win a FREE shirt

Guess what, shirt-wearing public! We have some new designs!

With these, however, we are doing an experiment – of which YOU can be part! If you can help set up “odd guy art” with a shop in your area, we’ll send you a FREE shirt.

Sound like a lot of work?

Not really. Think of all the little gift shops, boutiques, and coffee houses in your locale. Just send us their contact information, we’ll wow them with our goods, and if they order from us, YOU get a FREE Shirt (a $28 retail value).

If you can help us find a home for our new designs – or ANY of our designs – we’ll order them in larger quantities so that we can sell them on our website as well.

 

Cheers!
Marie and Graham

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T-shirts now available at…

As we enter 2011, we are excited to feature two retailers who are now selling our T-shirts and caps.

The photo above depicts our “odd guy art” display at Paradigm Coffee and Music (on 8th Street in Sheboygan). They are currently featuring our “Bike Me” design as their “Shirt of the Month.” Our 1970’s vintage banana bike adds more fun to the display and has been attracting a lot of attention. For those of you with an eye for old bikes, this is a Columbia Tripper.  Paradigm Coffee and Music is a very popular coffee shop (with great food, too) that attracts nationally known musicians to its stage.

When you venture down to the Blue Harbor
Resort along the Sheboygan River, you will discover “Aras, Beks and Pottiers,” purveyors of fine gifts. They currently stock three of our T-shirt designs. We are very happy to have our shirts included in this high quality gift shop in the centre of Sheboygan’s resort and conference area.

Stop in at both when you are in town. You  won’t be disappointed. Buy a shirt!

                                                                                                              Aras, Beks and Pottiers

We have several more outlets who are planning to stock our shirts in time for the spring season. We are excited to increase our growing number of retailers as we head into the new year. If you would like to see our shirts in one of your favourite apparel stores, gift shops, coffee houses, or bike stores – or anywhere – tell them about us (or tell us about them) and we’ll do our best to make it happen.

Graham

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how can we help you?

Well, good morning! Come on in and make yourself at home. There’s some coffee over in the corner there and a blank easel for the kids to draw on while you shop.

Ah, good question. We mainly design and sell our own T-shirts featuring the kind of art we ourselves are drawn to; art that is odd or witty or cool.

See this shirt here? It’s based on DaVinci’s “Last Supper,” only it’s also a still life of pears. Like all our shirts, it’s screen printed on 100% cotton.

And since we often hang out and work in coffee shops, we were intrigued by the artwork that the baristas make in the foam of their lattes. That’s what inspired this shirt:

And if you’re like us, we find mechanical designs as fun as the are perplexing. This design begs the question, “Is the bird operating the gears or are the gears operating the bird?”

Thanks! We’re glad you like them so far. Might we interest you in a shirt that reflects our enthusiasm for bicycling? (You’ll soon recognize a theme here):

If you grew up in the 60s or 70s (or even if you didn’t), you might appreciate the sentiment behind this bit of nostalgia:

The next set of shirts are sure to be conversation starters. They’re based on historical events that never actually happened. Try this one on for size:

Bet you didn’t know that there was also a Victorian-era “Run to Eradicate Rickets” in 1862. Here’s “proof:”

And the 1918 London Triumvirate? The European precursor to the modern-day triathlon? It’s all right here on the shirt:

Sure, you can try them on. The fitting rooms are over there next to the Monet. Go on. We’ll wait!

Oh, I see the women’s cut is a little snug on you, sir. You’ll want to try the roomier Mens/Unisex style. All shirts come in both cuts.

Ah yes, you’re referring to the little guy printed on the back of each T-shirt. That’s our logo, “odd guy art,” whose face changes color with every shirt:

Our shirts are all pre-washed, so don’t worry about them shrinking. Have you decided on purchasing something today? (Pause). What?! You want one of each? Excellent, sir! Graham will ring you up back at the register (just right of the Renoir) while I refold your shirts and bag them for you.

Thank you for stopping at “odd guy art!” Feel free to visit our online store.

Cheers!
Marie and Graham

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Copyright © 2010 by Hetzel and McAllister. All rights reserved.

Friday night retail therapy

Friday evening was a blast and kicked off a great weekend for “odd guy art.” We expected a quiet night; people wouldn’t expect to find T-shirts for sale at a bicycle-based fun night in a coffee shop. But boy, were we wrong. Our shirts and tote bags attracted a lot of attention and sales were brisk. We also discovered that our target demographic is just about right except that we were also making sales to much younger people, too. This was a very exciting discovery.

On top of that we made some great new connections. We received an invitation to sell at the NOMO Expo at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, July 8-11th. NOMO is all about using your bike for transport (Non Motorised transport) and is very close to our hearts. It’s also right in our target audience of artistic, earth-aware, thoughtful people. (Basically us, and the people we love). A great Friday night led to an excellent Saturday through residual sales, website and blog visits, and the general “feel good” factor of a successful night’s work.

On Sunday, I bid a sad farewell to Marie for the week as she heads to DC. After the intensity of a business start-up and the creation of our designs, I feel like I’ve had an arm cut off. So I am holding down the fort (figuritively speaking) and having a bit of a tidy in the studio. Maybe I’ll finally get that water cooler fixed, but I doubt it somehow.

Until next time, have fun, wear T-shirts.
Graham

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shirt designs

Good morning:)

For starters, we’ve developed six T-shirt designs for you. Those six designs are divided into two categories: “Simply Art,” which is based on our fine art drawings and paintings, and “Unlikely Events,” which includes our line of mock historical events.

“SIMPLY ART:”

         Bird Mechanics                       Last Supper                           Latte Art

“UNLIKELY EVENTS:”

            Bi-Cycle Ride                  Run For Rickets            London Triumvirate
             For Cholera

Our shirts also include a cool little “odd guy art” logo just below the back collar. And incidentally, the face on our logo changes color with each shirt, because the shirt color shows through, like this:

Our six designs also appear on our recycled canvas bags and our packs of over-sized postcards. You can, of course, see more views of our products on our website.

Join us next time for some insight into how we develop our designs – from conceptual hand drawings to computerized images.

Cheers!

Marie

All content and images;
Copyright © 2010 by Hetzel and McAllister. All rights reserved.