The Cooler is a collective of  artists and designers based in L.A created as a literal outlet for their pent up creativity, providing them relief from the daily grind and offering the general public a few visual treats for the wardrobe. They release new fresh tees each and every month under a different theme, they also offer other products such as, cards, wallpaper and pillows in a recent collaboration with Andrew Sebastian (I love their Tarot Pillow – although I think Brits would describe them more as cushions). Rather impressively they design, print, and press everything themselves at their LA studio which means, alongside a strong design ethic, quality control is at the top of their agenda.

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For the main part their collection consists of typographic shirts and L.A, TV, sport and design centric puns but there are still quite a few treats for the rest of us. I’d like to see a lot more truly graphic tees on show, especially considering how many designers are on their books. That said they do have plenty of great ideas and a few t-shirts jumped out at me, this is one of those occasions when it’s all down to cultural background and taste. The Cooler is more geared towards the American culture, so if you love basketball, L.A, a little punk ethic, the art of the expletive and retro gaming you’ll probably have your tee cravings satisfied here. All the tees are $21 – $22 each in sizes S to XXL for guys and $25 in sizes S-XL for girls – some available in a few colours.

Vinyl Junkie Tee

Cute, style wise, alongside their Miami Heat Basketball Tee remind me a little of post-Basquiat 80′s design, more painterly than all the retro gaming style gear out at the moment, the sort of thing the Olympics used to use. Sweet.

Wonderland Tee

In case you were wondering, no, your body isn’t a temple, that was knocked down years ago to make way for a theme park :p

Basketball Shorts Tee

No showing ya knees on the court please…

Growing Up Tee

Sorry kids, there ain’t no Santa either.

Hella Tee

Cartman taught me all I need to know :p

Shady Tee

A shady tee for a shady world…

It’s difficult running a design collective, especially when each artist’s style differs so wildly from the next, the themed idea is a good way to go, but I’d prefer to see more full panel graphic tees. if I had the talent and the equipment at my fingertips I’d make sure to pull out all the stops. Still, an interesting label worth checking out. www.TheCooolerCollective.com.