everything’s going to be fine.

“everything’s going to be fine”
Michael Cianfrani
(see comments for more info)
design run of
03/16/2008 through 03/28/2008

Switcho Chango.

[edit 10:35PM]
After breaking and fixing the site a few times, I’ve decided it’s MillerTime. The related archive pages mentioned below will be added tomorrow, as well as sending out debut emails to the mailing list. Sleep well, all.
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[edit 10:28 PM]
Ah, if you wanted to order the first design, you are too late. The new design is up, and I’m going to be getting a new contest page ready, as well as archive pages for retired shirt designs and animated gifs.
[/edit]

In a few short hours (actually, about six of them) the first design of Tiny Run will be retired and I’ll send the first order to the printer. That means that the second design is also going to finally appear. I’m readying the images and the paypal button code right this second and I can’t help but be excited.

I’ll set the next design to appear tonight, probably between ten and eleven.

If you want one of the very first design, “true star” by Hilesh Patel, please don’t hesitate. If you don’t get paid till next week, email me, we can work it out. You shall not be denied your awesome shirtness.

(Looking forward to) Hindsight.

I’ve been contacting artists that I respect, admire, enjoy the work of, or have just had long standing art-crushes on in order to fill out the coming months with many an exciting edition of shirts.  The response has been moderate, but some of the all-time favorites, those that I most looked forward to working with have not contacted me back.

I’m not hurt.  I understand.

For people coming through for the first time: yes, the content here is sparse. Yes, there is little history here that proves that I have the ambition that I purport to have (for ‘ambition’ you could also substitute ‘balls’ or ‘VISA card’).  Yes, there is only one design by which to judge my intent.  Yes, the concept is a little weird (tiny runs of shirts?), and yes, in accordance with all known physical laws, they are still in fact shirts.

I know that there would appear to be caveats galore for the internet-savvy naysayer.  But to that I say from experience there is much to be gained from daring fate and trusting a stranger.

In a few months, there will be a growing catalog of previous designs, a few other little features and details I have thought of, and everything will seem to the these artists, perhaps, a little more solid.  With the ability to hindsight over Tiny Run’s track record, there may be a calming, a release of anxiety, which will allow the depth and breadth of styles of those participating  artists to approach the infinite.

And to those whom I am already in discussion with to collaborate on a design, I humbly thank you and your courage, and will not betray your trust.   We are going to rock.

I am so looking forward to this.

State of the Shirt.

I am not uncommon in that I spend a great deal of time online, absorbing visuals and information at rates that I find alarming. In those feasts of ones and zeros I come across inordinate amounts of sites selling shirts, either as their primary function, or as a side dish to some other main protein component.

Most of these sites are digested quickly, their nutrient value fairly thin. Some cause various mind-bowel irregularities, depending on how they fall on the range from puerile to just vile. There have been many that stand as points of interest over the years. I remember the first time I naturally arrived at threadless. This must have been years ago now, and I remember immediately dismissing it as a “myspace of shirts”. Distantly watching references from media and persons over the years, I kept my distance.  Recently, chance brought them back into pervue,.  Going to threadless now, it is obvious that the first visit is not demonstrable of how it has evolved. Designers of high talent have taken up there since my first visit, resulting in some visual feats that satisfy me even if they do not victoriously call me to log into paypal.

But there seems to be a grand majority of shirt designs that fall into the clever trap. I’ve owned and made my fair share of shirts that people have called clever. I’ve developed a rather large bias against clever. One thing that boggled me at first, is that clever doesn’t stick. It is not amazing enough to really get in there and stay there. And it seems that even most shirts at threadless fall into this, which to me is such a low level algebra. a+b=c. I know we might not need to be doing clothing calculus here, that shirts may be to people only so much laundry or a disposable article of fashion.

But it seems to me that we are capable of so much more.

Contest is GO.

The contest page is up with all sorts of details!  And as of now we have three gif’s, one of which is mine.  Which doesn’t reallly count per se, as I want to give a free shirt to somebody else.  So maybe voting for me is not what you want to do?

Please go look, cast a vote.  C’mon, no login or anything required.  It’s easy.

How about a CONTEST?.

[EDIT 2/23/3008: Added a separate contest page. Please go take a look, put together an entry, vote for your favorite]

I love contests. It gives me a chance to give things to people for free.

Advertising for Tiny Run started yesterday on a trial basis through Project Wonderful, which has a very interesting approach to online ads. It’s far to detailed for me to cover here, but worth taking a look at. If you have arrived through one of those buttons, welcome!

But I wonder…are my animated gif skills up to snuff? How about yours??

Tiny Run Animated Gif Contest!

Design an animated gif, height of 30px, width of 117 pix, using the current shirt design, or whatever you feel would be appropriate in order to convey the site to those eyes that will give a .03 second glance at your button. Must be below 100K. You must agree that I may use the gif, without limitations and without any further compensation.

Your gif will be displayed here on Tiny Run through the end of the current design’s run, where people will be able to vote on whose is the best. When the shirt design is retired votes will be tallied, and the winner will receive a free t-shirt of that design of their brand and size choice!

Voting is ongoing so the sooner your design is submitted, the sooner the voting on yours can begin, the more votes you can get. Submit your entries to michael ]at[ tinyrun ]dot[ com.

Sound good? All you have to do is beat my paltry offering:

I have a feeling you’re up to it.

And better times are coming still.

Spent another evening working on the template, rearranging things.  Making the house a little more like home can sure kill time.  All this really, because a friend earlier today indicated that things looked “busy.”

Well, I think it’s more than cleaned up now.

Don’t you?