I currently have 4 of what were at one time "final" designs in the "critiquing" process for improving the designs. Most of the designs have been in their original version for almost 3 weeks... meaning I'm not in much of a hurry.

Anyways, what I find funny is that as I updated a critique with a WIP, in this instance Muse of Vitality, the responses imply the "critic" is viewing a final design. This brings a question to mind, What is the Threadless critiquing process really for?I don't really want to question the process, I want to benefit from it.

If I use the critiquing process in the way Threadless has designed it, or at least how users are using it, I'm really only getting feedback on what I haven't done to a design, not what I have done. That's not a critique...

As an artist, I was always taught to use critics as a counterpart and a tool for interpreting how my art affects the audience. That doesn't really define the situation I am experiencing with the Threadless "critiquing" process.

When it comes down to it, I think the word evaluation would be better used to explain what I am experiencing, and for myself to not expect to receive a real critique.

An artistic evaluation is the process of analyzing work of its subject matter and process, which in return can receive suggested improvements or changes. Ah ha! That explains what going on here.

In the end, I'm not that anal. I just think its odd that people freely use the word critique and evaluation interchangeably when they can have significant differences that are crucial to artistic development.

Check out the critique here!

If it wasn't obvious enough, I'm trying to recycle some failed designs. This one comes from Shirt.Woot, of course. The concept was pretty popular. The design, however, was not quite what I wanted. The theme was "Imaginational Symbol." That's right, a made up nation's symbol. I chose to make Paranoia into the State of Paranoia... silly, but it's what I do.

I personally feel this design is well constructed, but very lacking in detail. I'm hoping the critiquing process can clue in some more things I may be overlooking.

Critique the design here.

This design was originally a Shirt.Woot design I created on the 4th of July for the Energy derby. I felt then and still now that there can be a lot more done with this design to make it better.

I personally feel that there could be a lot of additional gadgets and electronic devices in the design to fill up the immense open space below the characters.

I'm not dedicated to the name or shirt color of the design in any way. ALL ideas from feedback will be considered.

It's closing in on mid September, which means I have been designing tee shirts for 5 months now. Seems much longer than that to me. I have been printed once in that time, but compared to the amount of hours I have spent designing winning once is pretty... disappointing and uneconomical for me. Time to get back to the basics and improve upon this hobby/passion of mine.

Back in May, I submitted a couple of designs to Threadless to get an idea of how my practicing style would perform. I used the critiquing process briefly as I was very eager to get submissions in. My designs did not perform as well as I had hoped, but that is understandable as they were only really my first true designs. I have learned much in the months since then, but the learning process never ends.

I plan on using the critiquing process here much more thoroughly than before. I have a folder full of unsuccessful designs from numerous design competitions that have the potential to be successful if I spent more time and effort on them. I also hope to get a better understanding of what the audience as well as other artists deem "Tee Shirt" quality designs. My detailed cartoons look nice, but aren't necessarily tee shirt designs.

Find the critique here!

Another design from the summer that I would like to take further, this design comes from Shirt.Woot Derby "Energy." The idea behind the design is the energy of vitality/livelihood and its ability to animate.

I'm not exactly thrilled with the meaning, its more art for art's sake than anything. Any suggestions, comments, ideas are welcome.

Find the Critique here!

This was a submission to Shirt.Woot a few months ago. The Theme was "Green." I had a couple of submissions, this happened to be the poorest of the designs I made. I'd like to take this design farther, so I am posting it here as a critique for feedback and ideas. Later, I'd like to submit it as a design.

Since the original submission I have only made a couple minor changes to the design so that the critiquing process can be the main contributor to the design process.