Uniqlo and Coca-Cola have teamed up again this year to present a new capsule collection of T-shirts inspired by the iconic beverage brand. The ten T’s were selected to be produced as a result of  Uniqlo’s 8th Annual UT Grand Prix (UTGP) T-shirt design contest. Priced at $19.90, the T’s are now available in Uniqlo stores and online worldwide. 

Photo: the Grand Prix winning T-shirt, from www.uniqlo.com

The 2012 UTGP contest recieved the highest number of submissions ever, with 6,288 entries from 72 countries, which is 7% more than last year. International designers could submit their works during August and September 2011. Some of the most noted international designers and artists formed the judging panel that finally chose the overall ‘Grand Prize’ winner—Karrie Lee (Lee Lai Yan) from Hong Kong.

She created her design inspired by her friend who loves to drink Coca-Cola at ‘tea-time’—at 4pm in the afternoon, according to a local Hong Kong custom. The designer played off words

‘T’ and ‘tea’ by adding a slogan ‘Enjoy your tee time’ and created a print features a straw sipping on a Coca-Cola in a zig-zag pattern. Other winning designs were selected by public voting and by each of the judges.

Judge David Turner commented, “The Coke brand is all about bringing a little bit of happiness to people’s lives and, for me, these were the designs that did it best. There is plenty of exuberance in the designs, such as the chaotic, hand made typographies, but also great discipline in the use of color, emphasis on the Coca-Cola logo and words like ‘Always’ that are part of Coke’s lexicon.”