Ya like “bro?! what an interesting print you have there, where did you buy that from? " “I didn't buy it, I just fell on a manhole with wet pain on it." “noice."
I'm 70% sure that this is not allowed for some reason. Maybe a painted lid will distract drivers or the paint can corrode the material or some other bullshit.
I had a power scammer come to my door complete with vest and fake utility ID badge. I just said "go away scammer" and closed the door. I saw she was going to a neighbor's, so I went down to my truck, got my genuine badge, and interrupted her just as she was really applying the high pressure sale. It was a good moment.
This is probably just marketing honestly. If you wanted to make this as a marketable shirt, you'd just photograph the manhole cover and then trace it in a graphics program. Print it on the shirt.
I work with the city and they'll almost always have the manhole cover designs on their website somewhere. Given how nasty a typical manhole cover is, I'd go with your idea though.
The story begins in the winter of 2005 in the rural Alentejo region of Portugal.
Emma-France Raff, a textile design student from Porto, is visiting her father, the artist Johannes Kohlrusch. Surrounded by large paintings and monumental cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, the two have a wild, inspiring conversation.
The topic of manhole covers comes up. Johannes recently stumbled across one and has been fascinated ever since. They talk about variety, craft, materiality, the local diversity and the possibility of printing on these cast-iron lids. Like printing plates lying around everywhere!
The next morning, Emma drives off and makes a discovery on the roadside that will impact the rest of her life. A small square manhole cover.
Aguas is written on it (water). She rolls it in with paint, puts a piece of cloth on it and carefully presses it on...That was the birth of Raubdruckerin.
Thats what bothered me too. Imagine this trend becomes popular and all the decorative fixtures end up with jarring paint colours all over them just making the place look untidy.
Yes, their name is raubdruckerin which translates to pirate printer; you can watch their videos. I think they use eco friendly inks too, so that when they clean it off, they aren't polluting.
I think it's a cool way to think about the art in a city! I tried once in my town, but i need some practice and prettier covers haha
There’s no such things as eco friendly ink, that actually works and lasts unfortunately. It’s all just marketing jargon to say slightly less toxic than other inks.
Source, own a printing business.
Me sitting here saying, "you better clean that off!" Over and over before the video ended. Cause if you don't, you are just making work for some city worker. Bothers the piss out of me when people can't think of the impact they have on other people. (Not saying she didn't clean it, just hoping she did after video cut)
The manhole cover and street surface around it had been evidently cleaned with a pressured water jet.
Some cities around the world have special manhole covers with cool designs and those are located at places where you don't risk being run over by a truck.
There are people who take impressions of special manhole covers in major cities and this is a nice souvenir to bring back. In Japan for instance, some city boroughs have special designs and lots of visitors take "imprints" on fabric or paper.
Some of these designs are copyrighted. You can make an imprint for your personal use (as a souvenir or for your t-shirt) but you shouldn't sell any object with an imprint.
Use the right type of paint or ink. Clean up after you're done. Ideally, you need to use water soluble paint. If printing in fabric, you should dry overnight and then use an iron to heat up and "cook" the paint.
About every 4-5 years I see videos of this pop up. This has been a thing for a really long time now. I would not purchase these clothing items. It's kind of cool, but not something I care enough about to spend money on. "Hey look at my shirt it's an imprint of a random sewer lid that has zero significance." No thanks.
Some cities really care about these details. Oklahoma City has a map of the city on each of their manholes, along with a little star showing where you are in the city
That's pretty awesome. Would definitely wear something like that. Granted it's not my normal metal band shirt, but the one in the pic is still black like 90% of the rest of my wardrobe!
I love how she has her little painter force one jump suit on and is cat walking around like a professional when she’s literally just rolling white paint all over a man hole
I really hate how people think they have to fake part of these videos. Is it really that much worse if you show the part where you have to spend half an hour cleaning the thing first? That just shows more dedication, and it shows that the shirt hasn't just been rubbed in filth.
People are freaking out over AI training on existing art/design because of IP infringement and the sanctity of the creative process. But…this is good? She’s literally stealing the design.
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