it's only when you get up close that you notice the additional 'bar'. We like that kind of thing in a t-shirt, so we kept it in.

As its name implies, Dolimiti was originally conceived of as a winter ski-themed shirt, but the design isn't too specific and as with most t-shirts, it can be worn all year round.

The short sleeve version was launched in October 2011, followed by a long sleeve version two months later.

Your torso needs...

Many thanks to David Nicholls at the Daily Telegraph for his 'Your torso needs..' article on t-lab, printed in his Men's Notebook of the Telegraph Magazine, featuring our Kitchener and Surveillance designs.

fashion.telegraph.co.uk/davidnicholls

Thanks to EVO and new products on the way

A big thank you to EVO magazine for showing our 08 Parabolica shirt on their Essentials page (Nov issue). Parabolica continues to sell well and looks like being our best selling t-shirt of 2011. New products are on the way - some new winter inspired t-shirts and, in an unexpected (even for us) twist, some pure British wool beanie hats are also in the pipeline.

Planned launch date is early November 2011.

Best selling shirts May '11

Design notes: 08 Parabolica

There are an awful lot of car fans out there (us, too) and so we decided it was time to make a t-lab shirt for them. And, as per our design philosophy, we wanted to make it distinctive.

We came up with the idea of featuring a circuit instead of an actual car, and were further inspired by these stunning posters showing the New York Subway system.

Our first designs quickly showed us that styling a detailed racing circuit would be too subtle for a screen printed t-shirt, and so the idea was temporarily shelved. Then, several weeks later, came the idea that if we took just one part of a circuit and focused in on it, we would be able to have both our punchy graphic and our motorsport theme. 

The curva parabolica, one of the best known bends on one of the world’s fastest racing circuits, seemed a good place to start and 08 Parabolica was born.

The colour of the shirt itself was never in doubt - it had to be Italian racing red. A second blue coloured shirt, taken from the italian football top, was used for the long-sleeve version.

Shortly after its release, 08 Parabolica featured in Top Gear, the UK’s best selling monthly car magazine.

Best selling shirts Jan / Feb '11

Good sales for 03 Downhill in this period. Must be all you ski fans... 

We put our own long sleeve shirts to the test on the slopes this year and can honestly say they work perfectly beneath a ski jacket - not too hot, not too cold.

The Times - Saturday Magazine

Thanks to Simon Hills at The Times for this piece on t-lab.

Best selling shirts in December

Who's Jack - 'perfect balance'

Nice little piece from the super stylish Who's Jack website.

'Brilliant new t-shirt website'

Couldn't have put it better! Thanks to Trev at Farnell

.Cent magazine 'creative contradictions'

Featured on the 'Get Involved' section of .Cent magazine, under the intriguingly titled theme of  'creative contradictions'. See more of Cent magazine here

From Esquire magazine

Review from buy-tees.net

Thanks to Paul at www.buy-tees.net

B-side by Walé

B-side was the first blog to pick up on t-lab - we'd only been trading for a few days. Not only that, but they wrote a great review for us. And for that - B-side, we salute you!

From ArtRabbit.com

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Feature article from the good people at www.artrabbit.com