Author: Carmen Burke
The Caution Triangle and the Crossed-Out Hand: Reading ‘Not Friendly Do Not Touch’ as a Boundary, Not a Slogan
The first thing I notice is the triangle. It’s yellow, the same yellow as a wet-floor sign or a high-voltage placard, and it sits above the lettering like a small official seal. Inside it, a han... Read More
The Lowercase ‘meh.’ on a Dark Shirt: A Slogan That Refuses to Promise Anything
The first thing I notice is the period. Large, bold, white lowercase letters spell meh. across a dark shirt, and the full stop is doing more work than the word. Without it, meh is a shrug — a sound ... Read More
The Root Vegetable Shirt: Two Meanings of ‘Root’ and the Promise That Doesn’t Scale
The first thing I notice is the soil line. Four root vegetables — carrot, radish, beet, onion — sit in a row, each with a face, each with its roots drawn down into the dirt. The text wraps around ... Read More