Feel free to comment below!
This week, I've reached out to t-shirt artists and asked them -
What are your favorite recurring elements or characters in your designs? How'd they come about? Why do you love working them in?
1. Kathy Weller, Kathy Weller Art and Ideas
What are your favorite recurring elements or characters in your designs? I love to illustrate emotional support quotes and sayings, and I am also often inspired by quotes and sayings from books and movies.
How'd they come about?
As a hand-lettering artist who already loves using using quotes in my work, and also being a fan of movies, books and other media, inspiration from those sources was a natural progression!
Why do you love working in them?
Taking an iconic quote or saying and visually reinventing it allows me to add a new spin on the meaning of the original words with illustrative details and creative lettering. Sometimes, the choices I make in how I illustrate the words, or the elements I choose to add, can reframe the meaning of the original saying, or even add a whole new dimension to it.
- Kathy Weller, Kathy Weller Art and Ideas
2. Jay Longshore, Owner of Shirtmandude.com
I have a side-eyed squirrel, that I slip into designs fairly often. Any time I need something to say WTF to what is going on in the design, I pull out my side eyed squirrel and plant her in the image. There are some examples above. Also, I use a lot of the same elements in different designs, like a lot of my bigfoot shirts are the same bigfoot, I just move his arms and legs around to fit the new idea. And for some of my national park shirts, I'll put the main character into other scenes for other parks, because if it is selling well, then people like the main image and I just change the scenery to fit the new place.
I used to be a writer for an advertising agency and if we pitched a campaign or concept that we thought was cool, but the client didn't go for it, we would try and tweak it a bit for a different client and repitch it until somebody else wanted to use it.
- Jay Longshore, Owner of Shirtmandude.com
3. Nate Huntzinger, Founder of Menottees.com
My favorite recurring themes in the designs are most likely humor and positive short phrases. I really love to help people laugh and spread joy so it’s fun to add phrases like “Express Yourself” or “Let’s Roll” to a gnome riding a fox.
I think if you can add more fun and joy to the world, you win, so I usually keep those designs going.
I’m not sure how they come about either, a lot of my ideas seem to happen on walks though as I tend to take them on a daily basis.
Without walks, some of these designs would probably not exist either so it’s interesting how a small routine can add so much to your life.
- Nate Huntzinger, Founder of Menottees.com
4. Kaeli, Kaeraz.com
My favorite recurring elements are what I fondly call "animals in predicaments". I'm a big fan of little critters so putting them on a shirt or sticker (like my poor little raccoon from my Havin' A Crisis Tee) makes me happy. And apparently they strike a cord with my audience because anything featuring an animal is sure to be a popular seller.
Another element came from a phrase I like to mutter to myself when I'm designing: "When in doubt, put a cowboy hat on it." A lot of my designs have a country/cowgirl lean, which comes from my own roots growing up in Arizona, specifically West Phoenix when it was all dairy farms and alfalfa fields. Some of my designs started off with one element like a cute, cherub angel or an armadillo, but I decided it needed a little something more so...cowboy hat!
-Kaeli, Kaeraz.com
5. Paul, Popcornpunk
My favorite recurring character would be the frogs.
During the wet season here in The Philippines there are tons of frogs and some of them even make their way into our house. They're everywhere, they're like Spiderman, climbing up the corners of the walls. Sometimes, they even fall on your face while you're sleeping! LOL so, I thought I'd draw them. I created a design called "A frog" it's a traditional ink stippling.
I uploaded it to Threadless and it became my first best-selling design!
- Paul, Popcornpunk
6. Cindy, Snouleaf.com
I definitely have a soft spot for stars and cats. Those elements align perfectly with my art style which falls into the cute and creepy section.
Cats are fascinating with their diverse personalities, ranging from playful and adorable to mysterious and mischievous. Besides being quite popular worldwide, they can practically fit anybody's mood, give a good laugh or express the utmost grumpiness!
What draws me to these elements is my love for mixing kawaii charm, creepiness, and a sprinkle of magic! Stars are a great combination to bring a hint of joy and light to dark art.
- Cindy, Snouleaf.com
7. Mike Buxton, DinoMike
I generally tend to illustrate things that I find fun and interesting to me, I think that way the designs always have those elements coming through. So in my case it’s a lot of movie stuff, especially horror, and animals. I also live with two cats so you see a LOT of their influence coming through!
-Michael Buxton, DinoMike
8. Jennyfer Clancy, DangerCoolDesigns
My favorite elements are anything science, mostly microbes and items to see microbes. Being a science teacher, I've always loved microbes and have never been able to find much merch for them (that I liked and wasn't redundant), hence how they came about ;). I love working with them because they're awesome and deadly but also healthy. The science is just awesome.
10. Kali, Kalirally.com (this website!)
My favorite reoccurring elements are googly eyes and something that someone can relate to... a situation, a favorite food, workplace happening, or hobby :) Of course if I can have these along with a pun, that's great.