Brian,
I agree with you about big print on the back of shirts. When I ordered my polo shirt from Cafe Press, I ordered it without a design on the back, just the pocket design only. No problem for them.
Another idea, my wife has printed her own "iron on" designs and photos onto tee shirts. All you need is the design, iron on paper stock, a computer, printer, iron and ironing board. The only downside to that is that they tend to fade quicker in the wash as apposed to a commercially printed shirt.
John