Tokyo Blog

There’s a TV programme in the UK called Skins. It’s shown on E4 and is pretty popular at the moment I think. Personally, I think it sucks. The acting is weak and the whole effect of the show is reminiscent of someone old trying to be cool (the screenwriter in this case maybe?). They get it so wrong all the way through. For example: in the episode where my ripped off t-shirt design appears (more about that later), the programme starts with a choreographed dance sequence to a fairly trite breaks tune, where three of the main characters dance in unison, very much in a west end/broadway vein. When they finish their excruciating display of their ‘urbanity’ they flop to the floor of the church they’re in, and exchange some ’street’ slang. All this is so unplausible, because all of the actors are well spoken, and ever so slightly wooden. So I had to sit through the dross that is Skins in order to find the scene where the offending article is displayed; the rip-off of the t-shirt that I designed last year.

I only made the t-shirt because I had the idea and wanted to wear the design. The smallest run I could get was 12 t-shirts, so I got 3 x small, 3 x medium, 3 x large, and 3 x XL. I thought it would be worth trying, then maybe I could make more in the future. Actually, I never got round to designing another. I took all the mediums for myself, and one small, and sold the rest on eBay. One buyer was a company in Bristol, can’t remember the name. They bought an XL, perhaps thinking that it would be hip-hop, frankly, they were the largest t-shirts I’d ever seen in my entire life, so the comment I got back was along the lines of ‘it’s a little bit big, isn’t it?’. I didn’t think anything else of it until recently when my friend, and then my girlfriend pointed out that the t-shirt was pretty similar. Actually, I don’t think it’s too similar, but it definitely seems a little bit suspect. Skins is set in Bristol, and produced by a television company based there! Personally, I prefer my design.