A stern-looking rooster raises a beer stein, the foam runs over the rim, behind it firs, mountains and a hop cone. Under the stein, in old book type, the German saying Heute wird nicht gegackert, heute wird gebechert: no cackling today, today we drink. The motif is drawn like a woodcut in brown, green and cream. The back reads „Die wilden Hühner“ (the wild chickens) above a shot glass and two crossed ears of grain.
For the regulars' table, Father's Day, Oktoberfest, shooting festivals and every round where talking stops when the glass is empty. Cotton tee, shown on light shirt colours.
Product description
A beer saying T-shirt with a chicken that looks as if it came out of an old brewery: the rooster on the chest has reddish-brown plumage drawn with fine hatching, a stern eye, a strong beak and a beer stein held in one wing, its foam crown running over the rim on the right. Behind it stand firs and a mountain ridge, a hop cone with leaves hangs on the left, feathers lie at the bottom. The lettering below imitates letterpress type, cream with a dark edge, and reads Heute wird nicht gegackert, heute wird gebechert: no cackling today, today we drink.
The saying relies on a simple contrast. Cackling is what chickens do when they get worked up, talk a lot and get little done. Drinking, in the German sense of bechern, is the opposite: glass in hand, cheers, quiet. Whoever wears the shirt has already made the decision for the evening and does not have to explain it to anyone. That makes the line a motto for the regulars' table, for Father's Day, for a shooting festival, a fun fair, a Sunday morning pint and Oktoberfest, and the right answer when someone asks whether there is anything left to discuss.
The back reads „Die wilden Hühner“, the wild chickens, in the same old type above a shot glass framed by two crossed ears of grain, like a coat of arms. So everyone in the group wears the saying in front and the crew's emblem behind. The motif was designed as a group shirt but works just as well alone: as a gift for the man who holds the stein at the barbecue, for the uncle with the fixed seat at the bar, for the friend who plays the sensible one at parties and is not.
The style is the real charm of this beer saying T-shirt with a chicken. Instead of a smooth cartoon figure you see lines as from a woodcut: every feather, every fir twig, every hop scale is set individually, and the palette stays with brown, moss green, cream and a warm amber for the beer. On the light shirt colours the print was made for, it looks like an old label someone transferred to fabric. The motif is a one-off from our studio, drawn for this saying and available in this form only in our gallery.
It is printed as one full image on a cotton tee. The chest print is worked out down to the fine hatching, the back print sits centred between the shoulders, and with the sleeve motifs you get a small picture from the same drawing on each arm. Heute wird nicht gegackert, heute wird gebechert: whoever has read that German line out loud once usually orders nothing more afterwards and simply raises the stein.
