Introducing Your Contenders for Derby #194: Science Fair

Well 2 I voted for [You are Here and (Science) - (Fiction) = :(] made the fog so I am hopefully at least one prints.

None I really want but… I’ll root for:

Boots
DianaSprinkle
Kevlar51

I’m really hoping with don’t end up with a Ramy / Patrick sandwich.

Either way I’m saving money…

I’m happy see no animals were harmed in the fogging of the shirts!

What a shame, saving money this week I see.
However, this was a great concept for a derby.

Weekly too-lazy-to-comment-individually post:

I’m always torn voting for shirts that are nice in and of themselves but don’t really follow the theme outlined for the derby. This week’s crop is a prime example: of the six contenders only one (maybe two if you squint) can be reasonably related to the stated theme of the " ‘right’ (sic) of passage of the middle-school Science Fair". It’s like everyone else just took a glance at the headline and pulled out whatever science-y design they had laying around.

One approach would be to just consider the theme as a seed, and judge shirts that the moderators deem on-topic on their own merit (and certainly a random person seeing the shirt on the street isn’t going to know about the theme). But it seems less fun that way, so I will continue to consider adherence to the theme in my voting.

Anyway:

Planets - aw, poor Pluto. Bonus point for being on topic (although the styrofoam solar system is the lamest of all possible science fair projects) and for being a bit topical (the Pluto controversy seems like it was more 2008, but science moves slowly). Those strings just kind of hang there, though. Third place.

Caterpillar - this would have made a better Flash game than a shirt. Re-doing this as a three-panel stand-up display would have won it on-topic points.

Prism - A Storm is coming, and is he pissed.

Rat - Nice, the gradients really work here. Would have liked it better without the question mark. And the map needed a cheese graphic.

Bored kid - Hulk hate! Hulk not buy!

Bonsai - barely even science-y, let alone science fair. Like four previous tree shirts but not as good as any of them.

Sky - even less on topic, should have been DQ’d. Roy G. Biv weeps at being reduced to three non-spectral colors.

Punnet - Like this one, great use of color and slightly esoteric without being nerdy. Too bad about the “no text” rule this week - the title as shown in the mockup adds a lot. Second place.

Wavelength - still only vaguely on-topic, but this is gorgeous. We need an “equations illustrated” derby. First place.

I vote for the shirts I’d like to wear; I think some of the artists have a knack designing wearable, fabulous shirts using the derby theme as a guide. This week I’m with Amreli, Boots, and VonMonkey - three in one week is amazing. It makes up for next week - I really am not into zombies.

Haha, ouch! But pretty valid- I freely admit that I’ve never been to a science fair, so wasn’t really sure what I was doing- I just imagined some kind of strange experiment trying to simulate the effect of the seasons. I can’t excuse it being worse than any other shirts though, sorry! :slight_smile:

Actually, it’s really on theme. “Sky in a Jar” is a very common middle school science experiment. It’s one that you see at science fairs a lot (basically, it looks like the sky in a jar when you shine a light into it. it illustrates why the sky is blue). The derby theme said, to give them “your depictions of the theories explored, science fair experiments themselves, or maybe just the chemical or physical processes involved”. I can see not thinking it’s on theme if you don’t know about the “Sky in a Jar” experiment though. :slight_smile:

You get 'em, Boots. I was waiting for you to defend this one.

Sky in a jar, In harmony and…damnit, spectrum. I gotta admit, I like it.

Yes, this. Depictions of the science fair experiments themselves was only one of the examples/options they gave.

Although I would LOVE an “equations illustrated” derby. :slight_smile:

I stand informed. I’d never heard of the experiment (and I’ve judged a few middle-school science fairs). Cool.