Wearable Canvas

Tee-shirt mavens among us spotted a super-hip design, Tang Yau Hoong’s surreal “Journey to the City of No Horizon”. The illustration is brushstroke-textured urban silhouettes, riven down the middle by a blue sky.

Tang’s design was voted third in this year’s Design by Humans 10K Contest in August. It was also that online shirt shoppe’s T-shirt of the month for October.

“I feel happy,” Tang says about his win. “I was really hoping to grab the grand prize, but I was quite sure that my chance was small.”

Tang began designing two years ago, winning online T-shirt design contests has been a great motivation to continue. “I feel that T-shirts are one of the mediums that get the least attention from the public,” Tang asserts. “Great art can be expressed through T-shirts, too. To me, they are an easier approach, and are low-end canvases.”

We’re not sure how far this is still true. Visual artist Munkao’s tee-shirts frequently sell out. Elsewhere, rock-star T-shirt designer, Chow Hon Lam (he was commissioned to design stuff for the Dave Matthews Band) was recently nominated as a Martell Rising Personality for 2009.

Meanwhile, visit the Design by Humans shop to view Tang’s “City”. “I haven’t got a shirt of my own,” Tang says. “My size has sold out.”

Text Zedeck Siew