Ugh, ambiguity you are a fickle fickle thing. That tiny, little itch of not being one hundred percent sure, hell I'd even take an 80 percent feeling of certainty, about what I've come up with for tonight's post. Don't get me wrong, ambiguity certainly has its place in things. Like the ending of a really good suspenseful mystery that causes you to question how much you really know. Or when you're talking with someone you're not particularly fond of and you manage to pull a vague enough conversation together that the person doesn't pick up on your general disdain. Those ambiguous moments at least serve a purpose with their uncertainty and questionable interpretations. Tonight is just annoying.
I wasn't entirely sure what I expected to find with this sticker when I started to research it. Actually no, I kind of figured it would be a slim chance I'd find anything. With that vaguely familiar face, the hypnotic swirl, and this phrase "upper playground" I generally assumed it would be another interpretation tonight. So I was pleasantly surprised when Upper Playground came back with a fairly certain result. It's a store with locations in California and Oregon that was originally established back in 1999. But calling it just a store is a bit of misrepresentation. They work with artists and illustrators from around the world to create unique products, artwork, and an impressive site overall. The variety of styles that can be found on the site, in their blog, and on their Facebook page is really interesting and almost staggering to see. And while it can technically fall into that same vein as Society 6 or Threadless, somehow this store feels different. Perhaps it's the fact that there is a physical location somewhere or that while they have an impressive amount of work on their site, there is a reasonable amount to go through. I love Society 6 and Threadless but some days going through their sites is like an endless journey with the sheer amount that they have available. Upper Playground is a site and store that clearly understands what they are about. Since there are a variety of styles and artists that work with Upper Playground to create products, I feel reasonably safe in the assumption that this sticker is one of theirs. However, I can usually find the artwork/design behind the sticker I'm looking for when I do find these kinds of sites. It may take me an hour to locate it, but with enough digging I can satisfy my need for validation. Even though I dug through Upper Playground's Facebook images and many portions of the site, I couldn't find this sticker. I even stopped twice while writing this to dig through some more of the items of the store and the artist pages, just for a little bit of proof. I will admit that I really didn't go into their blog, but that's 500 pages and I don't have that much dedication. I don't really doubt that this sticker is theirs, with the large amount of artists that I'm sure have worked with them over these many years and their interest in stickers. They sell a variety pack and will even provide you with some free stickers if you send them a self-addressed envelope. It's just second guessing it since I couldn't find the image itself. This is probably going to bug me the rest of the evening but I'm just going to have to suck it up and roll with it.
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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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