This design was inspired by a relatively inane bit of click bait I of course clicked on today about a now famous actor (who I can't even recall his name) who met Jennifer Aniston when he was just 22 years old and new to Hollywood. The author of the article referenced the saying "Never meet your heroes" although at 22, I imagine the young man didn't think of Jennifer Aniston as so much his hero but his fantasy. And he even said it wasn't that she was rude to him, it was just awkward. So the entire article was basically drivel. But it inspired a t-shirt design.
My dilemma with designs is that my tendency is to try and find a funny angle for most things. So I originally set out to create something more like this.
But the other image came up in Gemini and I really liked it. Because I am actually quite a serious person (despite my penchant for bad puns). The thing is, serious doesn't seem to sell and my journey on teepublic.com seems to be about turning it into a money making concern doing something I really enjoy. Let's ignore the fact that I've been doing it for months and, although I've sold 71 items (counting the ones I've purchased myself) I have made less than I make in my day job in about two hours.
Kind of puts things in perspective.
I realized today, however, that I do tend to opt to be a performing monkey rather than a serious designer. It is true in most of my interactions with people. I try to hard to be funny because I think that is what people want.
I did produce a few designs in a more serious vein earlier today.
If you are not familiar with the Green Knight, he is a figure in Arthurian legend. He
arrives at King Arthur’s court during a New Year's feast, challenging any knight to strike him with an axe, on the condition that he may return the blow in exactly one year and a day. Sir Gawain accepts the challenge and beheads the Green Knight, but to everyone’s astonishment, the Green Knight picks up his severed head, reminds Gawain of their agreement, and rides away. After the beheading, Sir Gawain embarks on a quest to find the Green Knight a year later. He faces trials and temptations along the way, which test his honor and loyalty to the chivalric code. When they finally meet again, Gawain learns valuable lessons about honesty, humility, and forgiveness. Gawain manages to keep his head.
The Green Knight is considered a symbol of nature. So I envisioned him kind of an earlier incarnation of the Lorax in Dr. Seuss' book where the Lorax speaks for the trees. Out of that came the design above including the obscure reference to "UNLESS" from the Lorax. that implied nature is doomed unless we do something about it. I even created a couple of Green Knight designs using the Lorax.
So I do have a serious side that wants to create things that inspire.
But today was also National Uncle Sam Day so I couldn't resist this.
Okay, I can't just change overnight.
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