Something that's always intrigued me is the origination of phrases and their ability to catch on. Some of the more well known ones are obviously quotes that have caught society's attention and have stuck with people over time. Phrases like "a method to my madness" or "busy as a bee" can trace their origins to classic pieces of literature, although most of the people who use them aren't aware of this. Others are ideas that are so relatable and prevalent in society that it's hard not to have them catch on. The resurgence of "keep calm and ..." or the dreaded "yolo" didn't really need a big push to reach the public eye as the ideas they represent have been around for a long time. But some, while interesting, are slightly more difficult to deduce the reasoning behind.
There was no way that today's sticker wasn't going to catch my eye. The gleeful devil and that phrase "Satan is happy with your progress" are too perfect of a combination not to capture. Immediately after seeing this I was curious about the reasoning behind the phrase. Admittedly it's not a hard concept; your actions are rarely as selfless or as helpful as you think they are adding another tick in the damnation column. But it's also not a phrase you really expect to find on the street. So Googling it I found one of the bigger results to be from an artist named George Horner. He looks to be a Brooklyn artist who not only does pieces for shows but enjoys rotating a collection of unique signs in a window on the street. He has a poster and a neon sign version of the phrase which are impressive. However in my short amount of research I don't really see his explanation behind it, but while disappointing doesn't detract from it's fun. This sticker though has no direct ties to Horner. I very luckily happened to come across the image of it in my search and realized that it was actually the creation of a local business. The clothing store Blasfome over in Mount Washington is behind this particular version. I would link to their site but my anti-virus is claiming that it could be harmful to my computer and since I have enough computer issues I would rather not risk it. I did come across a product page for Blasfome as well as their Facebook page which definitely shows that this sticker fits right in with their usual repertoire. Since their Facebook page actually seemed to be active, unlike many of my recent finds, I decided to take a chance and see why they advertise with stickers as well as the reasoning behind this phrase. Dave Bartek was kind enough to respond and here is what he had to say. "I wanted the phrase on the sticker to remind people that there are two sides to life and that while people may think what they do is inherently good, they do a whole lot of evil shit while thinking that they are making the world a better place. The idea that some one is keeping track of their individual progression of evil and is also pleased makes me laugh. I'm not in any way religious or anything like that, so I am also really intrigued by the concept of people that are scared simply at the mention of Satan. I chose stickers as a form of advertising because they are cheap, readily available, and easy to give out to a bunch of people. And regardless of who sticks the sticker up they generally end up in places where my audience is." This sentiment is an interesting one and one that I can generally get behind. In a world that is so quick to divide things into right/wrong or black/white, it tends to be too easy to forget that things are rarely ever so simple. Certainly there are things that are clearly destructive to society but rushing to put yourself above it does nothing to help the situation. Plenty of terrible things have been done in the past and are still being done today in the name of bettering the world. So having eye-catching reminders like this around, things that make us reevaluate the positions we hold in life, are definitely important. Obviously they don't need to be terribly deep or serious, having that element of fun is often necessary to make the general message more palatable to the viewer. But no matter where you stand along the line, I hope you can agree that Blasfome has certainly created an interesting conversation.
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Maggie Ondrey
An amateur photographer and writer capturing a small portion of the city. Archives
August 2017
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