Chess Life Article

We were recently asked by Chess Life magazine if we could provide them with a sketch of one our our designs.  They were publishing an article on the connection between the chess playing automaton, The Turk, and an essay trying to debunk it, written by Edgar Allen Poe.  Of course, we said yes.

Below is the first page of the Chess Life layout as well as our finished design and shirt.

If you would like more info on this shirt feel free to visit us at our main site...here.

Ink on the Shirt: The Immortal Game

Designing a chess shirt for girls is a challenge.  No other way to put it. But we love girls..and we love chess girls even more, so we took up the challenge.
After much thought and frustration in trying to figure out what girls like...I came up with the concept of a mermaid that has been playing chess with her long-dead lover for centuries.  And because mermaids are immortal, I thought it would be clever to name the design The Immortal Game, after the classic game between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky played in London in 1851.


So here is my lame initial sketch...

Somehow, through the use of magical powers, my horrible markings are turned into this amazing work of chess art...

I absolutely loved where this was going, but thought we had a little too much mermaid boobie showing.  So we made the sea shells a bit more modest and the hair a bit more concealing...

We are close...but I wasn't too happy with this color palette...so we changed it to a darker one.  We also did some work to improve the mermaid's face...and BOOM, the design is finished.

Here is a sample of the actual ink on the shirt...

And what the whole thing looks like on the shirt...

So there you have it. Go get it, girls! And guys, go pick one up for your girlfriend or wife!  You can find it HERE.

Ink on the Shirt: The Hypermodern Game

As much as I love this technologically cluster-fucked world...there is something about the quiet brutal elegance of chess that the modern world can't touch. I wanted to create a chess t-shirt that played with these two contrasting worlds, particularly as it applies to gaming.

As you check out the progression below...please keep in mind that all of the inking was done by hand and took hour and hours to complete. Hours, I tell ya!!

Some beautiful stick-figure conceptual art...


Rough Sketch...


Detailed Sketch...


Many hours of inking...


Many hours, I tell ya!!!

Boom!! Ink on the shirt...


Now go buy one! Or at least tell a friend!