FTW Shirts is an art and business experiment for Twitter users in which I make T-shirts for individuals as opposed to having them pick one out from an existing mass produced stock.  I learn about the person’s likes and dislikes from their Twitter feed and design the T-shirt based on that.  The purchase resembles a gift. Rather than buying brand new blank T-shirts, I use vintage T-shirts hand picked from downtown shops for the occasion.  I use stencils and (permanent) fabric spray paint to graffiti the T-shirts—similar to how I used to graffiti stencils and stickers all around the city.

The idea of one of a kind, graffiti t-shirts FOR TWITTER PEEPS ONLY came to me while thinking about Twitter and the frequent synchronicities I kept having with people on it.  I realized that while these uncanny connections seemed magical, they were the result of a new kind of trust formed between Twitter users as members of what I call Twitstreams—fluid machines representing networks of users who came to follow one another through their mutual following of another user.

Please click on the Paypal button and for $22 order a shirt (plus $2 shipping & handling) let me know your Twitter name and then leave it up to me to find/create the perfect shirt.  First I’ll go to a vintage clothing store (I will specify which one on the tag) and pick out a t-shirt that I think you will like.  Then I’ll take it home and add stencil graffiti to it using fabric spray paint—creating a one of a kind design based on what i know of you from your feed.

I’ve included pix with examples of some of the graffiti stencils I’m using—with more being added just as quickly as I can cut them:  there’s Easy-E, Graffiti guy (with a bandana on his face), Fly Grrl1 and Fly Grrl 2 sporting big sexy eyes, Muddy Waters, Andy Warhol, The Wise Owl (an owl body with the Wise Owl Eye in place of a head), Electric Plug, “Cult” coke can, Film camera, Telephone wires, Mona Lisa, Woody Lisa (Mona Lisa with a Woody Woodpecker beak) and the FTW logo in Twitter font as well as other “random” phrases that I glean telepathically from specific feeds.

The combinations and colors used for the stencils will be dictated by the specific vision that i have for that specfic shirt. While each shirt will be a one of a kind design there are certain definites:

• Each vintage shirt will be pre-owned and super cool in and of itself—even before I remix it
• Each shirt will already have a design or lettering on it before I mess with it
• Fabric may vary but each shirt will be of high quality and fully washable
• Each shirt will have at least one full sized stencil design as well as the FTW logo
• All shirts will be clean and come to you still tagged from vintage shop
• There is a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE if you are not completely psyched

FTW Shirts are about re-using and re-creating.  They are hyper viral like graffiti on steroids.  FTW Shirts are simultaneously the best parts of art and business, mashed together.  They are part found objects that I collect from around the city and carry up to the tiny factory I’ve created in my studio apartment, where they are transformed by my slightly ironic, yet eternally earnest artistic sensibilty.

I remix the t-shirts the way i remix records and even life itself.   The style of these shirts is based on influences from NYC street fashion (an ever-mutating viral strain of hip-hop, punk, and club fashion blended with bike messenger and richy rich trustafarian) plus the influence of each individual Twitter feed. Please either include your Twitter name in the Paypal order, DM or @ me to let me know. I’ll start following you as soon as I get your order. If you link to a blog or a tumblr site I’ll probably visit it.  I’ll click on the links you post.  I’ll open your twitpics.  I may engage you with @ replies.  In short I’ll do whatever it takes to get at the heart of your T-shirt aesthetic. That doesn’t mean I need you to tweet specifically about fashion or anything like that. The good news is that everyone has a t-shirt aesthetic—whether you’re aware of it or not.  Just be yourself and I’ll figure it out.

One of the reasons I picked T-shirt making is because it is a medium I feel that I can express myself in, having learned the fine art of making T-shrits from a Vietnam vet named Snake in his studio on 9th St and Avenue A, a few feet from Cafe Pick Me Up, across the street from Tompkins Square Park.  We sold the shirts wholesale to stores like Trash and Vaudeville.

The name “Follow the World” is a play on FTW.  It’s an anthem of free and open networks like Twitter, where all information is public by default. As my Twitter bio says:  Follow the World (but never the masses). It’s the idea of going beyond your usual circle—of listening in and joining conversations with strangers.  It’s about expanding and creating new worlds—as Deleuze and Guattari would say, FTW is about growing off-shoots instead of planting hierarchies—it’s about mixing work, play, art and business in the form of a T-shirt.

Please contact me on Twitter or Email me at trueboy at gmail dot com if u have any questions or comments.

Thanks!