Product Details

ABOUT OUR DESIGNS

The Tianbini Collections are designs made by humans based in the United States. Said humans have digital art and content design skills and work from home. In some cases, they have other jobs or no other job at all, which means ain’t nobody gettin’ rich here.

Some generative-AI processes are used. Examples include a small number of select base-visual designs, select t-shirt models, research for articles, and first drafts of the article abstracts. We are committed to exploring new ways to use generative-AI in ways that increase productivity. We make no conscious effort to accelerate the obsolescence of humans or infringe on the copyrights held by humans. This is difficult to achieve, if not in some cases, nearly impossible, given the current state of generative-AI applications and the law-makers that should be governing them.

We make a concerted effort to employ the use of non-copyrighted or public domain materials, such as public domain flag designs, typography, and shapes to display languages, including English, Braille, and American Sign Language (ASL). A portion of select base-visual designs are sourced from art stock platforms with adherence to the copyright attribution requirements, terms, and conditions of the platforms.

We also make a concerted effort to push the boundaries of copyright infringements, not to overtly steal, but to demonstrate how ideas in various meme-forms replicate and transform over time. We are not staunch post-modernists who might believe that nothing is original, and is therefore, fair-game. However, we do believe humans, by their very nature, are continually consuming, combining, and mutating ideas into new forms. For more information regarding our design processes and thoughtfulness to copyright infringement, please see the design details toward the bottom of this page.

ABOUT OUR PHYSICAL PRODUCTS

Our products are fulfilled through our print-on-demand business partners. We make a concerted effort to source printing and shipping services from the United States (and Europe, someday), which in turn, source products from the United States or other countries in the Americas.

Where noted, “Source: All USA” is intended to mean that all art and compositions, the service of printing and shipping, and the blank t-shirts are all “Made in the USA.” “Where noted “Source: All American” is intended to mean that all art and compositions, the service of printing and shipping, and the blank t-shirts are all made in the USA and/or countries located in the Americas, such as an apparel brand that manufactures in the Dominican Republic.

Limitations of these claims include where affiliated companies source their base materials, such as the country of origin of machinery, the inks used in the printing process, or packing materials used in the process of building a package for shipping.

We share this information in the spirit of transparency and to bring awareness to the public regarding the challenges that small business owners face in order to fully claim something is made in America or made in the USA. We live in a global economy where making such a claim in the utmost absolute terms is nearly, if not outright impossible. Please do know we’re committed to making the best possible decisions to be good and responsible humans.

DESIGN EXAMPLE DETAILS

Example of a base-visual design sourced from generative-AI. The original bird had three wings and a beak that connected to its eye. A loving and caring human cleaned up the image in Adobe Photoshop to make it look slightly more anatomically correct. Using Adobe Illustrator, the corrected bird was vectorized, the feet, line, and text were added to make the final composition. We are aware the nature of the water-color effect of the bird was leveraged by an AI language model that used water color art imagery created by human artists, even though said water color artists may have never painted a blue bird. Did we infringe on a copyright of someone’s water color brush strokes? We don’t think so, but there is a fine line here, as artists are not necessarily asked for permission or paid royalties to build the generative-AI language models we are using today. The inspiration for the composition came from an Elton John song, Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. Have we infringed on Elton John’s original works? Not likely.
The base ASL hands were sourced from an association serving the deaf community. There are so many out there, honestly, we don’t have an audit trail of which one. We’re still looking. In Adobe Illustrator, the hands were modified to remove detail and the lines have been slightly smoothed. Dotted lines with arrows were replaced with solid lines with arrows. The English alphabet is our original. Have we infringed on a copyright? We don’t think so, as hand gestures cannot be copyrighted or trademarked and no original source was used outright. Our final product was modified and combined with our original art. On the other hand (no pun intended… ok, maybe it was), we did not create these hands from scratch, nor did we pay for them through a stock platform service. If we were presented with a cease and desist letter for this design, we think we have a solid defense, but we have no means to fight it. That said, our hope is that, we, in our small way, might help bring some awareness of ASL more into the mainstream. We are advocates for accessibility and inclusion on this site, in general. If ever someday we happen to be rolling in the dough off of the sale of this t-shirt, we’ll gladly give back to the ASL community. That would be a wonderful day for all involved. You can help make this possible by buying a t-shirt 😉

… CONTINUED

The design shown here is called September, named after the Earth Wind and Fire song by the same name. We are amazed at the number of people all over the world that know this song. We think this is a good example of a meme that has transcended its original context. Of course, the song and any artwork associated with the EWF enterprise is not in the public domain. Have we infringed on a copyright? Well, maybe. Although the Sun and Earth cannot be copyrighted or trademarked, our design uses a select excerpt of the song’s lyrics, and the outer ring depicting the sun, along with the placement of the Earth inside is inspired by original EWF artwork. We have made several modifications to such an extent that no one would confuse our design with the original art. However, we acknowledge that just as many people will immediately see this design and associated with EWF. If we were presented with a cease and desist letter for this design, we think we would have an argument. That said, we have no means to fight this in a court of law.
The design shown here is called Brown Dirt Cowboy, taken from the Elton John song and album by the same name, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. The design started with a photograph of what is now considered an antique, from the nearly 50 year-old original album artwork, a very small portion (<5%) of the front cover. In Adobe Photoshop, it was painstakingly traced and extracted from a very busy background. The original CMYK dot pattern used to print the album was removed and replaced with solid fields of color. A “grunge” texture was overlayed on the design. In Adobe Illustrator, the modified image was vectorized and placed on a brown shirt so ugly, it’s beautiful. Have we infringed on a copyright? Well, maybe. The works of the Elton John enterprise are not in the public domain, and just because it was difficult and time consuming to extract from the album artwork, along with the added grunge, doesn’t overcome the fact this is a true depiction of the original art. If we were to create such a design, print it, and wear the shirt for our personal use, it would likely be excused, especially since no such product is offered by the Elton John enterprise. However, because we intend to sell this shirt design to the general public, there’s a chance this could be an infringement. We invite the community to weigh in. Should we remove this design from the store?

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