You may remember us running a t-shirt competition back in November offering one lucky person the chance to have their 4 colour design screen printed as 25 tees. Almost 600 entries later our contest bot selected Samuel B. Thorne as the winner. He’s spent the last few months perfecting his design and it was screen printed last week week. We’re pretty impressed with what he’s come up with so decided to find out a little more about his drawing habits and existing t-shirt collection.

First of all congratulations again, can you tell us who Samuel B. Thorne is?

I’m illustrator and designer based in London. By day I am a creative producer in a social media agency and by night I draw gooey, psychedelic pieces inspired by old cartoons, skateboard graphics and vintage advertisements.

Tell us a bit more about the design process for these t-shirts, how did you find working with a palette restricted to 4 colours?

My design process is mostly the same for every piece. I sketch and ink my pieces on paper and then scan them in where I colour and tweak on Photoshop. I tend to work with a limited colour palette and love CMYK so working with 4 colours is quite normal.

What inspired the design?

I wanted to make something cosmic and weird, something that looked like a scary end of level boss from an old school video game and this guy was the end result.

How many t-shirts do you own?

I own about 30 t-shirts, but I used to own about 70 when I was 16.

Is this the first time you’ve had a t-shirt printed? Will there be more?

I have printed a few runs of single colour t-shirts myself a few years ago, but this is the first time I have had a 4-colour shirt printed for me. I really miss having work in a physical format so I will definitely be making more t-shirts and prints after this.

I want to buy your t-shirt, where do I go?

You can buy my t-shirt at samuelbthorne.bigcartel.com