In case you didn’t know, popular retailer Uniqlo holds a t-shirt design competition every year. Submissions come from all around the world as everyone sends in their designs based on the selected theme. The winning designs then become the products of a limited edition line of graphic t-shirts.
Theme of the Competition
This year Uniqlo announced that the theme would be one that has grown in popularity recently. With a mobile game sending many outdoors and even a recent movie, Pokémon seemed like an appropriate theme.
Obviously everyone was very excited with the theme as Uniqlo received 18,000 entries. The highest they have ever received. Out of the entries only 24 were chosen as winners by a judging panel.
Sitting on the panel was Tsunekazu Ishihara who is President and CEO of The Pokemon Company. Joining him was Ken Sugimori who acts as Managing Director of Game Freak inc. And lastly was Nigo from Uniqlo UT who holds the position of Creative Director.
Grand Prize Winner
Uniqlo has revealed the 24 designs but unfortunately have had to disqualify the grand prize winner. Li Wen Pei from China submitted a pretty cool design that was named as ‘Ocean King’ and features Magikarp and Gyarados. The message behind the design is the evolution from weakness to mightiness.
Unfortunately, Wen Pei has been disqualified for violating the rules of the competition. This is because it was discovered that smartphone cases and counterfeit t-shirts were being sold with this design. The rules state that the qualifying design must not have been published before.
By being disqualified, Wen Pei has lost the opportunity to receive the grand prize of $10,000. It is such a pity because the design is pretty cool and well thought out. Uniqlo has decided to not select a new grand prize winner.
Second Place
The second prize goes to mizukilobyte from Japan who designed the t-shirt above. She writes “My design concept is based on Unown camouflaged with a vision test. Because I thought it would be fun design. Also, the Landolt C is universal symbol so everyone can enjoy my design!”
Third Place
Third place goes to Emily from the USA who says “I knew the T-shirts were for summer time, so I wanted to do something that was very “summer,” and there’s nothing more “summer” than chilling on a tropical beach with a fancy drink!”
Special Selections
Right after third place, the other designs are announced as special selection. Following the order, this design comes from CKien Yap from Malaysia! Guess we need to go get this then and support.
A very cute Pikachu popsicle design comes from Gary Chen in Taiwan. I am guessing since it’s a summer time t-shirt, Pikachu is melting from the heat.
You can check out the other t-shirt designs here.
