Difference by design: urban graphics, pattern & typography

onecanvas

We are a new upscale ethical apparel company- we source & manufacture ethically and collaborate with leading socially conscious artists to create limited edition design 'mashups' inspired by urban graphics, pattern and typographic art. 10% of our profits will be donated to sustainable development projects selected by our community. Artists will be featured on our website and given a profit share in their designs.

We want to show it is possible to be in business without exploiting other people, or the environment. That it is possible to be a designer and make a difference. And that it is possible to foster change through the decisions we make as consumers.

We think the damage the cotton industry does to the environment and the disregard that has been paid to the farmers and manufacturers who make our clothing needs to be put right. However we think this needs to be done in a way that appeals to trend setters, putting design first. Hence our slogan of 'difference by design'.

Our design influences include: BAPE, Beams T, BBC/Ice Cream, KidRobot, Typography Served, Good magazine, Wired, Monocle, Colette, ilovedust etc etc. We are big fans of Japanese streetwear brands

young, hip, design savvy, socially conscious and inspired by urban graphic patterns and prints, cool typography and other art.

Equally at home reading Wired, Good magazine (http://www.good.is), Monocle, Art Box/WUW, and other hip art, design and culture publications.

We would like to source tshirt designs to appear on plain white, high end sustainably-sourced tshirts. The emphasis is on creating something remarkable, eye-catching, potentially with interesting use of colour, pattern or innovative typography.

We are not looking for the kinds of tshirts which appear on typical online tshirt 'competition' sites.

The main requirement is to look cool and showcase outstanding design. It is a bonus if the design conveys some of our brand messages (see above) in a witty manner, but this should be a subtle undertone and definitely not preachy.

The tshirts may fall into one of 3 categories:

1) Artwork using our brand (onecanvas, or "OC")
2) "Urban" graphics prints/patterns with cool, eye-catching artwork a la BAPE, and the kinds of 'streetwear' sold on colette.fr
3) Typographic art with a subtle 'conscious' message, ideally with a bold message on the theme of 'change, inspiration or difference'

Or it may even be a 'mashup' of more than one of these 3.

Feel free to be experimental - there may be multiple prizes available if the quality of entries is sufficient.

Technical details: the tshirts will be digitally printed using organic ink so you may use an unlimited number of colours, and the tshirts will be printed at very high resolution so detailed artwork can be recreated accurately.

The end product needs to be delivered in vector format.