Category:Main

Two circles, one dashed and one solid, sit at opposite ends of a curved white ramp. The dashed circle is empty and perched on the upper left ledge. The solid ball rests on the lower right flat. Above them, in white capitals, the shirt reads I HAD POTENTIAL. The ramp descends between the two states, …
Continue reading The Dashed Circle and the Solid Ball: Reading the I Had Potential Ramp Diagram

This publication and Quirky Cotton Collective share an owner. The shirt reads NOT FRIENDLY DO NOT TOUCH in warning-sign lettering, with a yellow caution triangle and a crossed-out hand. I want to look at what that combination actually does, because it is not the same kind of message as a slogan. A slogan makes a …
Continue reading The Warning Sign That Argues With Itself: Reading the Not Friendly Do Not Touch Shirt

The first thing I notice is the label. On the black-and-white speckled rectangle that covers the chest, a white ruled label sits headed COMPOSITION in capital letters. Inside the label, an outlined ghost and an outlined pumpkin share the space. A dark binding strip runs down the left edge of the rectangle. The whole thing …
Continue reading The Ruled Label and the Outlined Ghost: Reading the Composition Notebook Costume Shirt

The shirt reads, in capitals that wrap around the illustration: LET’S ROOT FOR EACH OTHER AND WATCH EACH OTHER GROW. Inside the ring of text sit four root vegetables — a carrot, a radish, a beet, and an onion — each with a smiling face and each drawn with its roots visible in a band …
Continue reading The Root That Is Also a Verb: Reading the Let’s Root For Each Other Shirt

The shirt does not whisper. On a dark ground, four white lowercase letters sit at a size that would normally carry a slogan, a team name, or a warning. The word is meh. — with a period. The letterforms are bold, the baseline is steady, and the period lands like a full stop on a …
Continue reading The Loudest Word in the Room Is a Shrug: Reading the Large Lowercase ‘meh.’