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Banksy's Angel

I'm a sucker for street angels. This one looks real nice, personally I'm a fan of larger wings. Nice job.

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Is that a real Banksy? If so are they allowed on threadless?
Not having a go, personally I'd love to get some banksi tees.


I love this , although is it really allowed on here? anyway.. maybe make it slightly smaller and on the bottom on the tshirt? In a corner?


hey, how about designing your own tshirt!??! Banksy would hate threadless anyway.


What is with all this plaigarism lately?

You should be ashamed of yourself for submitting this.


its his idea and its yours - banksy is you , banksy is us. :)


Why would you submit something you didn't design? That's just bad.


I don't think Banksy would mind, but you never know. I really doubt he would "hate Threadless", though.

I would personally love a Banksy t-shirt. I think the black shirt/white angel is cooler. The black angel might look pretty cool on a dark grey shirt, too.

However, I think you should add the "City of Angels" text onto the shirt, since it was on the original piece in LA.


I love angel bois.. but this one is just awsome!!

Sweet Adeline

It'd be cool if Banksy supported that. It's a lovely design.


This design by Banksy is "reproduced" in this month's Wired magazine, pg 114.

The image shown in is another version of the original done in London.

This is copyright infringement, as far as I am concerned. Nonetheless, if copyright is cleared, I would like the t-shirt!


Hmm... I'm a little torn on this issue--if it's not a direct copy of the exact piece, it'd mean Toure's added his own intellectual creativity to it by recreating it (i.e. looking at it and making the basic shape).

And at least THIS guy is attributing his source, unlike some folks that claim work as their own. This, to me, is more like a tribute than a rip-off. But it's still true that he's using someone elses design to try to win a contest for money. Hmm.

It's pretty, but I'd still prefer that the drawings were original rather than a direct copy (if this is one).

x LiNdSi x

heck yes! thats awesome! id totally wear it!


at least some one is attributing their use of someone elses work... its somewhat of a nice change. also, do we know banksy's work is even copywritten?


Attributing the work makes toure a more honest thief, but a thief all the same.

picturesonmyeyes: There are a lot of myths about copyright. One of them is that you need to actively copyright something: you don't. If you want to be able to prove it's yours you need to register it, but all original work is automatically copywritten, unless you actively put it into the public domain (something you could argue Banksy has done).

Anyway, I don't think it's the legal issues anyone cares about. In order for Banksy to sue Threadless for publishing this he would need to reveal who he is, opening himself up for at least tens of thousands of pounds (maybe a LOT more) in criminal damage charges. Threadless is most likely legally safe in printing this.

But who here really pays that much attention to the law? The point is intellectual theft is immoral, and that's what people are complaining about. Designers don't want their own work stolen, and they therefore respect the work of others.


I love banksy, and I even bought a few prints a few years back when they were much cheaper. But I guees that the puma sponsored "independent" super artist might not approve...

Well, I have no proof that he is sponsored, but that's the rumours around London anyway.



Bansky is not about COPYRIGHT !
but where ou copy!


The one on the link is done better. Do your own thing, toure!


I bought banksy's books. I've sprayed his designs onto my own clothes before. This is a ripoof and what's more is you put his name on there. If I were Banksy this would piss me off even more than if you'd just copied the idea/design. Get your own ideas...


To all the people who hated on the design: I feel you. I thought for while about the same issues, but I ultimately concluded that this shirt is NOT art; it is homage. It is promotion. It is spreading the word to all those who don't know about Banksy's brilliance.

I am not claiming to be Banksy, which is why I titled the shirt "Banksy's Angel". This is not about copyrights and theft, just as Banksy is not about such things when he reproduces a manipulated image through stencil on a wall.

This is about people seeing your shirt and saying: "I like your shirt. Who is Banksy?"


This is just silly.


Great stuff, and I hope it gets printed. I'm very into stencil art.

Angry Giant

Bansky was just featured in the latest issue of juxtapoz magazine.
I sent theman email to see what they think!!!

Angry Giant

wrong mag it was Wired


you can try all you want to justify how this is right, but unless you are planning on giving the money you would win and (threadless giving) a percentage of shirt sales to Banksy, this is theft plain and simple.

This is low.

Designers are supposed to be aware of integrity, this lacks any.


Re: BrokenStar57;

Very Good Point.
As I said in an earlier post, I have thought this through.

I have already contacted Banksy through his UK website about how to deal with the money if the shirt is selected.

To reiterate: this is not about stealing Banksy's genius for money, or copying his ideas for respect. If Banksy finally decides to give all of the money away, I wouldnt care. Threadless is an open source movement. Just read the comments to this very thread. How many people have discovered Banksy already, just by us arguing?


toure, you clearly HAVEN'T thought this through - or you simply wouldn't have done it.


well, one POSITIVE thing I have to say is thanks for introducing me to Banksy. While I don't really respect the use of his art as yours (thought through or not), I am grateful for the intro to a very cool artist. If you like his work/objective, try to make the tribute in your own style. Or maybe your own image in his style. But you gotta reinvent. I think the tribute is a good, sincere idea, though.


unless you ARE banskey, you should not be submitting it.


i was in london last year. and i saw a bunch of his stuff, and i have some pictures.
but this image isn't yours, so you have no right at all to be submitting it. shame on you.


On second thought, I just don't feel comfortable with giving you credit for putting his drawing and logo on a shirt. Yes, you're attributing it to him, but still... why?

Yes, more people are going to find out about Banksy and look him up and perhaps adore him now, but the shirt's kinda pointless beyond that. No creative effort looks to have gone into this, and that, to me, is really what counts.


if you choose to teach about an artist this way again, state so in the very first post...something like, "this is a direct theft of an amazing artist and i don't wish to actually win a contest but to spread the beauty".


toure you're a complete idiot - don't you think that if Banksy wanted to make money/publicise himself by churning out his old artworks onto tshirts - he'd do it himself and sell them through a legitimate site like - not wait for a halfwit like you to do a homage...




It's a nice idea and well made... it's a pitty it isn't yours though. Bootlegged.


Bansky is the Masta


Who said Banksy is not about copyright? In I found this disclaimer next to some of the images.

© Banksy 2005.

Banksy is a fictional character and in no way endorses any form of criminal behaviour whatsoever.


Appropriation is art. But simply "copy and paste" can be a good way to get in trouble.

Can someone come up with an appropriation of this idea and submitt the T-shirt design? Ideas are not copyrighted.


Banksy is one of my idols! Quality artist indeed, seen alot of his stuff around london! One of the few reasons i goto london!


ok, ok, ok. So you copied a design, but you gave the artist credit. It's good that you didn't just say that you made the design yourself, but you still didn't. If you're going to submit a design, pretty pretty please just make it yourself!!!!


It' a tribute + Banksy leaves his art on public walls for free - whay would he care about copyright?


here here. my point exactly.

stuck with pins

How the hell did you get away with this one?
Just by giving Banksy credit on the shirt you ripped off doesn't justify you to still use it.

Tetsugake-San - It's not a tribute, it's a complete rip off and disrespect of someone elses art. Banksy doesn't make money off of what he does, and you shouldn't be able to use it for your profit.

Get your own style, design your own stuff, and stop stealing artwork.



Disrespect for another artist, plagiarism, copyright, theft, all that aside.... Isn't threadless about giving a place for people who think up their own designs a place to get them out of their head and into the real world? IMO, people who aren't thinking up something original are in the wrong place.

Joseph Prytherch

Seeing as you didn't have any creative input into the design of this t-shirt it's a bit ridiculous submitting it as it's plagiarism in its simplest form. It's not as though Banksy's as indifferent to a bit of money as he might seem, see the Blur covers for Think Tank? That was him, and if he sells his artwork to Blur he'll sure as hell not give it to you for free. I expect the email you wrote asking for permission will end up in the back of his next little black book...


I honestly do not believe Banksy would appreciate this in any way, shape or form.This is BANKSY'S design. Not yours. As a lover of his artwork and someone who read a recent interview on a website, he clearly said that he would never want to see his work put on t-shirts. You just don't do it.
It's copyrighted artwork and unless you have direct permission from the artist you don't do this.
I suggest you write
We'll see what he thinks about your blatent plagerism.

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