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“Be different, learn the rules- then break them and always work harder than the guy next to you!” - Ryan

This week’s winning design is called “Retro Gasp” by Ryan Seaman. We love this design and hope you do too! We think it will be a nice addition to the Collar Free collection.

ABOUT RYAN:

1. Name: Ryan Seaman (DESIGNByRDS)
2. School/Grad year: The Art Institute of California - San Diego 2005
3. Company: Corporate- Viejas Casino | Freelance www.designbyrds.com
4. What was the inspiration for this design? Retro, kick-back to the 80’s and fun colors.
5. Where do you gain most of your inspiration from? Old magazines, book stores, ffffound.com, seasons, everyday situations and observations.
6. Do you have a favorite artist/designer? I really admire Joshua Davis because of his originality, also: http://www.plastickid.dk, http://www.emilkozak.com, http://www.asidestudio.co.uk/, http://www.ngdesign.it/ng8/root.html, honestly, I could go on and on.
7. What’s your favorite medium? Paint, textures, pencil, acrylic ink, t-shirts, posters, old-dirty-worn items.
8. If you could have lunch with 3 people from the past or the present, who would it be? Wayne Gretzky, Joshua Davis & Winston Churchill
9. Most played music on your itunes? Minus the Bear, Slightly Stoopid, Unset, Atmosphere, Cash…
10. What do you do in your spare time? Mostly design but I like to play hockey, hang out with my black labs Bubba and Gump, see movies, golf…
11. What’s something you’re passionate about? Definitely design. I want to be the best I can be at it and I feel I’ll only achieve that if I’m working harder than the next guy.
12. What’s your favorite saying? An artist is someone who produces things that people don’t need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them. - Andy Warhol
13. Favorite book? Anything by Dean Koontz
14. Who would you LOVE to see wearing your shirt? Shepard Fairey
15. MAC or PC? Mac all the way.
16. What places in your hometown do you frequent? North Park bookstores, Sunset Cliffs, SouthBeach O.B.

Ryan’s shirt will be in pre-sale later this week, so keep your eye out for it. In the meantime show Ryan some love on his profile and let him know what you think of his work.

-Collar Free team

Our famous “Momentum” t-shirt is finally complete. Apparently printing over the shoulder of a t-shirt is harder than we thought and caused our screen printers to order special printing boards, create a new test process… blah, blah, blah and they are done! This is printed on our super-soft cotton/poly blend shirt and Derek Bischoff’s design is organic and powerful with colors that pop. We love it and we know you will too. See how the design goes to the back:

Available NOW for $27 and FREE Shipping! Shop Now.

This design is featured on Please Dress Me as the shirt of the day! Go to their site, become a fan and enter to win Momentum for FREE!

Derek Bischoff also designed the cool t-shirt: “Emperor” which has also been very popular.

$27 - Support Derek and shop

ABOUT DEREK:

“I recently graduated from Monmouth University and my inspiration for this design came from a project that I created for one of my classes. I really wanted to create a fun design for a shirt. The organic concept had a feeling of movement…it continued to grow, which is why I titled it “Momentum.” In my spare time I like to hang out with my friends and family. I played competitive sports since I was 5 years old, which includes playing college football for the last 5 years. I’m a very passionate person and the thing I’m most passionate about is my family, they mean the world to me. I have a few things I try to live by everyday: don’t take anything for granted, and whatever it is you’re doing you should enjoy it and make the most of it. I think it’s important to laugh and just enjoy life. I would love to see any famous musician or actor wearing one of my shirts, but I’ll be happy when I see my little brother rockin’ it.” - Derek

I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to work with designers from all over the world. What a great project with a great heart.

Mix, Mingle and Make Industry Connections at the October FOCUS Networking Mixer

When: Wednesday, October 22, 7:00pm

Where: Collar Free - 3611 30th St., San Diego, CA 92104 - map

Network with other fashion industry professionals and hear firsthand success stories from local fashion entrepreneurs.

- Pat & Jimmy - Collar Free

- Vanessa - Jiva Activewear

- Liz - ABBL Swimwear

- Nichole - Bagonia Handbags

This event connects all segments of the industry, including designers, stylists, manufacturers, photographers, marketers, e-tailers, boutique owners, fashion students, and entrepreneurs.

Please rsvp to: rsvp@fgifocus.org

A $5 donation is requested at the door to cover web costs, food and drinks. Cash only please.

See you on the 22nd!

www.fgifocus.org

Congratulations Shawn Conn
Your “The Tree of Life ” was our winning design!

Shawn is the first to get our $200 cash prize! Smells like…. Victory.

Learn how WE promote YOU on CollarFree.com.

NOW IN STOCK:

Bubble Blossom by Kimberly Gilroy	Spring Breeze by Arum Seo	“Whoo-Said” by Leah Schroeder

Pre-Sale Shirts! Buy ‘em now and save $5!

“Messy Green” by Dave Scott	“Momentum” by Derek Bischoff

What’s New?!

Keeping Politics Positive: Design Competition Winners!
Congratulations to our 2 winners of $250 cash, 20 t-shirts + 10% of sales! Both Tee’s are available for purchase NOW, so support your candidate and these great artists by picking up a few for you and your friends.
“Country First” by Derrick Castle Pre-Sale: $15 BUY NOW
“Words of Hope” by Aaron Gilmore Pre-Sale: $15 BUY NOW

Really, we are all winners here…

We Will be selling the 2 winning shirts on Collar Free, but you can still get all of our other products on our Zazzle on-demand store! So really, ALL of our designers have the opportunity to make some cash and see their designs around town.

Some of our most popular products on Zazzle: Change for Real by Shawn Conn 08aba Button by Jerron Ames McCain: Reform Poster by Shawn Conn Change Button by Kris Willhoite The Big O Bag by Kris Willhoite American Hero Poster by Kris Willhoite

Click SHOP NOW to see ALL of our products on zazzle!

	Vote for Erin!
	Our own Erin Trask is on the cover of a magazine! Well, almost…. She needs your help! A trendy San Diego Magazine called ‘944′ is having a contest to find a local beauty to feature in their magazine! Girls with the most votes will have photos inside, but ones with the most votes and positive comments will be chosen for the cover! Click HERE to vote for Erin and leave her a comment! (You do have to register, but it only takes a second and she’s worth it!

Collar Free In the News: Articles about Us!

San Diego Business Jounal: “Novel Ideas: Crashing In on the Campaign” Read Article

Aevan Arts: “Interviiiiiewing and Feeling Better” Read Article

Collar Free in Boutiques!
You can now find Collar Free T-Shirts in the following boutiques:
	Material 2910 University Ave San Diego, CA 92104 phone: 619.255.3190 hours: 11-8 daily www.domaterial.com

Station 414 W Ceder Street “Little Italy” San Diego, Ca phone: 619.544.1100 www.stopatstation.com

Collar Free Blogs:

Design Fix: Your daily dose of design, art and culture. Be More Productive as a Designer: “Don’t let this be YOU! Here are a few simple tips to improve your productivity as a designer. “ READ MORE

Branding is in the Details By Patrick Dillon A Core Message : “The struggle to find one’s core message is sometimes a difficult task for many companies.  For Collar Free, as a lifestyle brand, we’ve gone through many ideas.” READ MORE

Life of a Founder By Jimmy Hendricks Connect.org - Springboard : “Today I would like to share our best program we have found to launch your business and highly increase the probability for success.” READ MORE

ATTN: Designers

We are now offering a $200 CASH PRIZE paid up-front for all winning tees on Collar Free.com! This means you get $200 cash, plus your name printed on every t-shirt, a unique hang tag with info about you, 5 free shirts for your biggest fans, a press-release sent to your local/school newspaper and a royalty payment for every shirt sold! There is no better time to design t-shirts! Start Designing.

Toys for Tots T-Shirt Design Competition COMING SOON!

Is that enough alliteration for you? Collar Free has teamed up with Toys for Tots to create some sweet tees for a cause. Toys for Tots is a non-profit organization, collecting toys to be distributed to needy children in the community during Christmas time. We are excited to invite our designers to create a t-shirt design for the company inspired by their message. Winners will receive $300 cash and a goodie bag with gifts donated from Quicksilver and Collar Free. We will post updates about this contest in our blog as well as in an email to all of our designers later this week.

Collar Free is proud to support a new local brewery to San Diego.  Airdale Brewing was started by a good friend Tony Clarke.  Tony, a recently retired Naval Aviator, has been an avid homebrewer for a while now.  Recently inspired by the amazing craft beer culture in San Diego he decided to make this his new career.

This Friday, guests to “3611″ will get a free taste of these great two new mircobrews:

The Wheat Beer.

The Strong Pale Ale.

CONGRATULATIONS Scott Sampaio aka “ssampaio”

“Wave “ was our winning design!

Tell Scott what you think: Leave a Comment

ALSO, Congratulations to Last Week’s Winner:

“Whoo-Said” by Leah Schroeder

Both will be available for pre-sale next week!

Monday we will choose a new winner for women so go and vote for your favorite t-shirts!

Pre-Sale Shirts! Buy them while we’re still in production and save $5!

“Bubble Blossom”by Kimberly Gilroy	“Momentum”by Derek Bischoff

What’s New @ Collar Free!

	Can’t wait for your political Shirt?! Collar Free’s Political designs are now available on our Zazzle on demand store! Our Obama and McCain T-shirts have been so popular that people can’t wait to get their hands on them. We have uploaded all of the political designs in voting onto Zazzle.com for on demand printing. We love their work so much that we also offer the designs on bags, buttons, stickers and mugs! Support independent artists and your presidential candidate and gear up today!
We are always trying to find a way to benefit all of our artists, and not just the ones that win the Collar Free competitions. This is a great opportunity for all of our designers to make some cash and produce original products. Here are some of the t-shirts available:

Hope by Ryan Seaman	Reform Peace Prosperity by Shawn Conn	Obama United by Blake Suarez
American Hero by Kris Willhoite	Hope by Budi Kwan	Change for Real by Shawn Conn
08ama Bag by Jerron Ames	Reform Mousepad by Shawn Conn	The Big O Sticker by Kris Willhoite
Reform Mug by Shawn Conn	The Big O Bag by Kris Willhoite	Hope Button by Ryan Seaman
NOTE: Voting is still going on at CollarFree.com! Our political contest ends October 6th and we will still give the 2 winners their cash prize! We will also produce the winning tees with our amazingly soft shirts and sell them on CollarFree.com. So, if you’ve picked up a product from Zazzle, support the designer and vote for them on Collar Free!

Collar Free In the News: Articles about Us!

TShirtReview.com (click to read)

		If you’re in San Diego on Friday, September 26th please join us and a few (200) of our local friends. There will be live music performances (our street scene encore), and a free beer by Airdale Brewing Co. The showroom will be open for shopping. Doors open at 8 pm. Location: 3611 30th St. San Diego, CA 92101
	Live music by Zank (and more!) zankmusic.com Taste some of our great local beer from Airdale Brewing Co.

Collar Free Blogs:

Erin’s Rack: Fashion, Life and the things that help us survive both. Fashion Week San Diego is back on! : “It was announced yesterday that Fashion Week SD is still happening on it’s originally scheduled dates, only condensed into four days. “ READ MORE

Design Fix: Your daily dose of design, art and culture. Temecula Valley Film and Music Festival: “I am proud to announce that there was 3 films from the San Diego State Film Dept in this year’s film festival.” READ MORE

Branding is in the Details By Patrick Dillon Raising Your Blood Pressure: “Last night I found out how I react to a fight or flight syndrome.” READ MORE

Life of a Founder By Jimmy Hendricks Support Independent Artists Campaign: “One of the biggest questions we’ve had as a company is ‘how can all our artists benefit, not just the winners?’” READ MORE

	Rockin’ Collar Free! We want to see how YOU wear Collar Free! Send us a photo of you rockin’ one of our t-shirts and we will post it in our album. We want to see all of the different ways you wear our tees and the artists love the support too! Check out our photos on MySpace, Facebook and Flickr.

Become a Collar Free Affiliate: Promote Collar Free and earn cash!

If you are interested in becoming one of our affiliates, click HERE to sign up.

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Follow us on Twitter!

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Design Tips:

Get your political t-shirt in soon! Voting ends @ Collar Free on October 6th. Even if you don’t win the Collar Free contest, we are posting all of our political t-shirts up on Zazzle.com available for sale. This means you can still make some cash and get your name out there! Check out the products for sale and download the template today!

Looking for a full time creative position with a great company? Check out Keva Design Agency! They work nationwide within the creative industry, placing graphic designers, apparel designers, copywriters, creative directors etc. Full time and freelance gigs available. We love them and we know you will too.

Congratulations Kris Willhoite aka Kwil His women’s design: “Ganesha” was our winner this week!

This is Kwil’s 4th win! Check out his other winners which are now for sale:

“Regalia” “Hibiscus” “Flight”

NOTE:

“Sun&Flower” by Jerron has been in the top spot for a few days! One of our Collar Free rules is that a design must be in the system for at least 7 days to be eligible for print. This design is great, but it was submitted on 8/28/08 which is why we are printing the runner-up. If this is your favorite design, keep voting so that it will win in 2 weeks! (Next Monday we will choose a men’s design as the winner and the following week will be a women’s design.) Good luck Jerron!

Here are the past winners that are getting ready for production! We are definitely keeping our screen printers busy with a new shirt every week. These will be available for pre-sale later this week!

“Bubble Blossom” by Kimberly Gilroy

“Vine” by Otis Spaulding

NOW IN STOCK! We just got 3 new shirts in stock. Click the shirts to purchase or to see more photos!

“Flight” by Kris Willhoite

“Tears” by Arum Seo

“Freedom” by Rachel Cobb

NEW Designs in Voting for the Obama vs McCain T-Shirt competition: