Blondes Make Better T-Shirts

how did it begin?
a blonde walks into a bar and orders… well, actually she started
drawing on napkins… and what she came up with was this:


Bigger. Bolder. Blonder: A blonde knows a good t-shirt when she sees one, and a good deal more. Award-winning Norwegian designer/artist Lise Ellingsen is breaking all the clichés with humor, style and a healthy respect for the environment in both messaging and the use of eco-botanical fabric.

Blondes Make Better T-shirts is a line where the design of each tee is unique, fun and conceptual — playing off “blonde-ness” (each destined to become collector’s items). But they’re smart — using only 100% sustainable, sweatshop-free and ethically responsible fabrics. One fabric, Promodal, is comprised of 40% beech tree and 60% eucalyptus tree. Another fabric is made of 50% recycled plastic bottles mixed with organic cotton.

The graphics are silk-screened by hand in California with water-based ink, and some of them are calling out to help endangered animals (both blonde and not blonde). Blondes Make Better T-Shirts is committed to personally testing styles, fabrics and prints to assure they are of the highest quality. The tees come with special care and wear labels so even a blonde can safely wash and dry them.

Blonde #1 is Lise Ellingsen. She was considering the title “Head Blonde” but found it redundant. Oslo born Ms. Ellingsen took her BFA degree at School of Visual Art in New York. Over the past eight years, she has worked with the top advertising and graphic design firms in New York, Amsterdam and Oslo. Her work for brands like Smirnoff, Coca Cola, Jones Apparel, Jimmy Kimmel and Intel have won over 8 awards, including the prestigious Art Director Club Award and Type Director Club Award. She’s equally adept in print, interactive and TV. For the last few years she studied film at the New School University in New York and her short film has been shown in several festivals and cinemas in Europe and the US. Satisfying as that is, she feels T-shirts are the next horizon.