Where to find free images for t-shirts?

April 5, 2004 8:38 PM

Anyone know of a good source for free images that would be good to use on t-shirts? [simorede]

Over spring break, one of my fraternity brothers and i noticed a kid wearing a t-shirt that said "Please drink responsibly" underneath a crossed out cartoon of a guy with his hand on a goat's ass. We want to copy it. Thus we're looking for a cartoon of a drunk/sketchy/horny looking dude and a goat, preferably one that looks a little frightened. Though we probably don't really have to worry about getting sued for copyright infringement, I'd prefer the images to be free and unprotected.

posted by rorycberger to clothing, beauty, & fashion (9 comments total)

Google Advanced Image Search is a favorite of mine:
http://www.google.com/advanced_image_search?hl=en

Set the size big so's you get something higher-resolution, plug in random words until you find something cool. Yeah, there's the copyright thing, but if you're just making a couple, I say fuck it. And if you ever meet the drunken frat boy you decide to use for the image, it'll be a LaFF RiOT. Or a knuckle sandwich. But a good story in either case.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:26 PM on April 5, 2004

Besides, if you are ripping off the image/slogan verbatim anyway, you're already treading on thin ice. Might as well just take the plunge entirely, no?
posted by rafter at 9:45 PM on April 5, 2004

Besides, if you are ripping off the image/slogan verbatim anyway, you're already treading on thin ice. Might as well just take the plunge entirely, no?

The t-shirt we saw was an original creation of the guy that was wearing it, as he had made it for himself and a few friends. he said it was cool for us to rip it off, so there is no thin ice there. but yeah, i'm really not too worried about the copyright issue. will definitely try google, but aren't those mostly real pictures, rather than cartoony type things that would be good for a shirt?
posted by rorycberger at 10:14 PM on April 5, 2004

How about finding an art student or someone else who's good at cartooning? Throw a six-pack or a case their way (or work out some other barter) in exchange for an original cartoon.
posted by Vidiot at 10:28 PM on April 5, 2004

[simorede]

OK, that's just stupid.

On topic, try stock.xchng - royalty-free stock photos.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:55 PM on April 5, 2004

rorycberger--google image search will return cartoony images as well as real photos. It returns all... images.
posted by jennyb at 5:32 AM on April 6, 2004

rorycberger--google image search will return cartoony images as well as real photos. It returns all... images.

yes, but as i said above it's mostly photographs (i'd say about 95%), which are essentially useless for me. Thus if anyone knows of a search engine that was more artistic/cartoon based, that would be much much easier for me to use. Although I do have to admit that many of the photos that came up when i searched for "drunk guy" were pretty funny.
posted by rorycberger at 8:44 AM on April 6, 2004

I second Vidiot's suggestion: You're at a college, find some artistic chap to draw it for you. It'll be much less hassle than trying to find a needle in Google's haystack.
posted by me3dia at 9:17 AM on April 6, 2004

throw a ".gif" into your images.google search, and you'll increase the chances of hitting an illustration.

But yeah, easier to find some fellow student/artist to draw it for ya.
posted by willnot at 11:32 AM on April 6, 2004