Saturday, November 8, 2008

Optimism


Project Optimism is a project run by artist and graphic designer, Reed Seifer. The project began when he wrote and illustrated a poem called Optimism, based on a childhood memory of his father, for his university thesis.

Optimism

An optimist tell you to cheer up when things are going his way.
A middle-aged executive sits outside
the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
When the museum’s fountains have been
depleted of pennies, bums rummage through
the trash bins, picking up aluminum.
The executive finishes a soda,
and unlike one who goes to the barrel
farthest from the fountain,
he walks over to a bum, hands him his can
and says, “Here you go, sir.”
The bum says he’s no sir,
but the executive, he doesn’t have
the patience to argue.


He printed the poem onto drinking cans as an illustration and also printed badges with the word OPTIMISM on them and handed them out around the university to build anticipation in the run up to the exhibition. The badges were a huge hit and grew a life of their own, later being sold in various design shops around New York. Now they are available for sale online at the Reed Seifer Store at Supermarket along with some of his other artwork. You can buy a very cool jar of optimism, optimism stickers and some almost-free printable downloads of some optimistic sayings. My favourites are some of his other works, including limited edition $2 bills gold foil stamped with the words "New York is a lot of work" and Wish Piece - 6 selfish and unselfish wishes for sale by the artist.






6 comments:

Winnie said...

A Jar of optimism...I can think of several people I know who could do with one of those. Such a cool idea.

georgia b. said...

great idea!

i love your blog logo/banner! it's a really cool photo.

Anonymous said...

ailbhe may have got back to you on this already...SwopShop is selling out rather quickly but there are still tickets. people can drop us an e-mail at roughgempresents@gmail.com to reserve one! If you need any other info let us know, thanks!

Ryan said...

Thank you!

We love it when people find things they like at Supermarket, and we really appreciate it when they spread the word.

Best wishes from Brooklyn

The Freelancer's FashionBlog said...

Somtimes I think you shold be able to get self discipline on a can!
(I'd need some right now, I stayed home to get soem work done and I'm just browsing around blogs...)

Anonymous said...

thanks for reviewing my work.
if you contact me with your mailing address I will send you some buttons.
All best wishes from Reed Seifer.