Everyone Has a T-Shirt Idea
Bernard's Red Sketchbook
Everyone Has a T Shirt Idea
Bernard and Mary returned from visiting the family home in Huntington Beach on flight DL380 from LAX to Chicago. In Chicago they found their driver in front of terminal 5. Mary refused to fly to Madison. Her rationale was why wait for two hours for a connecting flight, plus she hated that flight, it had a weird flight plan and was constantly changing altitude or at least that is what happened the one time she flew it.
The limousine service was always punctual and their cars were all new and luxurious. Today they had Pablo, in a newly minted BMW 6 series. Mary loved having a driver, she gave up driving when she moved to Madison. If she had been born 50 years earlier she would have definitely hired a full-time live-in driver. But this was the modern age and it was easy enough to schedule a driver.
Bernard turned to Mary and said "It feels good to be back, I love going to Huntington Beach for a week or two but then I get squirrelly. You can only surf so much. Plus there is no there, there!" Mary nodded then paused "A disaster of bad taste!" They spent the remaining two hours in silence, watching Illinois unfold into Wisconsin.
When they arrived in Monona, Mary declared she was exhausted and headed to her wing of the house. Bernard retreated to the breakfast nook with his sketchbook and a coffee. The western late afternoon summer light was intense and diffused at the same time and Bernard found that his creativity flowed best in the breakfast nook. He was working on a series of drawings for Seth.
Seth had discovered Bernard's sketchbook when Bernard was visiting production. Bernard had left his sketchbook on the long table at the quality control table when DJ had taken him on a tour. Seth had headed to production because he needed to talk to Meli but Meli was on lunch break. Seth noticed the bright red sketchbook and found himself opening it. Nothing was private in production. After a few moments Seth held up the sketchbook "Who the fuck's is this?" Remembering no one was in production he went in search of the owner.
Seth was a mad genius. He had an innate sense for quality combined with nostalgia and he knew how to translate this into T-shirts, sweatshirts and tote bags. Once, when Seth had run out of ideas he headed over to the Kohler Art library at the University in search of inspiration. After a few hours of walking the stacks he noticed out of the corner of his eye some oversized books and he instinctively reached for them. It turned out to be the complete works of Hokusai and Hiroshige. He immediately knew these images would be a hit. Since they were from the early 1800's they were also out of copyright and he could print them as much as he wanted without having to pay a licensing fee. Hokusai's Great Wave went on to be a best seller both on T's and sweatshirts making Seth a small fortune.
This red sketchbook was full of weird shit, drawing after drawing of figures, stars, astrological symbols, arrows, diagrams, circles, and undecipherable cursive and all in dark yellow ink. Seth immediately knew these weird drawings would be amazing on T-shirts, a crazy modern version of petroglyphs or cave paintings. Ever since the 1980's when everyone was wearing Japanese and Chinese symbols on everything, Seth knew people loved symbols and text.
Seth found DJ and Bernard in Room 109. DJ was showing Bernard all different lines of designs production inventoried. "Who's the crazy person that made all these drawings?" Seth belted out, pointing to the red sketchbook. Bernard raised his hand like a schoolboy and said "Me!" Seth apologized for snooping but couldn't help himself then said: "These drawings are crazy and powerful, we need to get them on a T-shirt and get the people wearing them!" DJ nodded in agreement as he leaned into the open sketchbook in Seth's hands.
Bernard was taken aback. He kept a sketchbook with him at all times to draw and express things that words could not. This was a habit he had formed since grad school. Somehow drawing allowed him to tap into unconscious ideas. He found that after hours, days or months some of the drawings revealed a meaning hidden in plain sight. He rarely showed anyone his sketchbooks, not even Mary. They were not diaries per se but outpourings of mystery.
"Well, Seth I am not sure anyone would want to see my chicken scratches, let alone wear them around!"
In enthusiasm and with a persuasion that only Seth could muster: "Fuck man, these are great, let's figure something out Bernard, I want to print this on t-shirts and totes! Plus who the fuck draws entire sketchbooks in dark yellow ink? DJ help me out here, tell this guy this shit is great!" "He's not wrong Bernard!" DJ said with a smile. "Okay, when can we meet, let's figure something out, I want to license these from you Bernard. Would you be willing to put your signature on them? People love signatures. Are you free tomorrow?" When Seth was on the scent he didn't let go and got Bernard to agree to a meeting the next day in the late afternoon. Proud of himself Seth handed Bernard back his sketchbook and turned and left Room 109. As he turned the corner for the elevator back to his office you could hear him belt out "Fuck yeah, this is going to be great."
The light was almost gone from the breakfast nook as Bernard finished up some new drawings. He closed his sketchbook and sat for a moment and watched the last rays of light disappear. He noticed he was beat from a long day of travel and he headed to Mary's studio to see if she was stirring. The house was quiet and dark as he ascended the stairs to the third floor.