Design by Humans have added something pretty big to their site and I’m fairly impressed. It’s called the DBH Collective. When I saw the huge number 14 on their homepage I just assumed that they were going to have a sale where all tees were just $14. That would have been a bit over the top and thankfully that is not the case. The banner says hundreds of new tees which seems to be bullshit as there are just 185 that I can see but I have a feeling the number will increase rapidly. The BS will be replaced by tees.

I still don’t know what the number 14 represented.

What is the DBH Collective?

The DBH Collective is a group of artists who have had their work printed by Design by Humans. They were invited by DBH to open up their own store on the DBH website selling their designs on tees using a print-on-demand system. (Yes, this means DTG.) Basically, it’s a very exclusive CafePress. I believe the first 14 artists were all invited by Design by Humans to participate and I’m sure more will be invited in the future but you can also apply to join.

 Are they good quality?

I don’t know. (Dear Design by Humans, Send me a few tees! ) I imagine they are pretty good quality despite not being screenprinted. DTG technology has been advancing rapidly and can produce amazing tees. On top of that, Design by Humans wouldn’t want their reputation tarnished by producing substandard product. Most people don’t even think about the printing method and won’t distinguish between DTG and screenprinted tees.

Are the mockups accurate?

I’d say that they are not but it seems that accuracy will be improved over time. Think of it as being in beta. In general it seems that the print will be larger than that shown in the mockups which will probably be seen as a good thing by most fans of Design by Humans as big print is the DBH style. Below are some examples using images stolen from the DBH forum.

Where are the girls’ tees?

That is a good question and one that hopefully DBH will address soon. It might be that DBH think that girls can wear just wear these mens tees or they could be in the pipeline. DBH does favor mens tees so I imagine that the majority of their customers are men. Perhaps they don’t care about girls.

Anything else I should know?

Sure. The cost $24 each and they come in a variety of colors (up to 10). I imagine the color selection is decided by the artist.

What can we expect from dbh Collective?

I’m not a fortune-teller but I expect that there will be women’s tees and maybe even kids tees. I think the color range will increase. (A faded yellow would be nice.) If it is a successful venture we will see more and more artists join and their stores will get bigger and bigger. Of course some artists won’t be successful and might closeup their store and try to sell their art elsewhere.

What I don’t expect but think would be cool is…

to be able to choose not only the color of the shirt but the style too. For example: v-neck, tank-top, vintage etc.

Link: Design by Humans