Marnie Cox – Groove
Illustrator Marnie Cox wasn’t sure at first if her images would work on a T-shirt, so rather than create a whole new bespoke design, she decided to play around with one of her old pieces. “I’d wanted to make a T-shirt for a while, but thought I’d trial one with an old illustration just in case it was a flop,” she said. “I went through some work I made in my final year of uni and ended up choosing Groove.” She made some minor tweaks – “I kept the original colours (blue and white) but inverted it so it could work on a white tee.” – and the resulting tee proved to be such a hit that it’s made it into every edition of Re-Press so far.
Isolation Wine Club – Isolation Wine Club
As the name suggests, Isolation Wine Club was born out of lockdown, but what began as an Insta account developed into designing T-shirts for causes, with their first launch raising over £3000 for Hospitality Action. “From what started as a page to kill some time during isolation to being able to raise that figure for such a worthy cause that ensures we all have pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes to go back to when this is all over is humbling,” they wrote on Instagram. They’ve gone on to donate the profits from their relaunch to the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading independent race equality think tank.
Queer House Party x Fredde Lanka
Another from our Holiday Collection line-up, Queer House Party’s T-shirt, designed by Swedish-born, London-based designer Fredde Lanka, paid tribute to their community. “The design on the back includes illustrations of our favorite performers, some that we have worked with for years and others we met while organising online,” said the team. “Chiyo, RhyssPieces, Lydia L’Scabies, Taali Not Charlie, and Ally Only you are all incredible and have helped us build this party and we wanted to celebrate your queerness by including you all in this design.”
Bouldering Dabrats x Lizzie Minnis
A testament to getting a designer on board, this was the second T-shirt by Bouldering DabRats, the YouTube channel dedicated to women in climbing, after an initial design didn’t quite take off with their audience. Created by illustrator Lizzie Minnis, it not only captured exactly what Bouldering DabRats was about, but – as the best merch does – it worked brilliantly as a T-shirt in its own right too.
Arthur Chayka – Out Of Office
Toronto-based designer, illustrator and photographer Arthur Chayka’s Out Of Office T-shirt struck a chord with many who’ve spent the better part of the year working from home. With a nod to the iconic Clippy office assistant, this design is characteristic of Arthur’s bold, tongue-in-cheek work. In his words: “Give yourself an HR-appropriate warm hug. You deserve it!”
Katherine Plumb – Midnight Flora
Spring has us ready for blossom season, so it was impossible not to include Katherine Plumb’s Midnight Flora T-shirt in our Repress lineup. For her tee the print designer, who makes clothes, screenprints, rugs, and plenty more under her brand KJP, looked to her signature abstract floral pattern. As with all Katherine’s work, the resulting design is simultaneously simple and trippy, making for a memorable T-shirt.
Aletheia Studio – Dreams & Ghosts
Originally part of our Paris Takeover, Dreams & Ghosts came out of the city’s cult graphic design and art studio Aletheia, which is helmed by Hugo Dumont and Anthony Vernerey. This design started with a book cover that the pair loved so much that they decided to borrow the title lettering for a tee. The resulting design was an exploration of type, with a little help from their friend Antoine Elsensohn’s typeface Trainer Grotesk, which they used for captions around the lettering.
33-33 Label – Mode
An annual series of artist-curated events, 33-33 Label’s annual Mode festival has gained a cult following for it’s esoteric curation and remarkable locations. For 2019’s iteration, curated by Laurel Halo, they brought out two tees, one featuring Halo’s own photography, and one which teased info on next year’s curator. A brilliantly inventive twist on music merch.
Flat Earth Disco – Disco Volante
For their Flat Earth tee, the team behind music platform and event series Disco Volante reached out to designer Ben Moulson, to help get their initial ideas off the ground. “Swipe to see my original sketches for these tee designs… thank god I found ben_moulson,” Jahmed wrote on Instagram. The resulting design was a smash, helping the work of everybody involved reach new audiences too.
Haŵs Music x James Lacey
James Lacey, AKA Pointless Illustrations, was the designer behind this Haŵs Music T-shirt, and his expertise as a music designer, with work that encompasses posters, vinyl, record sleeves and digital releases, shows. Plus, Haŵs were savvy in using the T-shirt launch to debut their sci-fi influenced logo redesign, a special way to mark it.
Lime Cordiale – On Our Own
Last April’s PARALLEL collection saw So Young Magazine curate a selection of tees by some of their favourite bands, venues, record shops, labels and more. The resulting T-shirts were designed by names including Rough Trade West, Wide Awake Festival, Moth Club, Heavenly Records, Happyness, Emerson Snowe, and Lime Cordiale, whose On Our Own tee, designed by band member Louis Leimbach, was one of the standouts.
LIAM COBB – RIBBETING CONVERSATION
Liam Cobb’s Ribbeting Conversation long-sleeve proved so popular that he’s had cause to run a couple of relaunches, making it a no-brainer for this edition of Re-Press. Combining the Reykjavik-based illustrator’s singular aesthetic, which lifts from technical architectural drawings, with a touch of surreal anthropomorphic humour, as Liam wrote on Instagram, “The frog community has really got behind this one.”
GABRIELLE WIDJAJA – NÜSHU: A CULTURE OF SUNSHINE
For her Nushu T-shirt multi talented artist Gabrielle Widjaja, AKA Gentle Oriental, looked to history, specifically the women of 19th century Jiangyong, China. Prohibited from formal education, they created their own language, which they used to record autobiographies, write letters and more. “Nüshu 女书 is considered to be the world’s only writing system that was created and used exclusively by women,” Gabrielle explained. The T-shirt bears a reworking of a Nüshu phrase too; “All the women in the world are members of the same family.”
Joey Yu – BONSAI
A firm Everpress favourite for a good few years now, it would be impossible to pick our favourite Joey Yu design, but her Bonsai long-sleeve, which features writing borrowed from signs at the Brooklyn botanical gardens, is definitely up there. A big part of Joey’s appeal is how distinctive her work is, a testament to her originality as an artist. “Don’t try to follow in anyone else’s footsteps! And make things with conviction,” she said, when we interviewed her. “It’s fine to make work that’s trendy or cool or whatever, but if you’re not behind it yourself then I don’t think there’s much point.”
Juppi Juppsen – NO BORDERS
Part of our holiday line up too, Juppi Juppsen has a knack for politically engaged, cartoon aesthetic T-shirts, like his Smash Fascism tee, and this No Borders design too. Recently relaunched on Brexit day, as the illustrator and animator wrote on Instagram: “To counter Brexit Day I’ve decided to relaunch the No Borders campaign. Xenophobia, anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiments have been on the rise since the Brexit referendum, it’s important for us to take a stance and help people affected by hate and hardship!” Committed to making a tangible impact as well as getting a message out, all proceeds from this T-shirt went to Refuge Action.
Read More: 15 Of Our Repress Highlights
