I made a couple of veg-related shirts. Feedback?
Posted by rovinghouse on Dec 31, 2010 · Member since Dec 2010 · 5 posts
I find a lot of vegan and vegetarian shirts too cutesy or cheesey (with a few exceptions like the ones Food Fight and Herbivore put out) so I thought I'd try a couple of my own. (the artwork is mine.) I would really appreciate feedback on them as well as my site's layout.
The burger slap shirt looks creepy and violent. I would change the configuration of the sexes of the characters because there is too strong of an association with males being violent towards females.
As for the other one, maybe this is just me but the first thing I noticed was that there are non-veggies - fruit - on a shirt that says "vegetables feel no pain." I find the portrayal of what appears to be the "female" food disturbing and misogynistic as well. It's also unclear what not feeling pain has to do with partying, drinking, and having sex. A lot of people who are vegan/vegetarian/raw foodists do it at least partly for health reasons, and a shirt that portrays excessive drinking may not appeal to them.
I would leave out the women's versions of the shirts. If the others have unisex sizing, women don't need another shirt option just to show off our breasts. There would be less manufacturing costs for you, as well.
The artwork is very good.
The links to enlarge the images aren't working, so I can't tell you!
The burger slap shirt looks creepy and violent. I would change the configuration of the sexes of the characters because there is too strong of an association with males being violent towards females.
As for the other one, maybe this is just me but the first thing I noticed was that there are non-veggies - fruit - on a shirt that says "vegetables feel no pain." I find the portrayal of what appears to be the "female" food disturbing and misogynistic as well. It's also unclear what not feeling pain has to do with partying, drinking, and having sex. A lot of people who are vegan/vegetarian/raw foodists do it at least partly for health reasons, and a shirt that portrays excessive drinking may not appeal to them.
I would leave out the women's versions of the shirts. If the others have unisex sizing, women don't need another shirt option just to show off our breasts. There would be less manufacturing costs for you, as well.
The artwork is very good.
I agree with all of this. ^
Starkid, I can't force you to find something funny, but I think some of your angst may come from a thing being lost in translation (I notice you are from France).
From dictionary.com (under "pain"):
The more you know.
You may have noticed I took a few scientific liberties with the drawing. Out of curiosity, did Gary Larson get a bunch of your letters during his career?
Like the corn? She's getting shucked.
Well I'm a few hundred dollars invested in women's shirts that are already printed, but I guess I'll just throw them out on your advice. Wouldn't want people to see the dirty, sinful outline of a woman's chest. And those women who want a fitted size, screw them! They're just feeding the patriarchy.
The links to enlarge the images aren't working, so I can't tell you!
Thank you. I realized the site had a problem in Internet Explorer, and fixed it.
I kind of agree about the burger shirt being violent, and I don't ask what people think, if you don't want to hear their reply!
It also is a good idea to introduce yourself and maybe become part of the site before bringing up your website to sell things.
Now that I've seen the images larger, I'd kind of have to agree with the rest of the feedback. I guess they don't really get across what I think you're trying to portray. The veggies feel no pain one seems to just be veggies having fun and partying. The burger slap is really vague.. I don't think customers will understand it. And hey.. vegans can eat burgers.. just not animal ones. Your tone (as perceived via post) seems really abrasive towards any negative feedback. No one here is trying to bring you down. We're here to support and help you out. You asked for our thoughts and you got them.
Not trying to be abrasive. I don't mind negative feedback at all. It's true that almost all of the shirts I've sold have been to omnivores who are veggie-curious or otherwise just think the drawings are funny. So there's probably a lot of difference in perception between people who are sensitive or slightly less so.
I think you are missing our point, but oh well....
I don't like them. They don't make any sense, there's no clear message being displayed. The veggie one looks more like,"Veg*ns don't feel pain because they're numb from being drunk and high" even though it is a picture of food. The burger slap one just doesn't make any sense and I agree about the sexism with the veggies one. I like having womens shirts though- unisex doesn't flatter everyone.
There are many non-cutesy vegan shirts. Pangea sells a lot of them. Also, it doesn't seem like you can handle negative feedback because as soon as you received some you got rude and blamed the opinon on the poster being sensitive and French. After asking someone for their opinion and receiving some you replied by chewing the person out and knocking them down. You really aren't going to get anywhere like that. I would never buy from you based on how you treat people, I will happily give business to someone who is nice and cares what their potential customers have to say.
The burger slap does seem violent and not a message I would want to send people as a vegan myself. The vegetable one would be cute, if they were not barfing and drinking. Who wants to eat a drunk vegetable?
I'll be the voice of dissent here: I love both of those designs, for a number of reasons...
The simple diagram-style imagery as seen on "Hamburger Slap" is pretty popular for graphic T-shirts these days, and that can appeal to a large veg audience. Perhaps it would be good to have an alternative design that replaces the slap-er with another female, or makes the slap-ee a male, or whatever... I can see how the current design might be viewed as misogynistic, even though I don't think of it that way.
And personally, I don't think it's terribly violent. How many times have I fantasized about that very situation? The startled position of the meat-eater vs. the satisfied, post-slap pose of the veg*n is well-conveyed.
"Vegetables Feel No Pain" is, from the perspective of this artist/illustration nerd, fucking fantastic. The characters all have such distinct personalities (I especially love the lazy 'tater and crazy-faced mushroom). The line art is impressive by itself, but then You've gone and done a pretty swell job with colour, too. ...My only criticism here: the stroke weight on that carrot seems awfully heavy and out of place next to all the others. Even though he's closer to the viewer than anyone else, his lines could be thinned out a bit to match the others.
And I can't remember the name of that typeface, but it's one of my favourites.... You did a very effective text distortion with the word "vegetables"--usually people commit all kinds of type-crimes when they try to mess with warping/distorting text, but You kept it simple. Very, very nicely done...
Much like the perceived misogyny in the other design, I can see how some could be offended by all that raunchy, sex-related behaviour on the part of the "female" produce... but again, I'm just not as sensitive about those things. It helps that I have a pretty odd sense of humour, too. Basically, if I had $25 to blow on a present to myself , I'd buy that one (women's Small, dijon) in a frickin' heartbeat.
As for Your website..... I'm no web design wizard, but I do know good layout when I see it. The design is very straightforward and easy to navigate--the tri-column design is great, and the solid border on all the boxes are effective at keeping all the column contents organized. There's no annoying mash-up of barely legible type... that, and the few and well-contrasting colours make for an easy reading experience. The best part, of course, is the adorable header/footer artwork. I love it!
On that note, I also love the inexpensive vintage "Roving House" T-shirt. The logo is very nice... but despite the very affordable cost + hand-printed awesomeness + thrifted appeal, I would hesitate to buy that one simply because the brand's name is such a huge focus of the image....I would have to have some personal connection to Roving House to want to advertise it in such big letters on my chest. But still, the design of that logo is pretty sweet.
I think a lot of Us here are skeptical or perhaps more critical of people who post only to advertise their wares... so I would encourage You--for that reason, and because I think You might have some interesting things to say about other subjects--to check out these boards and tell Us some more about Yourself!
A little plug of my own... There's an Art-Sharing thread over on the "Hands-On Herbivore" board that You might want to check out. ;) Your work is right up my alley, and I know that there are more of Us on here who would agree.
Also:
I think You could easily sell shirts that feature the one-colour line art animals (adventurous mollusk, jammin' ants, whatever), even without any vegan-centered message. Your artwork is worthy of display, and those drawings aren't any weirder/less marketable than the stuff I've seen on threadless. It would benefit Your store to have a few other designs based on those drawings.
Single colour = pretty cheap! Dark brown ink on natural or dijon fabric would look nice, as would black or dark blue/green on natural or white fabric.
I'm going to add "Vegetables" to my amazon wishlist, in case someone sees that in time for my birthday. Consider that a huge compliment.
.....I only wish I could get an olive-coloured shirt in a Women's S, because I like showing off the shape of my boobs. >:D