Until he graduated from Yale, John Keddie didn't know just how much he agreed with Office Space's Peter Gibbon's aversion to corporate cubicle jobs.

"After I graduated from college, I got a job at a consulting firm, worked there for six months and then I got laid off," Keddie said. "Before I jumped back into another cubicle job, I figured I had no real obligations and it was a good time to start something new."

Taking a completely different career path, Keddie started the online T-shirt company Vintage Vantage.

The company makes the types of entertaining goofy T-shirts Penn State students are keen to wear but have limited access to locally. Cue Vintage Vantage, a Web-based company that allows students to purchase the shirts online.

The idea was inspired by Keddie's personal love of vintage T-shirts.

"I had always shopped at thrift stores and I noticed all these great shirts and I figured that there were people that didn't have the time to go through thrift stores and were willing to pay a little more for them," Keddie said.

The idea, Keddie said, was a bit wild, but the timing and circumstances made it, in his mind, totally feasible.

"If you have an idea for something crazy, directly out of college is the best time to try it," he said.

The company features mostly original Vintage Vantage T-shirts, but still includes actual vintage tees. The authentic vintage shirts, however, can run anywhere from $40 to several hundred dollars. Furthermore, the company is no longer a one-man operation. A year after starting Vintage Vantage, Keddie was joined by co-owner Heather Mctammany and three other full-time employees and occasional part-time help.

Keddie pinpoints the creative team's mindset as a major factor in Vintage's success. Rather than keeping profitability at the front of their minds, the staff designs T-shirts with the goal of creating something they like that is also new, fun and sometimes ironic.

"We're not focusing on what we think will sell, but what we like, and I think people can respect our commitment to originality," Keddie said.

Though Mctammany is responsible for most of the T-shirt design ideas, she said she gets a lot of help.

"The creative process involves all five of us and extends to include all of our friends and family," Mctammany said. "A lot of people have input here, we're very open to new ideas."

Shirts with the logos "Strictly for My Ninjas," "I have Reservations" -- featuring a Native American -- and "Advertising Helps Me Decide," are, Keddie said, some of the current bestsellers.

The T-shirts, which are made in Los Angeles by a private label manufacturer, are sold at www.vintagevantage.com and at retail stores such Urban Outfitters, which featured last year's controversial Vintage Vantage original "Voting is for Old People."

Though they are not available in any downtown State College store, Emma Fornari (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) isn't so sure they would do well here.

"I've looked at shirts at stores downtown and they are funnier," she said.

Fornari said she enjoys goofy tees, though mostly she makes them herself to save money.

She said she thinks the $22.50 for a Vintage Vantage shirt matched with the fact that the shirts aren't "funny right at first sight," which makes them less appealing than shirts from local stores like People's Nation, 126 E. College Ave.