A few weeks ago I received this sweet tee in the mail from Hypnic. Hypnic does seem like a strange name and truth be told I had never heard the word before. I was sure Hypnic’s founder, Mike Hammer (Really!), told us that the name of his web store comes from his design process but I have nothing to back that up. According to Wikipedia a hypnic jerk “is an involuntary myoclonic twitch which occurs during hypnagogia, just as the subject is beginning to fall asleep. Physically, hypnic jerks resemble the “jump” made when a person is startled.” I have had a few of those. So Mike Hammer wakes up suddenly with this idea in his head and sets to work creating these awesome abstract yet somehow comfortingly familiar designs and we get the Hypnic store. (Disclaimer: I may have imagined this.)

There is not much of a selection. With only five distinct designs (available in several colors), you don’t have much to choose from but what they do have is originality. You won’t find these tees anywhere else, in fact I imagine it would be hard to find similar tees. All the tees in Hypnic are wearable and are perfect for people who are sick of the the current trends such as the oversized prints  produced by stores like Design by Humans, lazy pop culture references by stores like Busted Tees and grotesque Zombie tees by just about every indie tee designer with a Big Cartel store.

Anyways, the tee I received in the package may be the Hypnic signature tee and is available in navy, brown and lemon yellow. The design is used as the background to the website. It’s called Ootline which makes me think that it must be a typo but it doesn’t really matter what it’s called. The design looks like smoke wafting over the shoulder and the placement of the design is what really makes this t-shirt. As you can see the design goes right over the sleeve and over the seams. There are a few minor print issues at the seams but that’s the norm for screen-printing and they are barely noticeable and don’t take away from the overall effect of the design.

Another tees that really caught my eye was the Winter tee. The design looks like a block of ice that has naturally formed tree patterns as it melts. It is a stunning design and really does make me think of Winter when I look at it.

Hypnic uses American Apparel so you don’t have to worry about sizing or wonder if they were made my little kids in China. If you want to wear something different you have found it. Hopefully he will crank out a few more designs before Christmas.

As an added bonus Hypnic is giving a 30% off coupon to anyone who becomes a fan on their Facebook page before the end of November. Also you should follow their blog for other offers, news and new t-shirts.