Hi there friends.
We are what we wear right? Hmmm, well perhaps in some instances.
Personally I feel that it’s rather easy to assume too much depending on what an individual is wearing. In many cases it’s pretty clear as to what a person is like or likes, purely by looking at their t-shirt.
There are often designs out there that when worn make you the object of scorn or even aggression.
That got me to thinking. Do we at Springleap.com have any dangerous t-shirt designs which could possibly land you in hot water??
As far as dangerous t-shirt designs go there are a few that I can single out that have caused a few members of the public to audibly gasp. Now it is not our mission to make designs that have intrinsic shock factor, but rather let designers have a platform to exhibit designs that they themselves think will rock our cosmos. Whether or not the design makes it to print is entirely up to the Springleap.com voting community.
While we don’t mind a bit of “safely brazen” material coming through every now and then, we do not condone overly smutty designs or profane language that would make a coal miner blush.
One design that has caused a stir is the immensely popular design eSempowenis by Wolfox. This African spin on the Simpson family has been undoubtedly the biggest selling design in our history. It’s clever, it’s created from scratch and it makes 9 people out of 10, laugh hysterically. So what is the problem then?
Well it seems that a small percentage of the populace feels that the eSempowenis design is racist. Seriously!
This is pretty much a straight “Africanesque” adaptation with a massive stereotype bombardment. That is the point dammit…not to get people all knotted up. Have a sense of humour, take it easy and let us laugh at our own cultural misconceptions.
Next up is DaRKo’s latest submission for the 35 Nations of Football theme competition.
Vuvuzero is a very local ‘n lekker design which can perhaps only fully be appreciated by South Africans….or of course football fans that have been to an SA match. The vuvuzela is the single most noisy/annoying horn you will ever hear. I know it is part of our local culture and that we should embrace it. However it’s a tad hard to embrace something that sounds like a strangled swan.
While wearing this t-shirt you may get handshakes, or pats on the back from like minded citizens, however there will always be a certain percentage who will take offence to you not liking their noisy little vuvuzela noise makers. That is the point where you pray you are wearing your running shoes and head nimbly for the hills.
My final example is What would Godzilla do? by the one and only TokyoGoGo. Yep, this one caused some serious havoc! Obviously because of the religious content of a Jesus Godzilla rampaging through town, it sent ripples through the more conservative crowd. Dude this design had so much design power and detail that it was obvious that it would have a winning spot in the competition, but there is no wonder how it ended up on my dangerous t-shirt designs list. If this was the old days and a religious group caught hold of you, they would have run you up a flagpole and set you on fire, eish. This design is controversial for all the right reasons, but it is also epic for all the right reasons too.
As you can see it is easy for a design to incite the wrath of others. Some are less worthy of scorn than others, but we all know that everyone has a different threshold for tolerance. Mine is pretty high and I try to see the good or the skill in all designs, but I find others only look for what is wrong…it’s the glass half empty kinda vibe.
Duncs.
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