Four months ago I was contacted by a gentleman by the name of Rob Walker who wanted me to be part of an experiment of sorts. Rob is the author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy And Who We Are
and is the New York Times Magazine "Consumed" columnist.
The project is called The 48-Hour T-Shirt (link for the pdf flyer), it is designed to prod consumers to think more about their own behavior, about how their are manipulated, and about how they manipulate themselves. (He does state that doing this by way of selling products is ironic and part of the point).
3 statements where created based on research Rob had done (found) the first is inspired by research regarding mimicry and the shirt is "I Show How You Feel." The design of this shirt is done by my friend and fellow Graphic Design MFA student Derek Black. The second is "We Have The Same Birthday," based on research relating to false consensus and designed by yours truly. The last is a fake placebo"Veladone-Rx, It's Worth The Extra Money. Really." based on research of placebos and pricing of drugs and designed by Advertising Design MFA student, Angie Smith.
The kicker is each shirt is released for the first 3 mondays in December and is ONLY for sale for the first 48-hours, after which it will not be made available again. Only the artist are making money in this venture [so show some love :) ], Rob is doing this as research for a future book that will include the three of us and this experiment. I've seen the work but can't tell you about it other than I think all of them are awesome (and mine is actually really cute). The shirts will sell through the Murketing.com site
It has already shown up in the online magazine Core77 (note: the days were listed wrong here).
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
