Des Moines's Smash

Logo Burnout T-shirt, available in-store only

We were lucky to meet a few of the folks from SMASH while participating in the Des Moines Arts Festival last month, as well as spotted several fair attendees sporting their T-shirts, and wanted to tell you all about them!

SMASH is a collective of moving-and-shaking designers with a home-town love for Des Moines, Iowa, unlike any we’ve ever experienced before (just click on the des moines! tab over at their website and see what we mean). They keep a store stocked with vintage, reconstructed and one-of-a-kind apparel, hold dance parties and art-openings, as well as publish a nifty news magazine (the first edition just came out this summer).

Clockwise from top left: interior of Smash store, Caucus sticker, Actually We're Just Outside the Middle of Nowhere T-shirt, pink Lego earrings

If you don’t happen to find yourself in Des Moines anytime soon, check out their online store to see the goodies they offer online – plenty of t-shirts (many on organic cotton), a few accessories (gotta see those LEGO earrings), and some great stickers. Right now they’re also selling shirts to help out with Iowa Flood Relief 2008.

Iowa Flood Relief T-shirt

As graphic designers, photographers, web-designers and screen-printers, we think SMASH fuses great humor with some really slick work – that and they seem like a whole lot of fun.

Images c/o thesmashsite.com