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Once you've submitted your design it will be reviewed by Team BS t-shirt gurus. Due to the volume of submissions received we regret that we cannot provide feedback on every submission but if we like your design or idea, you will be contacted by means of either telekinesis or email to move forward with your design/idea.

What we’re looking for

We've found that most successful designs either connect with our fans and customers on an emotional basis or tell a story. We're also suckers for a good pun or mashup of auto culture and pop culture. References that a “car guy” or “car gal” might get while having a secondary non-automotive meaning to the “non-car guy” or “non-gal” (which we here refer to as Normies) tend to do well. Not every design has to appeal to everyone but be careful when playing the line between subtlety and obscurity. And while we try to cater to all automotive interests, some niches are admittedly smaller than others.

Want technical details on submitting? Check out our Artist FAQ.

I've Submitted, now what?

Sometimes the BS gurus will accept a design to be printed exactly as it has been submitted. More often than not you can expect there to be a collaborative process once we decide to use your submission. You may or may not be contacted to perform a break dancing battle via web-cam with Team BS as well. The gurus may want to simply alter the colors or scaling or tweak an element or two and provide some art direction. Or we may iterate more comprehensively with you a few times until we're both happy with the final version. Don't worry, you're still the artist of record and will have final approval of changes, since it will be your name on the piece.

Iteration, that sounds scary!

Nah, it’s easy and fun. Here’s a real-world example:

Maki Shinohara submitted to us a concept we thought was powerful but a design we believed had more potential. When we saw this, we all wanted donuts. Mmmm, delicious, delicious donuts.


After some feedback from BS regarding the shape and uniformity of the tire marks, she provided a couple of rough sketches of potential directions this work could take. The BS gurus are always happy to provide input at these earlier stages in the creative process to avoid a lot of work by an artist that may not get used.

The following is the one we liked the most.

 Maki then rendered it more completely as a vector file in her tool of choice, Illustrator.

 

With this image, we noted it had gained a decided Japanese calligraphic feel and suggested she incorporate that aspect more wholly into the final design. Note that this dimension was completely absent from her initial submission.

Other minor changes you might note included replacing the iconic Germanic vehicle with a Japanese performance model, eliminating one donut swirl (to allow a more proportional placement of the image on a tee) and the addition of the Katakana text “Mi Su Do” – a crude slang for Mister Donuts, the name of donut chain popular in Japan and verbal pun. Colors were also selected to complement the final feel. This version was offered for sale in Jan 2013.

 

Eight months later her original tee color was brought back as part of a promotion and this version sold even better than the first. Maki earned continuing commissions with no additional effort on her part. Did we just hear a Cha-ching?!?!

 


Not sure where your design fits in or have more questions? Check out our Artist FAQ or Contact Us.

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