Month: May 2025

Posted on by

Brother Ray’s 2nd Shirt – part 1

Brother Ray sent me another project — a “LIAR” tee he purchased 30 years ago from a local printer.

As with other designs from Brother Ray, I jumped right in and started recreating versions based on the photo he sent. However, something about this one felt familiar. That’s where the story gets a bit tricky.

At PPT, we’re very careful not to step on any toes when it comes to using other people’s artwork without permission. Here’s what I found about the image in question. Part 2 will cover the alternatives we came up with, but first, we need to clear up the background.

Let me be clear: this post is not meant to suggest there was anything wrong with how Brother Ray’s shirt was made locally back in the day. It’s possible the image was released into the public domain, or, given that this was pre-internet, maybe the printer bought rights to use a stencil or design. Either way, it’s highly likely there’s nothing controversial about the original shirt’s production — 30 years ago or more. Many I’ve spoken with recall seeing this design on t-shirts or in books around the late 80’s and early 90’s.

Still, PPT wants to be extra cautious. So we decided to create a design inspired by the original image, rather than using it outright.

Now, back to the image — part of the “LIAR” tee looked very familiar. In fact, it went viral on TikTok in 2022. That TikTok post (which doesn’t credit the artist, but also didn’t use the exact same image) racked up over 1.5 million views and can be viewed here:
https://nypost.com/web-stories/spot-the-hidden-word-in-this-optical-illusion/

Fortunately, the New York Post’s article about the TikTok trend did credit the original creator:
https://nypost.com/2022/09/20/facial-recognition-spot-the-hidden-word-in-this-optical-illusion/

According to the article:

“Originally created by New York artist Paul Agule in 1987, the image is an ambigram, a type of optical illusion that depicts more than what initially meets the eye.”

We also found the image listed again, titled “Liar Illusion”, with credit to Paul Agule at anopticalillusion.com.

With his name in hand, I did one more search at the U.S. Copyright Office’s online public catalog (which is scheduled to be replaced soon, so this link may not work for long):
https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=2&ti=1,2&Search_Arg=Agule&Search_Code=FT%2A&CNT=25&PID=Q5IW3TNtEFGyQ3Y7LCQzRvYpyGSbO&SEQ=20250531225910&SID=2

Sadly, additional searching revealed that Mr. Agule has passed away. Source:
https://www.hartisland.net/burial_records/paul-agule

I hope this post helps others using the graphic to give proper credit. I found many sites featuring the image without attribution, which feels wrong considering the impact and creativity behind it.

As for using the image today, options seem limited. One possibility would be to try contacting Mr. Agule’s estate to inquire about the rights. But as I mentioned earlier, I don’t know what licensing agreements — if any — were made with printers or publishers 30 years ago.

The better path for us, and the one we’ve chosen, is to create a new design inspired by Mr. Agule’s famous “Liar” face — and to give him the attribution he deserves.

Posted on by

Jetpack or not

I may try to turn off Jetpack or see how to use it better. It’s an add-on to the website that publishes blog posts across the socials, which was the goal. However, it seems to do the same anytime I add a new product. The problem is I’m still working on those products at that exact point. They are not quite ready yet when Jetpack publishes them. The other issue is I’d rather do 1 post saying I have 6 new shirts, than 6 automated posts.

Update: On the free version of Jetpack – I don’t see any settings to exclude new products from being posted. To keep using it to publish my live blog posts and scheduled blog posts, I’ll leave it active, but will have to deactivate it before importing new product. That’s all I found.

Posted on by

New design brewing – part 2

Recap from part 1: Yes, I know, “Faith is obedience” leaves a lot out of the picture. What are some other ideas that would work?

🔥Group 1 – Bold & Simple:

  • “Faith Obeys.”
  • “Faith is Obedience.” (The original phrasing—short, strong, makes people think – but not enough explaination)
  • “To Believe Is to Obey.”
  • “No Obedience, No Faith.”

✝️ Group 1 – With Scripture Hints:

  • “By Faith, Noah Built.” – Hebrews 11
  • “Faith That Sits Still Isn’t Real.” – James 2
  • “Obedient Faith – Romans 1:5” (Paul talks about the “obedience of faith” there)

🛣️ Group 3 – With a Visual/Metaphor of a car:

  • “If You Trust the Car, You Drive It. Faith Moves.”
  • “Faith Doesn’t Just Sit in the Driveway.”
  • “Trust = Action. Belief Drives Behavior.”

Overall, I’m leaning towards:

✦ “To Believe Is to Obey.” ✦

Tone: Reflective

Theological weight: Emphasizes the unity of faith and action without sounding harsh. It invites thought—kind of a modern echo of Hebrews 11 and Romans 1:5 (“obedience of faith”).

However, does that put me back into the “Faith is obedience” foot in the mouth that started this whole thing?

I may consider:

“Faith That Sits Still Isn’t Real.” – James 2

as a 2nd choice.

Posted on by

New design brewing

“Faith is obedience”, I made this comment and it seemed to get a lot of views in 2 days:

Now, before you stop reading – I don’t believe in works based salvation, that’s not what I was trying to say.

Now for those especially rooted in the doctrines of grace, biblical authority, and the distinction between faith and works, the statement “faith is obedience” may be a bit oversimplified. Here’s some thoughts on the topic.

True faith results in obedience:

  • Faith produces obedience, but it is not the same as obedience.
  • James 2:17 — “ Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” KJV
  • John 14:15 — “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” KJV
  • Ephesians 2:8-10 — Yes, I know people like to quote verses 8 and sometimes 9, but keep going to verse 10.
    • “8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
    • 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
    • 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” KJV
  • We are saved by grace through faith, but we are saved unto good works (we should walk in them, be doing them).

Obedience is evidence of saving faith:

  • A person who truly believes in Christ will be transformed and will walk in obedience to God’s Word.
  • Obedience follows faith as the fruit follows the root.

Faith itself is a response to God:

  • In that sense, believing God is obeying His call to trust in Christ (Romans 10:16 — “But they have not all obeyed the gospel…”).

Now, I understand, if “faith is obedience” implies that faith = doing good works or obeying commandments, that would blur the gospel and resemble legalism. I may have been hasty in posting. In Romans 4:5 — “ But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” KJV. Faith is often described as the empty hand that receives the gift of grace—not a meritorious act.

Are these some better phrases?

“True faith obeys.”
Or: “Faith is the root, obedience is the fruit.”
Or: “Obedience flows from faith, but faith is not identical to obedience.”

What I was trying to describe faith not as mere intellectual agreement, but as a trusting action—a commitment that manifests in what you actually do. And that is Biblical:

Jesus said in John 3:36 (ESV): “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life…”

To compare, John 3:36 (KJV) “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life…”

Another comparison, John 3:36 from the Amplified: “ He who believes and trusts in the Son and accepts Him [as Savior] has eternal life [that is, already possesses it]; but he who does not believe the Son and chooses to reject Him, [disobeying Him and denying Him as Savior] will not see [eternal] life,”

Belief and obedience are intertwined.

Hebrews 11 shows that faith always moves people to action:

“By faith Noah… prepared an ark…”
“By faith Abraham… obeyed…”
“By faith Moses… refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter…”
Faith doesn’t sit still—it acts in obedience.

As mentioned, I want to be very cautious about collapsing faith and obedience into the same category because:

  • Faith is how we’re justified (Romans 5:1: “Being justified by faith…”).
  • Obedience is the result of justification, not the cause (Titus 3:5).

So by saying “faith is obedience”, some may think I’m implying faith = works, which I wasn’t trying to say. But, I didn’t explain any further either.

Last thoughts.

Here are some ways to preserve the original simple post I made while staying in bounds theologically:

  1. “Faith is obedient trust.”
    • This fits well with Hebrews 11.
  2. “Faith is not faith unless it obeys.”
    • This echoes James 2.
  3. “Faith and obedience are two sides of the same coin.” (I’ve heard this before, just not sure where.)
    • The trust is the obedience in that specific action, without being reducible to law-keeping.
  4. “To have faith in Christ is to obey His command to believe.”
    • See Acts 17:30 — “God commands all men everywhere to repent.”

I’ll think on the idea for a design next.

Posted on by

Brother Ray Story – Part 3

At the end of part 2 we had a sharp looking shirt, but I didn’t like the overall balance. Over the next couple of days I kicked around some designs. Two things I noticed while working on the overall layout was that GODS needed to the GOD’s and the lettering was not a match for the original patch.

In the original patch, the letters in GOSPEL are larger than the other letters.

But in the last design, all the letters were the same size.

So, it took a bit (ok a lot) in Kittl to get it looking good and lined up, but eventually I got it like this, which looks much closer to the original.

After several options for where to place the extra words Ray asked for I send this design to Ray:

I like it, but I still felt it wasn’t as balanced as it could be. Maybe I’m not using the right word, but it still didn’t look complete yet.

I duplicated the white patch, inverted it, and placed it behind the patch. That was it. That was the missing piece!

Ray said, “I love it & think it might make U good seller.”

I said, “it’s your design, I don’t want to sell it – that wasn’t the point” It was supposed to be more like a birthday present for him.

Ray said, “I want the message being seen. SELL it!”

That’s how we now have this design for sale in 4 types of shirts.

https://patriotprayertees.com/product-tag/gospel

Posted on by

Brother Ray Story Part 2

This is more of the story. I thought the next steps were to clean up the lettering, but Brother Ray had a different idea.

In reaction to the 1st design he said, “WOW! I would put the believe & receive or doubt & do without under it.”

Then we started going back and forth. I sent:

He said, “No way, is my opinion. Difficult to read at a glance. For me the clearer the better.”

Then I sent this version:

He said: “More like that.”

Then I starting thinking of how those small letters would be against different colors, so I added a white outline.

Ray said, “This is not ez at all glance.”

Then I tried:

He didn’t like that either.

So, I thought what I need to control how that text presents is a shape behind it. After some more back and forth, we came up to this design:

Now the background (shirt) color is more flexible.

Ray said, “Now we R cooking with gas.”

I also send him a mock up on red. Red might be the exception, doesn’t do well with red shirt or pink. Ray agreed.

While Ray was happy, I didn’t like the overall shape, or the balance. I’m not a graphic designer. Everything is coming from high school art class, which was before the 2000. Let’s just say that. It was a long time ago. Since, I’ve read some articles on design and art, but still drawing a lot from high school for these shirts. Anyway, the flow or balance, whatever it is called, didn’t sit well with me. So, this isn’t the end of the story or the shirt.

I’m off to a birthday party, so the rest of the story will have to wait until very late today or tomorrow.

Posted on by

Brother Ray Story – Part 1

This is a story leading up to a new shirt. Brother Ray and his wife are bold and outgoing witnesses for Christ.

He texted me a clothing patch for leather jackets and vests he’s been handing out at motorcycle ministry events for may decades.

I said something like, wow that would make a nice t-shirt!

He said, “I designed that N 1991. It would make a great Tee.”

After some more back and forth, I told him I had to go to work (this was all before 8AM one day).

Later that day, I get home from work, have dinner and send him a quick mock up (I really didn’t like how the letters linked up in this version). My 1st offer to him was to send him and his wife copies of the shirt without listing them for sale.

That’s the 1st part of the story.

Posted on by

Re-markable Shirt Idea

[Update: We tried it with three shirts and Chalky Crown markers and it didn’t wash out enough.]

How about a shirt that is more like a whiteboard and people write a new message after every wash? How about using the DIGISOFT®’s smooth slick surface for a large writing area. Then include a package of pens from either: Chalk Ink, Crafty Croc, and Marvy Uchida Bistro chalk markers.

Has anyone seen this done before? I hope I’m not copying from someone else, but the idea seems familiar from say the 1990s.

Here’s a mock up as it would be ordered:

Here’s a message written on the shirt, again a mock up:

Here’s one brand of the pens needed:

Open to feedback and ideas!

Thanks!

-PPTs

Update 6/6/2025

We’re going to give this a try. Here’s the shirts I made and ordered as well as ordering the markers from above. Stay tuned for the results. I plan to use put this through several uses and washes.