A Little Knowledge: T-Shirt Pastiches

30 Apr 2009

We have a look at T-shirt graphics that use the concept of pastiche.

The graphic t-shirt has manifested itself in many forms, what started life with the US military customising their tees with names and battalions has developed through Pop art, arguably the single biggest influence on the printed graphic T-shirt.

Whether it be tourist, band, slogan or varsity, the popularity of printed T-shirts over the past 50 years has seen every avenue explored. Practically every pop/counter culture motif or para phrase has been twisted, tweaked, coloured and printed by so many untold labels its hard to imagine any life being left in the medium. But as fans of the printed tees, we are always glad to see when new people come up with new takes, seemingly so obvious that we kick ourselves for not having thought of it first.

The tee-shirt graphic as a pastiche is a particular favourite of ours. Most probably this began when Stussy created their link logo with 2 adjoining S's mimicking that of heritage luxury brand Chanel's iconic double C logo.

Stussy continued to pastiche famous trademarks and logos throughout their history like this take on the classic Public Image logo designed by Dennis Morris and John Lydon.

With their classic pastiche tees, its' quite surprising to hear of Stussy's recent attempts to sue fellow Californian label Freshjive over their take of Stussy's classic logo. Begs the question: when did they loose their sense of humour??

Pastiches really went on to manifest themselves through the 90's with the new wave of street skate labels, most notibly that of Eric Brunnetti's Fuct who famously pastiched the Ford logo and Roger Kastels iconic Jaws movie artwork.

Continued on by pre Silas skate label Holmes, with their very apt take on Robert Venosa's famous Santana logo.

Aaron LaCrate's Milkcrate Atheletic subversively contributed with this take on The North Face's classic logo.

One of the things we like about pastiche is the re-appropriation of a brands mark that reaches a different demographic. The reebok logo tee is most probably mainly bought by core sports consumers but the Beebop logo is right up our street and a clever take for an independent brand.

Nike has had all manner of pastiches over the years, innit, nuke, mike, dyke, to name a few. This graphic was originaly done by a Goodhood founder to wear for a job interview for the afore mentioned brand earlier in his career (yes he got the job!)

With the recent saturation of the printed t-shirt market it has led some to declare that graphic t-shirts are over, and its definately hard to find prints that are constructively adding to medium. We at Goodhood don't believe printing a neon pink triangle on a tee is cutting it - but as lovers of the t-shirt as a graphic medium, we are glad to offer you what, in our opinion, are the very best in graphic tees out there today.

Pam (Perks & Mini) are world famous for their graphic exploits that have seen them work with the top names in the industry such as Jun Takahashi of Undercover, Bless and more. This season they gave us 2 pastiche tees; one a take on the classic Campagnola bike manufacturers logo perfect for the fixed heads. The other, this bananas take on West Coast hardcore band, Black Flag's anarchic logo designed by Raymond Pettibon. As we are big fans of Black flag and Ibiza (Balearic being the name given to the group of islands that Ibiza is part of, incase you dont know!) this tee proverbialy kills 2 birds with one stone. Its so beautifully obvious it had us churning with envy having not came up with it ourselves. Big up Shauna & Misha you really killed it!

Lastly VNGRD show their a graphic force to be reckoned with. The popularity of Oakley Frogskins has reached pinnacle heights recently with practically every original colourway being re-visited, but who out there remembers the original tag line in the 90's was "Thermonuclear Protection" ?

Vngrd give us this sick pastiche stating "Nuclear Destruction"! Ouch!