Sunday Shares #27
Declaring my love for carbs this month. Illustration and font-in-progress by me.
The night before Super Bowl Sunday, I created the graphic above as an ode to my love for bread. Seemed appropriate especially when next week is the holiday everyone likes to say was invented by a well-known greeting card company. I was planning to write about how my love of making art for myself has been really great for my soul.
Instead, I made this tasty chili and decided to watch the Super Bowl in its entirety for the first time in my life.
As I sat watching, I noticed I struggled to pay attention to the game.
One of my many conversations I had with friends over text. Can you tell we are baseball people?
What was catching my eye was how bland the typography treatments were on the broadcast graphics that showed viewers the score. It made me wonder why these big broadcasting companies decided to not bring on any designers with strong typography skills because the hierarchy and lack of contrast on these graphics were not just distracting to me, but several of my non-design friends. So much so, I kept getting text messages from them ranting about it.
Another thing that was disturbing was so many of the Super Bowl ads.
There was one ad I did enjoy and it was the Michael CeraVe ad which I read about before tonight’s game. It was honestly the only one that was memorable in a positive way. Everything else that has stayed rent free in my head since the broadcast hasn’t been as delightful to watch.
While watching the “He Gets Us” ads, I thought about the hypocrisy of the folks behind the campaign, and the millions they could have spent to help our most vulnerable members of our community.
I watched an ad for snapchat knowing that they have been laying off members of staff. Writer Kaitlyn Arford shared this observation on threads:
Watching all these ads (many I have not mentioned here) has left me asking myself the following questions:
How are some of these companies justifying 7 Million Dollar ad spends?
Are the people in charge the ones that should be fired for these excessive ad spends?
Are there any ethics in regard to what ads are allow to run during big broadcast events in the USA?
Why do people care so much about football?
Being someone who has worked in Corporate America, and has started to learn more about why businesses make the decisions they do, I have started to wonder if a good amount of the people in charge need to be fired for the poor financial choices they seem to be making.
These questions living rent free in my head go beyond ad spend during the Super Bowl.
Before I list my shares from last week, here’s one last genius thread from the Library of Congress:
Here’s some other things that caught my eye and made me think last week:
The Terminally Ill Influencers Posting Their Way Through Life—and Death
This podcast episode of ICYMI talked about this new genre of content creators, raising familiar questions around agency and voyeurism.
Artists “Make LA Graffiti History” by Painting on Abandoned High-Rises
I came across this amazing tagging of an abandoned construction site for a luxury apartment building in Los Angeles. Inspired by the the tagging of an entire building slated to be demolished in Miami in December, artists tagged Oceanwide Plaza, a $1-billion real estate development in downtown Los Angeles that has been stalled for years.
Some people may see this as vandalism. I see this as protest art. There are so many unhoused folks in Los Angeles, and here are these structures that are going to waste. This housing, if completed, would not serve the people who are in need of housing the most in Los Angeles.
It is also incredible how so many artists did the work so quickly — especially when supposedly there were no working elevators in the 40-story structure.
Candy Hearts Comics
As someone who has been on the dating apps for years, these very relatable comics by Tommy Siegel made me laugh!
Clotheshorse Podcast
Over the years I have become a lot more mindful of what I buy and bring into my home. I discovered the important work of Amanda Lee McCarty last year from a local fiber artist in the city I live in. Since losing her job at a large fast fashion company during the pandemic, Amanda has been decoding and demystifying the fashion industry and been sharing her experience, observations, research and findings on her podcast.
Thought it’s a lot of content to absorb, I admire her courage to speak out and educate the public about the decline of the fashion industry, and what we as consumers and people can do to stop harming our planet while staying clothed.
She’s Excavating
The one thing that has been a really great about getting back into fibers arts as a hobby is how my instagram and other social feeds are now constantly serving me yarn content. This one involves a snake and a ball of yarn. There’s even a part two!
