Donkeyblog Donkeyshines is the Land of Absurd T-shirts!

July 22, 2009

Robot Penguin Hoodies- Coming Soon

Filed under: Donkeyshines Announcements — Tags: , , , — Ryan Klemek @ 12:24 pm

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The most popular Donkeyshines T-shirt is soon to be a full-zip hoodie as well. Living in the northeast USA, a person can only really show off a t-shirt for about 2 months out of the year. If you live here and you want people to know how you feel about penguins and their robot friends, you need to display it on something with sleeves and, preferably, a hood! I’m going to do an extremely limited run of about 100 unisex style fleeces. I’m going to use stylish Continental blanks. I’m going to sell them at redonkulously low prices, by high-end hoodie standards. Something in the ballpark of $35!

Note: When I initially decided to call this company Donkeyshines, I promised myself I would never use the word “redonkulous” to describe my products. That was a promise I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep forever. But here it is a year and a half after I launched, and I’m using the word for the very first time!

July 14, 2009

Happy Bastille Day!!

Filed under: Artwork,Donkeyshines Announcements — Tags: , , , — Ryan Klemek @ 8:16 am

Here is an illustration I made for a Bastille Day card a couple years ago:

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In case it isn’t clear, that’s Zombie King Louis XVI and Zombie Marie Antoinette enjoying some champagne and a Bastille Day fireworks celebration. They’re such good sports about that whole execution thing. Vive La Revolution!

June 8, 2009

Donkeyshines Anniversary

Filed under: Donkeyshines Announcements — Tags: , — Ryan Klemek @ 1:24 pm

As I mentioned last week, it has been about a year since Donkeyshines launched, and so it is time for some reflection. Sales have been growing slowly, but steadily, and I have high hopes for the future. One thing I am proud of is that I have made few compromises to my artistic vision. I’m not against letting trends inform my creative process, but I don’t want to lose site of why got into T-shirt design in the first place. I make shirts because I like to wear them. I know if a design is ready to print when I  feel excited about seeing it on my very own torso. I am aware that I don’t have mainstream tastes, but I always felt that there had to be at least SOME people out there who are amused by the same things that I am. The trick is finding those people, as it is a relatively small group who  shares that specific aesthetic. In the end, I like having a small, dedicated following. It makes it easier to interact with people. I answer every e-mail I receive directly, and have even been known to create personal coupons for loyal customers. Today, though, I have created a coupon for everyone. To celebrate Donkeyshines’ First Anniversary, I am giving everyone 35% off ALL orders with coupon code: donkey35. For those that don’t like doing arithmetic, that means you can get any of my super-soft bamboo shirts regularly priced at $24.99 for $16.24! That’s less than my Shirt of the Week price! This coupon is good for the rest of June, but I will stop advertising it after a week. Enjoy.

May 4, 2009

Donkeyshines on Twitter!

Filed under: Donkeyshines Announcements — Ryan Klemek @ 1:51 pm

It was time for us to join the rest of the world and start tweeting! You can now follow us on Twitter to get the most up-to-date, moment-to-moment Donkeyshines news n’ stuff.  Then come back to the Donkeyblog for more in-depth musings.

April 30, 2009

The Jesus Turtle- New Uneetee Submission

Filed under: Donkeyshines Acknowledgments,Donkeyshines Announcements — Tags: , , — Ryan Klemek @ 10:22 am

I have submitted a new design at Uneetee.com which is now up for voting: The Jesus Turtle

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This design was not inspired by the bible, but by a super-fast lizard. The basilisk, also know as the Jesus Lizard, can run across the surface of a pond on its hind legs for up to almost 5 feet. I thought it would be funny if a turtle could do the same thing, as they can neither stand on their hind legs, nor run even close to fast enough to avoid breaking the surface tension of water. If you happen to like this design, feel free to vote for it, but I recommend going to uneetee.com regardless, as they have some great t-shirt designs there.

April 19, 2009

New Design!- Black Cats

Filed under: Donkeyshines Announcements — Tags: , , — Ryan Klemek @ 8:00 am

I’m proud to announce that we have a new design: Black Cats. Regularly it will sell for $21.99, but you can get it for the special introductory price of $16.99- for the rest of April!

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This design was inspired by an episode of The Most Extreme I saw on Animal Planet once, about the most extreme cat killers. It turns out the house cat was at the top of the list, beating out all of the big cats. And it wasn’t even close! The house cat hunts over 1,000 different species of animal, whereas it’s nearest competitor the leopard hunts only 90! And house cats do it mostly for fun! I figured it would be fun to design a shirt where a little house cat was pushing around one of its big cousins. Cat lovers, this one’s for you.

April 12, 2009

Shirt of the Week- Monkey and Bulldog

Filed under: Donkeyshines Announcements — Tags: — Ryan Klemek @ 6:23 am

The Monkey and Bulldog shirt is pretty new, and you can get it for the happy price of $16.99 during the week of 4/12- 4/18.

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Everybody loves monkeys and everybody loves dogs. This here is a win-win situation.

Next Week I will be releasing an even newer design that’s newer even than the Monkey and Bulldog, which is pretty new. Stay tuned for that! What will this new design be? I’ll give you a hint: there are two animals, one big and one small, both have sharp teeth and are awesome.

April 5, 2009

Shirt of the Week- Donkey Pegasus

Filed under: Artwork,Donkeyshines Announcements — Ryan Klemek @ 7:50 am

Donkeyshines currently has only one t-shirt design featuring an actual donkey. That design is the Donkey Pegasus, and during the week of April 5-12, you can get it for $16.99.

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This design is actually based on an old drawing I used on a t-shirt for a silly joke band I was in, called The Ass. The music is  hard to listen to for anyone who actually wasn’t in the band, but the songs had amusing lyrics. We would sing about movies that we happen to have watched recently that nobody really cared about, such as Untamed Heart (Marisa Tomei and Christian Slater) and A Perfect World (Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood). We also drew inspiration from nostalgia such as in our G.I. Joe-themed love ballot, Destro and the Barroness.

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The original drawing was done in 1994 for our T-shirt. The medium used was colored pencil, and the shirts were made using heat press iron-on transfers. At the time, only 3 were made- one for each band member. Later, I tried to sell the design on merchendise through Cafe Press, but I was the only person who ever bought any of it. I re-used the drawing on the album cover for our 2003 compilation CD, as seen above. I think only 4 copies of that were ever made, since the band had 4 members by then. I currently use the drawing on the Donkeyshines home page.

March 29, 2009

Shirt of the Week- Bat and Rat

Filed under: Donkeyshines Announcements — Tags: , , — Ryan Klemek @ 7:04 am

I realize that bats and rats are not the most popular animals, but this is actually my favorite of the Donkeyshines T-shirts. And for the week of March 29-April 4, you can buy it for $16.99. This is a pretty good deal, as this shirt is printed on super-soft bamboo/organic cotton and is therefore normally priced at $24.99.

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I happen to like bats very much, and have even met a few rats that I get along with. I guess I ‘m not the only person who appreciates these animals, as there is a band in the UK called Frodo Freud which sings a song called Rat Bat. This song is not among the ones they have available for download so I have not heard it.  It must be pretty fun, though. Frodo Freud bought Bat and Rat shirts for each band member to wear to one of their gigs. If I lived in the UK, I would certainly have been at that show. Perhaps someday they’ll tour the US.

March 22, 2009

Shirt of the Week- Nessie in a Fishbowl

Filed under: Donkeyshines Announcements — Tags: , — Ryan Klemek @ 11:44 am

As many of you may have already noticed, I recently have been designating one shirt per week to be sold at a special sale price. The shirt for the week of March 22-28 is Nessie in a Fishbowl. Regularly sold at $21.99, get it now for $16.99. The design is printed on super-soft American Apparel ringspun cotton, and comes in Forrest green and black, in both men’s and women’s styles.

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This design was actually made a year before I started Donkeyshines, and is still one of my more popular shirts.  As for my inspiration, it’s hard to explain exactly how these ideas get into my head. I might trace this one back to my junior high school days when I was obsessed with the Lochness Monster. I read every book that was written on the subject, and found all of those blurry, ambiguous photos of the creature to be completely convincing. Of course,  I felt the same way about ghosts, aliens, Big Foot, ESP, and astral projection. I was in seventh grade, and I stayed fascinated by each of these subjects for about a week before moving on to the next one. Nessie was different, though, for a couple of reasons. First of all, out of all of the supernatural phenomena, Nessie seemed the most plausible. Sharks, crocodiles and other marine animals have survived from prehistoric times, so why not a plesiasaur? Secondly, well, all boys love dinosaurs. Yes, I know plesiasaurs aren’t dinosaurs, but close enough. Who wouldn’t want a little pet Nessie, swimming around in a fish bowl? By the way, I am assuming plesiasaurs are just like goldfish in that they grow only to the size of their enclosure.

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