MGoShirt Alert - Day 8

Submitted by Six Zero on

“RELEASE THE HOUNDS...”

This is the eighth entry of the 2009 MGoShirt Alert, a design project that will enable MgoBlog readers to vote for upcoming designs in the brand spankin’ new MGoBlogStore.


CLICK HERE FOR DETAIL OF SHIRT

To see the same design in blue ink on a maize shirt, click here.

Mike Barwis.  The man, the myth, the gravel-voiced legend.  If you don't know the story about Barwis and his pet wolves, I invite you to come up to the surface and stay with society for awhile.  Basically, our collective obsession with this man-god can best be summed up with one word:

BadAss.

I'm not sure if that's actually one word, two words, should be hyphenated, is an adjective, a noun, a state of being, a limeade flavor at Sonic, etc.  Discuss amongst yourselves.  But we all know what it is, and Mike Barwis makes our players learn to sweat the stuff.  And love it.

So that's pretty much where I was going with this shirt. Pure Barwis-Inspired BadAss.  I envisioned a design that would empower those who have survived the strength and conditioning program.  Imagine, if you will, our team winning a tight conference game by just refusing to let the opponent in the end zone as time expires... let's say Michigan 14, Iowa 10.  Our D wins the game... and so, scrambling into the locker room, tired yet victorious, bruised yet proud, our team begins to sing "The Victors" like only the Michigan football team can.  And, amidst the celebration and hoopla, Brandon Graham slides off his jersey, pulls himself out of his shoulder pads, and there it is... Barwis Hell.


So, time to vote!  What do you guys think?

pollcode.com free polls
What do you think of MgoShirt #8?
Five Stars Four Stars Three Stars Two Stars One Star   

***** Five Stars:  My fear/fascination of Barwis is controlled with medication.
**** Four Stars:   When I turn out the lights, I know Barwis is there.  Somewhere.
*** Three Stars:  Barwis is a scary pretty dude-- good for us, bad for them.
** Two Stars:  He can't really be that tough.  I was a wrestler in high school.
* One Star:  I ain't afraid a' no Barwis!

Yesterday was clearly the biggest success story of MGoShirt yet... thanks for the love.  I will say that if you liked "The Desmond," you'll probably also enjoy "The Charles," which will be debuted next week.  Tomorrow I'll reveal my own Tacopants design, so if imaginary receivers is not your thing, prepare to be unimpressed.  BUT I will say that I think it's a great way to incorporate MGoBlog lore into the excitement of the upcoming season.  So I'll see you then for another exciting edition of-- MGoShirt Alert!

Comments

GreyJello

August 19th, 2009 at 10:39 AM ^

Agreed on too many words.

I'd prefer something like "Unleash the Hounds of Barwis"

Or, to keep it more wolverine-ish: "Unleash the Hell Weasels of Barwis"

Or "Unleash the Hell that Barwis has wrought" with a picture of a really pissed off wolverine face.

ptmac

August 19th, 2009 at 8:53 AM ^

Coach Barwis turns player into Hell? That does not make any sense at all.

As for the image, does "unleash the hell," mean drool on them?

KBLOW

August 19th, 2009 at 9:05 AM ^

I'd like a Barwis inspired shirt but not this one:

-way too much text
-dog/wolf looks too cartoony and seems like he's just finished a good long drink from the pool of urine in front of him

Bleedin9Blue

August 19th, 2009 at 9:25 AM ^

I know about Barwis' wolves and all that, but we're the Wolverines. If there's ever an animal displayed on our shirt that isn't being mocked, then it should be our mascot. I like Nevada, but they're the Wolf Pack and we are not.

Also, as everyone has said, too many words. For example, the words "that coach" are completely unnecessary. Eliminating just 2 words when there are 9 words on the shirt is a lot.

I think something better might've been, "Rock, paper, scissors, BARWIS" with a picture of rock, paper, and scissors, cowering in the corner during a cage fight with Barwis.

Nothsa

August 19th, 2009 at 9:35 AM ^

Just an 'eeee Barwis!' with a bar bell would do, wouldn't it? I think you like using letters in interesting fonts as key design elements. That's a classic approach for posters - going back into the 19th century I guess - but I think a t-shirt has to communicate more quickly. Like others, I'm not a fan of the wolf graphic either.

Cool font, though. Very brutal.

A tree

August 19th, 2009 at 9:37 AM ^

Tequila turns people into hell.

I like this design better than yesterdays because its different and it tries to be clever. A Desmond silhouette is lazy, its nothing new but since hes holy were supposed to like it. While I woudnt wear this shirt I respect it and think it fits better with the funny and sometimes cartoony selection of the Mgostore.

Bryan

August 19th, 2009 at 9:47 AM ^

Can we just get a shirt with a picture of Barwis sprinkling magic dust on wolf that then morphs into a wolverine in a sand pit that is eating fupa Weiss while he is saying 'to hell with Michigan,' all at the same time Desmond Howard is riding the Wolverine and striking 'the pose' and Tacopants is chillin' in the background sitting on little brother, and little bother is yelling '-1!, -1!'

Can't be that hard.

anUMal

August 19th, 2009 at 9:46 AM ^

"Unleash the hell into which Barwis has turned you"? I mean, if this is an mgoblog shirt, shouldn't it adhere to the highest grammatical standards (even disputed ones)?

03 Blue 07

August 19th, 2009 at 11:11 AM ^

...I'd wear that. I'm fortunate that I got one of the t-shirts last year with Bo's visage on it before his foundation kindly asked that the t-shirts stop being printed due to the fact that they tend to use his likeness for charity.

On the downside, the thing faded like hell and shrunk like crazy. Whatever. I should just wear it under all my clothes, like a sort of Superman outfit, always reminding me of the power of Bo, and ready to turn into a spittle-shooting, ass-kicking, Ohio State owning maniac whenever I please. . . provided there is a phone booth nearby.

Carl Spackler

August 19th, 2009 at 10:25 AM ^

this one is terrible. and i may be wrong, but did he end the sentence with a preposition? so many people have better ideas than this guy. just read the comment sections.

daveheal

August 19th, 2009 at 4:03 PM ^

But who cares if he ended the sentence with a preposition. There are no non-obscure reasons for the rule, so unless you want to have a conversation about John Dryden instead of parroting lame, unhelpful rules you were taught around the time you learned to write cursive, you might as well give Six Zero some constructive feedback instead of pointing him to the comments section. You may think the designs are crap, and you're allowed to say as much, but some consideration for the amount of work he's put in wouldn't be a bad idea.

Also, not being sure whether a word is being used as a preposition should have been your first clue that you should avoid critiquing someone else's grammar.

baleedat

August 19th, 2009 at 10:36 AM ^

Can we get a shirt that just reads "Fuck Family Values" please? Or "#@%! Family Values" if you don't want the actual curse word. It plays off the Boren stuff, and the cursing stuff. It's also hilarious. Does anyone else think this is a good idea, or is it just me?

Bleedin9Blue

August 19th, 2009 at 10:51 AM ^

I really like "Our S&C coach beat up your S&C coach". Of course, that is a little bit wordier too, but those words can be read more quickly than the words on today's T-shirt so it's not as big a deal.

Then you could just have a picture of Barwis standing over Sparty and Brutus [Buckeye].

MichiganPhotoRod

August 19th, 2009 at 10:54 AM ^

I love the Barwis-induced idea. Feeding off of that, what about...

"Even 'Pryor' teams are scared of Barwis!"

However, I feel a Wolverine body/face is required. We're not NC State or Washington.

formerlyanonymous

August 19th, 2009 at 11:06 AM ^

  • "I obviously need the Barwis Effect"
  • Front: "Barwis is Awesome" Back: Picture-Barwis riding a T-rex with lasers attached to its skull presiding over a running pack of wolves
  • Front: "Mike Barwis > Chuck Norris"
  • Front: "My Barwis Shirt" Back: Full text of one of one of Barwis videos from last off season with complete with emphasis included with slightly larger words. I'm too lazy to look this up. Someone else can work on that part.
  • "Mike Barwis Predicts Pain"

Bryan

August 19th, 2009 at 11:28 AM ^

If you take out the coaching record at the bottom of the entry, Barwis has a lengthier (100 words-ish) Wikipedia article than Tressel.

I am really bored at work

DallasBlue

August 19th, 2009 at 11:57 AM ^

What is the criteria under which submitted shirts move up to the MGoBlogStore? Do shirts have to receive a certain number of five-stars votes? A certain number of votes? X amount of comments? Or after Six Zero finishes unveiling his last shirt, will there be a final post displaying all the shirts, asking the readers to vote for the submitted shirts? I'm just curious how this will be done.

About the current shirt:

1) Visual quality: First, are you using different weights of that typeface, or are you stretching the face of certain lines? Using different weights to make text fit is fine, but stretching the face to make it fit isn't very professional. The form of letters in lines 3 and 5 look different than line 4 (mostly the 'has') and line 1, which is close to line 2, but subtly different. I could be completely wrong, but it just looks like there was some stretching, either horizontally or vertically. Second, the wolf looks unfinished because of the consistency of detail. The face has a lot of detail, but the body has less, and only up top. I do like that you nestled the wolf into the text. I get that.

2) Character/ humor: If the t-shirt is meant to be a PG shirt, then it succeeds, but if it's meant to inspire fear of hell and capture Barwis' badassness, I think it falls short. That may be because the shirt is wordy, because the wolf doesn't look intimidating, or because the wolf has a collar. Is it a fierce wolf? The level of fear diminishes as domestication increases. The collar makes me think the wolf is actually a dog, and to be honest, I didn't know it was a wolf until you told me (the tagline reads release the hounds).

The shirt doesn't have to depict gore and oozing entrails of victims, but I feel simple changes to the wolf could improve the shirt. Maybe you put the wolf in a stance indicating it's about to attack. Maybe the hair on its back is raised. Maybe instead of a collar, the wolf wears a broken metal chain around its neck.

Also, if you're going for fear/hell, then go for it--it may be as simple as you putting a clear, angry wolf under a giant BARWIS IS HELL/ BARWIS' GYM/ etc. Or ditching the wolf idea and going with skulls.

3) Michigan Pride: Mission accomplished. Love of Barwis is love of Michigan.

4) Mass Appeal: Here is where you have to be cautious. Does generic Joe Michigan know Barwis keeps wolves as pets? If not, would they wonder why we have a dog/wolf/canine on a Wolverine shirt? Does Joe Michigan know who Barwis is?

5) Marketability: Close, but not quite. I think a few loose ends need to be tied up in order to attract more buyers. It's a good start and has potential.