Sharp Lookin' New Toy

Todd Jepperson

Get it? Cactus. Sharp? Sorry, sometimes I can’t control myself. Anyway, if you’re unfamiliar with Patch Together, you’re really missing out. They run their show on the premise of “prosumer product;” meaning the production decisions are made by the multifarious member feedback they receive. You want to have your voice heard? Want to see more stuff hit the market that you’d actually buy? You and PT should be friends.

Those good folks hold contests, called challenges, where they put an idea out and artists compete to have their idea produced and marketed. The amazing figure above was one such idea from a contest called the Plant Life Challenge. Zombie Cactus devoured his (her?) way to the top spot of seventeen awesome submissions. As cool as it really is, there were quite a few others that could have easily stolen the show (check them out here).

Current challenges include Greek Mythology; Steam Punk; and Zombies, Voodoo, and Dark Art. As far as I know, all you need to submit a design into any of the challenges on the site is to create a login and a digital rendition of your idea. Voting is even easier; just click on the design you like and give it a rating, one through five. It then allows you to leave a comment, which would be very helpful for the artist. As an artist, myself, what lures me in is that designs are selected by popular opinion of total strangers. Is there a better way to be able to judge the visual appeal of your stuff?

I suggest you crawl over to the homepage and get lost in the goodness of it before you check out the production blog. It’s a little easier to follow when you attack it that way.