On this swashbuckling edition of “How We Collaborate”, we will follow the treasure map’s red dotted line from start to finish (with a bunch of booby-trapped detours and epic sea urchin battles along the way), all to uncover the unexpected secret history of the world’s most famous animal hoarder.

Firing up the flux capacitor, let’s time travel back to thirteen months ago, when this idea was barely out of barnacles.  I was cruising home from yet another day at the ER germ factory and trying to relax by brainstorming ideas in the laziest, cheapest way possible: lame word association and silly punnery.  Being on the highway late at night, there was only a single lonely car speeding home next to me. Car.  Carrr…like a pirate car.  Hmm, not a horrible idea, eyepatch over a headlight, wooden wheel etc etc, it needs work, but…

And then the term Ark went through my head.  Arrrk.  Noah’s Arrrk….HOLY SHIT.

Why in THE HELL has no one ever turned Noah and his merry band of doubled-up animal conspirators into pirate assassins?  THEY’RE LIVING ON A FRIGGIN FLOATING FORTRESS ALREADY.  Why not poke some of their eyes out and have a gazillion animals in various renegade outfits to suit their personalities, but keeping the whole thing good-natured and on the cartoony side  It seemed to be a slam-dunk idea where all the elements fit together so nicely, well beyond just a lobotomized word association exercise gone too far.

It took but a couple of days to track down the perfect illustrative bounty hunter to undertake a project that would soon grow to daunting proportions.  Mike Reisel and I had been jonesing to do another design together for a while, so I fired up the ol’ digital parchment program and wrote a quick sea chantey synopsis of the concept:

Noah’s Arrrk:  What started as a stupid pun in my mind ballooned into a fully-functional design concept!  I can’t believe no one has made this connection before between Noah having a boat sailing the high seas with his animal kingdom crew, and turning the whole thing on its head with a pirate’s theme?  We would portray Noah as he traditionally looks but a pirate tweak to his entire being, with of course a parrot on each shoulder since there would be a pair of parrots on the ship!  We could also re-fashion the ark to include an awesome pirate/Noah logo on its sail (a logo that would itself do well if it was submitted for a minimalism contest…maybe something addressing the “two of every kind” theme), as well as a whole ton of Noah’s animal crew could be pirated up as well!  This design could be done in a more close-up of a wind-blown realistically-drawn Noah pirate and a couple of his animals around him, or we could go full-blown cartoonish with the whole piece and have a whole lovable crew of animal pirates popping out of every nook and cranny of the ark.

Being the extraordinary illustrationist and fellow lover of nearly obnoxious levels of detail in his designs, Mike jimmied the port hatch lock open and climbed aboard almost instantly.

Hot Pirate-on-Pirate Action

Mike and I discussed the kind of tone we wanted to achieve, which would be outwardly cartoony and cheerful, but have an unexpectedly harder-edged streak just underneath the smiley faces and unicorn farts.

For an adversary, Mike suggested we have The Arrk blowing up all kinds of famous ships from scattered times throughout history, Noah taking no chances in securing his bible chapter.  I thought that would take the focus off The Arrrk itself a bit too much, and suggested Noah attack just one ship with a crew of slightly more realistic-looking “traditional” pirates, being blown to smithereens and boarded by the Arrrk’s gaggle of goofy animals.

Every good crew begins with a kick-ass captain in charge, so Mike and I were amped to create pirate Noah’s look first.  Mike developed two styles, one more cartoony and one more realistic.

The hilarious cartoony version really spoke to me, leaning heavily on his cane as well as thrusting a mean swordly death blow.  I remarked to Mike we might want to develop the pirates on the attacked ship more in the style of the realistic Noah.

Parting The Waves With A High-Performance Ocean Liner

The stage was finally set for re-designing the traditional look of The Ark into a revved-up traverser of the high seas; a Corvette on water armed to the teeth with bullets, beers and broods.

At this juncture, I sent Mike numerous reference pictures, highlighting the features most people associate with the floating flood mocker:

A section that includes a house quarters/barn, usually around the center of the ship.

Wooden pieces jutting out of its edges.

Mike visually responded with a simple sketch of the overall shape and size of the sleeker, sexier Arrk façade.

I really enjoyed the barn being moved to the back of the ship where it usually sits on most depictions of pirate ships.  Mike also took a first crack at the sail in the above right corner, along with the placement for the more realistic looking pirate ship, with the added idea of having a giraffe stretching its neck as a bridge for a gaggle of smaller Arrk-dwelling critters to plunder the downed ship’s jewel and wench supply.

I loved the perspective between the two warring vessels, and gave some thoughts concerning future pirate characters, such as the captain hanging for dear life on the broken mast, and a pirate doggy paddling in the drink grabbing onto wooden plank debris.  Mike further refined the look of the Arrk’s back quarters/layout in the next sketch:

I suggested to give off more of an Ark-like feel to the craft, we should exaggerate the plank jutting out of the edge of the Arrrk’s bow, as well as generally “fattening” up the ship’s mid-section to give it a weightier, more grand feel of the epic proportions of the OG Ark:

Mike adapted these changes with laser-beam like precision on the next update, which we both agreed was pretty much the final look for our pimped-out, luxury sport’s car version of the Ark.  WE HAD OURSELVES A SHIP, YEEHAWWW!!!

The next step was to convert Mike’s sketch into a wire-frame computer rendering of The Arrrk, which he did swiftly and amazingly:

The massive Ark swoop and positioning was very impressive indeed.  Mike further cemented the feeling of the massive scope and impact we were going for when he sent me a reversed movie poster that captured the kind of setup he was envisioning to match the epic scale of the Ark’s journey, perfectly titled “Last Flight of Noah’s Ark”:

I took one look at the storm clouds parting to infinity by a sun ray armada, the choppy waters cresting in a triumphant wave that seemed to be lifting the transformed boat like a child’s hand just before releasing a paper airplane soaring into the sky…..and said DONE DONE and DOOOOONE.

With the Arrk and the environment’s feel well on their way to Yesville, Mike and I once again focused on how best to position the bombarded pirate ship so it wouldn’t interfere with the Arrrk’s dominance of the scene, making versions both in front and behind the might Arrrk.  I suggested to Mike that we could have BOTH pieces in the scene, as if the Arrrk, its divinely protected hull reinforced by god’s forcefield could plow right through its sea competition, and he loved the idea!

The Animals Have Gone Crackers

I suggested we flip the pieces of the pirate ship from the side view version from foreground to background.  Mike agreed and started drawing some early pirate characters mostly as place markers, incorporating many of my ideas as well as some of his own brilliant set pieces, such as a shark biting off the wooden leg of a terrified pirate, as well as replacing the cannons on the bottom deck of the Arrrk with an elephant throwing cannonballs with its mighty trunk.

Oh, and a Samurai tiger leaping from the Arrrk in full Kill Bill mode, which we deemed too intense and distracting to the scene, repositioning him later in a window way above deck.

More discussion into the tone of the remaining animal characters were had, both of us agreeing the animals aboard The Arrrk should be in more of a rowdy, good-natured victory mode, smiling in the face of the pirate ship’s misery and desolation.

I suggested we make the wooden piece Captain McScardybeard is holding onto thicker and longer, with the pirate hugging it for dear life a little bit higher up.  Before I knew it, a new update which really showed the design coming together had materialized, epic cloud cover finally included!:

Rescuers Down Under action antics now behind us, Mike fired up his illo tablet and started churning out more and more animals in mini-updates, including the lion’s mane version of Jack Sparrow, a rhino with an unhealthy gold-plated addiction, and a hard-partyin’ spider monkey:

Mike also began breaking out the turtle wax to give the Arrrk a factory showroom shine.  The way the wood texture highlights gleamed in the front of the Arrrk and slowly faded back with a more stained appearance was a sight to behold.

Mike’s finishing touches on the waves pretty much make you hear the sound of the ocean breaking as your eyes take it in.

More juggling of the animals to balance them all out within the Arrrk’s confines continued, including removal of the bamboo blowgun-wielding panda within the cannon port holes, and replacing it with another species of tag-teaming animals that would be just as fun and inventive as the elephant cannon trunks.  After separately pitching a moose on the ship having sharpened sword-like antlers, Mike saved the day and came up with using the antlers of two antelope as slingshots for their dove tandem war buddies!

After a smattering of awesome advice and some back and forth with Mike, we decided to go full bore and present the pirate ship piece in all its multi-colored glory!

Mike and I were excited that the world would now know the 1000% true story of Noah going mad for a short time with his divined nautical powers, and trounced any other floating vessel it came upon to collect two jewels of every kind on the elemental charts!  Luckily before the waters receded, Noah got his evil ways back under wraps to play the part of environmental savior we all know and love today…

Have you all been good little homeboys and homegirls this year?

Not so much, eh?

Well, time to lie your butt off so the Awesome Elf will kick-flip into your chimney with the gift of FREE SHIPPING!

To make sure the Elf’s designer burlap sack is stretched to near-bursting capacity, here’s FIVE NEW PRINTS to tickle your mind’s eye.

Plus TWO NEW DESIGNS on Redbubble and Society6!

Don’t forget to e-stalk us on Facebook and Twitter to get the scoop on upcoming RB/S6 discount codes.

MIDDLE-EARTH ALERT!

There’s still time before the unexpected journey begins to order Precious Pop for the Hobbit-sized price of $20!

We’re off to light our eight Christmas trees and hang ornaments all over our Menorahs, happy holidays!

The supercool people over at Attack of the Show! on G4TV recently recommended some t-shirt apparel brands and Made With Awesome was one of the sites mentioned!

The Ewoks were all set to cause a Hells Angels-sized ruckus on television until we told them they could give a shout-out to their mommies watching at home.

Here’s the full video, Made With Awesome is reviewed about halfway through:

A special color edition of our awkwardly awesome tee “You’re Weird, We Should Be Friends” is available at Fab.com for a limited time for a mere $18 dollars!

You'll be saving so much money that you can take your new friends out for drinks and stare at one another in awkward silence for hours.

Don’t hesitate for too long though, the deal ends next Tuesday, November 13th at 7pm!

Introducing Made With Awesome now on Redbubble!

We assume the company's name stems from the fact they send each package by way of hamster mailman encased in a giant red plastic bubble.

Many of our shirts that are sold out on the main website, as well as a smattering of designs that were never available on shirts before are now up for sale.

8-Bit Pirates by Evan Ferstenfeld and Alvaro Arteaga Sabaini

Bird is the Word by Evan Ferstenfeld and YAWN

I've Lost The Key To My Imagination...by Evan Ferstenfeld and Roni Lagin

Indy by Evan Ferstenfeld and Branko Ricov

You can also clothe your wee ones in Awesome and protect your technology babies to boot, because kid’ sizes and iPhone/iPod cases for our products are available too!

We’ve also got a slew of new Redbubble-exclusive slogans created with design ninja Dann Matthews for your witty word wearing pleasure.

VERBS by Evan Ferstenfeld and Dann Matthews

I Humbly Suggest I'm Extremely Awesome by Evan Ferstenfeld and Roni Lagin

Ice Cream Headaches by Evan Ferstenfeld and Dann Matthews

Cheer Up! by Evan Ferstenfeld and Dann Matthews

We’re going to be constantly updating both the main Made With Awesome website as well as our Redbubble account with new shirts/posters/lint removers so don’t forget to check the sites every few seconds or so…..alright, maybe every few days is good enough for now, we don’t want you getting carpal tunnel syndrome and all.

Roni and Evan put on their hard hat gear and brought a million-mile long checklist along for their journey into the fabric-laden t-shirt netherworld.

We have recently ordered a round of previously unreleased tees and poster prints, so we’ll be stuffed to the gills with more Awesome than ever before!

We wanted to make sure we have more than enough Awesomeness to go around for our upcoming kick-ass craft shows, the first being our second journey to Maker Faire, the freewheeling yet family-friendly festival that combines the anything-goes artiness of Burning Man with the cool smartypants nature of Alton Brown or Bill Nye The Science Guy.

Be prepared to bring your most tinted sunglasses because the science will be blinding!

After Maker Faire, we’ll be heading back to good ol’ Philadelphia the next weekend to focus on another friendly, colorful affair of a different vibe: Philly Outfest 2012!

Taking place on October 7th “in the heart of the Gayborhood” as the Philly Pride website proclaims, we’ll be there from noon to 6pm watching all those rainbow flags held higher and the activities be pride-ier than even the year before.

New York and Philly, prepare to be once again crammed to the hilt with Awesome, hope to see everyone there!

It’s called Delicious City Prints and it’s a series of high-quality prints dedicated to name-checking the sometimes surprising foods and treats that spring out of a city’s unique environment and culture.

Here are the cities featured in the project for your eyes to feast on. Careful, don’t stare too long or your retinas will get too full for your eyelids to close!

Photo Op by Evan Ferstenfeld & Eduardo San Gil

And why should your torso have all the fun? There’s tons of thought-provoking and gut-busting prints to check out as well for $10 ($5 off original price)!

Two new prints to soothe you into slumber, JUST ADDED!

Sleeping With The Fishes by Evan Ferstenfeld & Anna-Maria Jung

Goodnight, Sun. by Evan Ferstenfeld & Enkel Dika

Enjoy the rest of your awesome summer and remember, the best way to prepare for the Summer Blizzard of Savings is to dress stylish and warm….we suggest buying five of our t-shirts and wearing them all at once for extra layer protection!

First up is Photo Op, which is a design that’s anything but camera-shy.  In fact, after the babe is plucked from the Polaroid’s “picture slot”, make sure NOT to shake the newly-minted bundle of rectangular joy to speed up the delivery process, no matter how tempting it might be.

And we even printed this sucker on hospital green, cause we're cheeky bastards like that.

This marks the second Made With Awesome collaboration Evan Ferstenfeld and Eduardo San Gil have adventured upon together, the other being the levitating hogcycle-meets-moon base rebellion of Easy Speedin’.

For those of you who don’t have the three and a half seconds to stand in place for people to gaze at your shirt and realize you’re the coolest attired high-flyer for five counties over, why not just literally spell it out for them?

You can tell onlookers they've just graduated from your shirt's highly-accredited reading academy.

We’ve listened to your numerous requests and read through most of the death threats (which took quite a while, haven’t anonymous homicidal maniacs ever heard of spellcheck?), producing a version of our popular red  I’ve Just Developed A Theory slogan tee in stealthy nerdy ninja black!

Guys, please refrain from telling the ladies they've got impressive "variables".

Are there any other delectable Made With Awesome designs/slogans you would like to see on another hue of tee?  Let Roni and Evan know in the comments section below and we’ll see how many like-minded people enjoy your fascination with the color “off-off-waaayofffff-white”.

The whimsical and inventive outfits from all walks of fantasy realms we saw in our four days amongst the comic book flock made the pageant in The Hunger Games look like a kindergarten Renaissance Fair.  What follows is a visual tour of but a handful of the comic book craziness we were part of, but first many thank yous must go out to the following people whom I somehow didn’t take photographic evidence of having a good time with:

Roni Lagin, my Made With Awesome “Partner in Crime” aka that painfully legal, well-documented expenses and profit reporting place of business.

Dianne Miller and Zane (+2 amazing children), thanks for being fun, easy-going and completely sane neighbors…and then for making sure any pack of wolves with hungry hands came close to MWA’s precious t-shirt supply pile while I took the hour-long journey to pull my car onto a loading dock.

The heart-breakers over at Ex-Boyfriend, Meredith and Matt. Thanks Meredith for showing me the filthy secret of Renegade

The fine literal folk at Geek Boy Press, you were oh so right man about the shirts being in one’s eyeline.

The one and only Phil Kahn, who I heard recite the pitch for his comic “The Gilded Age” with his Micro Machine Man bullet point talking precision about 357 times, that by the second day I bought a copy of his tale of working class adventurer types in a medieval-ish realm, which sounded pretty delicious to my head juice. Also thanks to Phil, I now hear in my sleep the phrase “ROCK BARD!!!!!” sang in a cock-rock falsetto so sky-high it would make the “I Believe In a Thing Called Love” singer’s ear drums bleed.

Okay then, let’s open up issue number 1 and explore the origin story of how Made With Awesome attained its mighty t-shirt crafting powers…

Pre-Con warm up.

Made With Awesome's digs.

Holyshitsaturdaycrowds!

Come to the Con and treat yourself to our Star Wars buffet, featuring all the ton ton meat you can eat!

I am the Rebel scum you've been looking for...

Pixel brainz

Bustin' makes him feel good.

R2 out of duct tape

Kicks so much ass

A zombie comic that actually looked interesting... http://fubarpress.com

Choose your own YESventure! www.interrobangstudios.com

Meeting the man that produced the best thing I ever bought in my Hebrew school gift shop: Shaloman aka the Jewish Superman, with a dash of Weird Al. Didn't even know Al Wiesner would be there!

My creeper Hayden Panettiere shot.

So adventurous

That shit's levitating!!!!

More crowdiness

An official Jedi lightsaber teacher about to cut some poor nerd's legs off.

James Hong in a shiny fedora shooting passersby with a light-up laser blaster. The best summary of Comic Con in a photo I can give you.

Sooo tempting!!!! The entire series on 8 bootleg DVDs! I probably wouldn't watch more than a half dozen ep's before saying "mmm tasty nostalgia.........Hokay then, I'm full." so I didn't buy it.

Some assemblage required

"No sir...I didn't see you playing with your dolls again..."

Ridiculous Tower O' T-Shirts

An oldie but goodie.

Ironing Man helping out the wrinkled cause.

Forget the t-shirt racket, I'm exchanging my cotton tee for some royal soldier blue and joining up with the forces of Cobra. They offer a way better benefits program than most cubicle jobs do...namely, the benefit of shooting blue lasers all day long!

I seriously would like to adopt each of these Hyrulian adventurers for about five minutes. I also think if I have a daughter, I'd try to convince my fiancee Tina that Zelda would make a perfect middle name.

The FerstenTormey Household! Charlie Wyatt, Tina and Evan aka the person typing his own name in right now.

Now why the long faces and frigid shoulders guys? Don't worry fellas, Made With Awesome will be BACK soon enough amigos! Say, were you two dudes perchance the original writers for that Oasis song, "Don't look BACK in anger"? What's that my fellow Care Bear connoisseurs, you're gonna crack my BACK in half slowly and with great relish if I continue with this line of stupid humor???

Alas the show is over, all superheroes have chartered the next gust of wind out of town, and all the time travelers are busying themselves with getting the timing just right to appear in the picture of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald.  But Made With Awesome has gained a new power from brushing elbows with such creatures of myth, and basements that double as colorful worlds of endless clifftops and skies thick with pterodactyl wings- the power of having one superhuman-sized fun time!