I recently made an effort to rediscover my fun art side (to separate it from my work art side).

I was familiar with Threadless.com for the last few years, but never tried to submit a design. If you’re not familiar with the site, artists and designers submit designs which people vote on to get produced. There’s a lot of good thinking in the what’s produced and the standards are high on both design and concepts.

With the internet becoming so important for creatives, it’s good to explore these outlets. See how they work. Understand how the crowd sourcing pushes the product. So I jumped in.

I scored other designs. I tried to give constructive comments where I could. I even submitted my own design. While it didn’t score poorly, I haven’t received my confirmation that the shirt will be made. Back to the drawing board. Pushed to make something even better.

I’ve also been turned on to shirt.woot.com as place to submit shirt designs. The sell a new design every day and have weekly design contest that’s perfect for the artist looking to challenge themselves.

Etsy is also another site I’ve explored some of late. I previously thought Etsy was filled with ceramic ash trays and knitted cat boots, but there are some real quality art to be found on the site.

I assume any self respecting creative is well aware of these sites. If you are, great! Consider this a reminder to take some time to explore them and become inspired.

I know I have.

- Mike Palese