The first thing I notice is the nose. Not the round eyes, not the smile — the nose. On the orange jack-o’-lantern face printed on this shirt, the nose is a heart. A small, symmetrical, unmistakable heart, sitting right where a carved triangle would normally go. The eyes above it are perfect circles. The mouth …
The first thing I notice is the hat. It sits at the top center, a cream-colored pointed witch hat in an engraved style, its curved brim and square buckle drawn with the kind of fine line work you see on old bookplates or the frontispiece of a children’s fairy-tale collection. Below it, in serif capitals, …
The first thing I notice is the arms. Not the pumpkin, not the orange-and-cream lettering curling around the chest like a vintage cereal box — the arms. They’re folded. The ghost in this design, a bedsheet ghost with the classic scalloped hem, stands with its arms crossed over its middle like a stage manager who …
The graphic is a butter stick, and the butter stick is wearing its own label. Blue vertical capitals run down the wrapper: SALTED BUTTER. Not unsalted. Not butter. The word salted is the whole hinge of the thing, and it is doing more work than a novelty shirt usually asks a word to do. I …
Editorial note: This publication and Quirky Cotton Collective share an owner. The shirt reads TWEEDLE DEE across the top, then I’M WITH DUM below it, and a left-pointing arrow sits at the edge of the text. That is the whole design. No illustration of a round little man in a propeller beanie, no checkerboard, no …