I just took part in another GooooooOOOOO Media exposé on the 15 worst mistakes that apparel designers make. Its awesome the they decided to include me. They either thought i would have something cool to say, or think that im some huge boob that’s made lots of mistakes. hmmmm, either way, its a sweet article. There’s tons to take away for those just starting out in design and even the more experienced tee mongers, and its 3 parts….THREE like friggin lord of the rings, its just that epic!

Go read it now, and be a winner like this chick!!!!

i just got my Epic Fail Kids shirt from Mustache & Friends and i couldnt be happier with how the print came out. Those guys did a fantastic job, the colors are spot on and the registration is seemless! This may be the coolest thing of mine ive ever had printed! You can pick one up at their webstore by clicking the image.

In other news, i made up a new word. It seems that im a horrible speller, so when im messenging people a slip of the finger usually makes for some pretty amusing new concoctions. This weeks anomolie is DRAP. It was decided that it shall be synonomous  with a diarrhea fart and most often used as an expletive to express dismay. Here, ill use it in a sentence…..” Holy Drap! Theres a new Terminator 4 Trailer!”

see how that works

holy crap i need to post more. Actually i need to work more. I took about two weeks off doing freelance to both rest up and redo my office. Now its got a fresh coat of paint some sick new IKEA furniture, and its 100 times less stressful. I can already feel the difference. The first piece ive done since remodeling is probably the best thing ive ever done. I think its gonna blow people away. Ill post some pics of the office and the piece as soon as im done. Until then, here’s a quick piece i did a few weeks ago for my dudes in The Swellers. They wanted a gnarly werewolf, and i did my best not to disappoint. You can pick it up on their current tour with A Wilhelm Scream.

I recently had the opportunity to contribute to an excellent article put together by Jeff Finley over at Go Media. They surveyed 7 apparel designers and asked what websites inspire them the most. All the artists are crazy good and have given some pretty killer links, 57 all together, well probably more like 50 i think everyone mentioned emptees. I was super stoked to be included in such a  talented group, and get a little press. Check it out, try not to let how much better their blog looks than mine distract you too much.

My fighting ice cream monster design was just recently printed for A Day To Remember, and posted to their merch store. This band kicks ass, and so does the shirt! Grab it now, you only have 3 or so months left before you’ll look like a complete tool bag wearing it. On the fence? Well listen to this theme music, if you arent completely pumped by the end of it then you fail the physical challenge!

Fucking hump day. gah. Nothing especially especial about today, but i did get some super sweet pics sent over by my dude Ray from A Wilhelm Scream. Ray does all of Wilhelm’s tour managing, and most of the time is my liazon when working with those dudes. Anyways, Ray just got a killer tat of one of my Wilhelm designs, my first ever for them actually. It came out stellar and im super stoked about it. I dont know the name of the chick that did it, but she’s an Aussie, and she slays. Its gonna look so good when its done. Maybe one day people will get tats of stuff i actually drew…when that happens im gonna shit a watermelon….what? The Wilhelm dudes are back home now and are doing a stint in Canada next month…ill post the flyer when im done with it.

Just wrapped this weirdo the other day for a new line called Marshyn. Its the new brain child of Micky Mays, the dude who printed my superhero design. He’s got some other killer artists involved so it’ll be cool to see what happens with it…so anyway, the design. He originally wanted my take on the Baltimore Orioles mascot, so it all started with our roided out hero there. Halfway through he informed me that his brand identity was changing and tossed out the idea of having him on a hoverboard, taking on some martians. Lucky for him, the idea was right up my alley, so as bizarre as it sounded, i whipped up a gnarly space battle for the little pecker (the bird, not micky). All in all im happy that the directives changed. Spoofing a mascot is a fun quick job, but i really love creating a narrative with my work, and any opportunity to draw some ufos is more than welcomed.

First time i ever design for yellow in my life and its twice in a row. Check these sick summer numbers for A Day To Remember and Paint The Stars. ADTR wanted two ice cream monsters fighting, so damn it, thats what they got. Im stoked on it, cant wait to see it printed. The PTS design was actually commissioned for a band, but DavePTS thought it would make a rad last minute addition to their line. He even mentioned doing a skateboard with the design. That would rule so hard if it happened. Ill keep you posted. I got the lightbox kick’n so you can click the shirts for a bigger view.

A Day To Remember: Sundae Bloody Sundae

Paint The Stars: Reefer

Want a good read? Check out an interview done with my friend Kyle Crawford over at idrankyourtee.com in the interviews section. Kyle runs the clothing line Electric Zombie, works at Equal Vision and does a shit ton of band merch. Ive got a few designs coming out in the future at EZ, so its kind of related, but mostly im posting this cuz its just really entertaining. Oh shit, yeah, also his new line drops today, and it fucking kills! Check it out.

A friend of mine Michael Shantz, who happens to be a sick illustrator, caught me at the perfect time between jobs the other day and asked my if id toss together a quick illy to collab on. What ensued was a gnarly piece for Shantz’ hardcore hip hop group Guilloteen. I did the guy on the left, Shantz the one on the right, and all the color was contributed by j3concepts. For my first collab, despite being really quick, i think it came out rad as hell. Looking forward to doing more in the future. Check out Guillotine’s myspace to get the full effect.

if you didnt know, i had a little design posted on shirt.woot.com the other day. You can still get it faily cheap here.

Yesterday, as im checking out my flickr account, i notice a very familiar image under the recent community uploads section. What the crap? Its my design on my friend horsebite’s mock up? So i checked it out, and my eye balls fell out of my face. 100s of bootleg t shirts from a ton of familiar designers. From horsebites to rockett clothing to koa, and some of mine? wtf? So of course i immediately made a post on Emptees, to let all my friends and associates know what’s up.

Everyone rallied and dug up some info on the guy, and apparently the dude is from Chili and runs a business highjacking low res art and reselling it as heat transfer t shirts to kids in Chili. I scrambled to get flickr/yahoo involved, and made a couple of my own discerning comments on his profile. The guy even wrote me back and said that he was only ripping me off because he ‘loved my work’ and that kids in chili cant afford nice things from America. For about 5 seconds i felt bad, and thought that maybe i should be a little more Abbie Hoffman, and just be flattered that my stuff is in demand, i imagined dozens of little chilean kids in oversized lady lavatory shirts playing futbol and eating burritos….UNTIL… Another designer from Chili explained that unfortunately, its a rampant problem down there, AND what he was charging was comparable to double what we charge in the states. What? are you kidding me? This dude is trying to come off like the Chilean Robin Hood, and he’s charging double? for low res heat transfers? gahhh.

Well luckily for now Yahoo/Flickr stepped up and removed the accounts, and at least its not staring back me in the face. But the whole thing was still pretty bizarre. Horsebites had a few words about it too in his blog, check it out, and hit up the play by play on emptees, its pretty funny stuff.

Ive been sitting on these for a little while, but looks like Rockett Clothing is going to run with these two designs. Final results may differ, colors maybe, but the meat of the designs should stay the same. Oh fuck, get it….MEAT…..i kill myself! Yeah, so i guess the first one is called Hell’s Bitchen. It was inspired by listening to Gordon Ramsey call people donkeys as i drew. And the second one is a direction Rockett provided, they wanted a 60/70s psychedelic party shirt. So i mashed up a little retro iconography with some of my own concoctions.

i just threw up a few projects over at Behance Network and i guess today they decided to feature my Less Than Jake designs. Probably pretty standard stuff, but im new over there so i thought it was neato. If you’re a member stop by and join my circle of trust at http://www.behance.net/derekdeal

My Hairbanger’s Ball design for Darkest Hour just got featured at IDrankYourTee.  IDYT is a really slick t shirt blog which seems to cater more to a designer perspective than just t shirt enthusiast. Kind of my first bit of press, awesome!