Category: Words Words Words

Love You Zoomer! One Boomer’s Response to OK Boomer

A while back, I read an article about a student who designed a t-shirt that read, OK Boomer. As a graphic designer, I wanted to create a design that speaks back.

This particular design was reminiscent of the old plastic grocery bags that I still see now from time to time: they had the words Thank You printed in rows of red outlined words with the middle row in solid text. I remember seeing the original ones in the 1980s. Back then, they were created in Cooper Black font. I know this because I worked in art advertising and in the pre-Mac era, we only had a limited number of standard fonts. Cooper Black stood out as one of the thickest typefaces and was unique in its rounded serifs. I remember it fondly as a fun font.

The reason why the OK Boomer design grabbed my attention wasn’t the typography; that was an old idea updated for today’s marketplace. It wasn’t because I was a Baby Boomer; that’s nothing new. I’ve been one my whole life. What got me was the last line: Have A Terrible Day. It’s petty and mean, even if it’s supposed to be sarcastic.

I perceive sarcasm as the biting chihuahua of humor. Yeah, those little doggies look funny when they bark and jump in the air, but if one of them takes a nip at your ankle, it’s not so funny anymore.

The words we use matter, even if it is a joke. If it gives off negative energy of any kind, it is projecting more negativity into the world.

Once more…

The words we use matter, even if it is a joke. If it gives off negative energy of any kind, it is projecting more negativity into the world.

The last line of the original Thank you bag design read Have a nice day! Yes, it’s a cliche that is an automatic response in some people. I like it because of its positivity, leaving people on a friendly note.

Recently, I have gotten into the habit of saying, Have a wonderful day! Because when I say that, it makes me think of a day full of wonder. Since everyone has a different idea of a wonderful day, it just creates more positive, wonderful energy.

When I created my Love You Collection, I started with Love You Millennial because I had thought that the OK Boomer design was created by one. When I went back to find the news article, it was someone younger, a Zoomer. A Zoomer speaking to a Boomer. Two rhyming generations with the “oo” sound. Oo! It’s as groovy as it gets.

In the process of creation, I did more research and came up with more designs. I used a sans-serif font because it flowed better with the longer words.

Take a look at my designs for my Love You Collection. More ideas came to me in the process of creation, so I decided to add more images. I’ve always been interested in creating inspirational pieces. If something someone creates uplifts another, we all benefit.

Variety of shirt styles on Amazon.

I made designs for other generations and more. I included Love Yourself for self-love and Love One Another bible verse. Because I’m a native Chicagoan, I created Love Yous Guys. And Love Y’all for my Southern friends.

Here are the approximate dates for the generations:

Greatest Generation 1901-1924
Silent Generation 1925-1945
Baby Boomers 1946-1964
Busters (Gen X) 1965-1979
Millennials (Gen Y) 1980-1994
Zoomers (Gen Z) 1995-2012
Generation Alpha 2013-2025

Buy t-shirts, mugs, and more products on Pixels. Also available on shirts at Amazon. We can all benefit from a more loving world where we all learn from each other, regardless of age. And yeah, this Boomer could sure use some help from the younger generations!

Always,
Alice Always

P.S. I’m looking to collaborate on this and other online platforms. I would also like to expand into licensing. Contact me if you are a like-minded art agent, social media expert, established t-shirt seller, marketing wiz, or someone who can help me otherwise grow my Alice Always brand.

P.P.S. Please feel free to share this blog post and spread the love.

11 Illuminating Insights about Illumination

Since 2018 is The Year of Illumination and today is the eleventh day of the year, I wanted to present for your perusal, eleven illuminating insights about illumination.

How’s that for alliteration?

I repeated the title of this post 11 times out loud, hoping to get some silly stumbling of syllables, You know, like what happens when you say “Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers”. The whole tongue-twisted and burst out laughing thing. Yeah, it doesn’t happen with this one.

Why don’t you try it for yourself? Let me know what happens.

I did a meditation using the phrase that pays that was quite illuminating. I will share my experiences in another post.

So here are eleven illuminating insights about illumination:

The first nine are meanings of the word taken from the Dictionary.com definition of illumination.

Wow! Nothing like getting it all done with a dictionary definition. I know, huh? But I like the Number 9 so much, I had to do it.

Illumination is:

1. an act or instance of illuminating.
2. the fact or condition of being illuminated.
3. a decoration of lights, usually colored lights.
4. sometimes, illuminations. An entertainment, display, or celebration using lights as a major feature or decoration.
5. intellectual or spiritual enlightenment.
6. also called illuminance, intensity of illumination. Optics. the intensity of light falling at a given place on a lighted surface; luminous flux incident per unit area, expressed in lumens per unit of area.
7. a supply of light: a source of illumination.
8. decoration of a manuscript or book with a painted design in color, gold, etc.
9. a design used in such decoration.

We can mix all the various definitions in a soup or (as I prefer) a cosmic goop. We have colored light bulbs, gold manuscripts, science, the stars, sun, and the moon, all swirling at light speed in our heads, leading us to intellectual or spiritual enlightenment. 

Just imagine that. Now, take it one step further, and add the next item on our list:

10. 2018 is the Year of Illumination

Isn’t Number 10 redundant, as it was used in the first sentence? You ask.

No, it’s repetition. There’s joy in repetition.

This year we will all gain new insights and see things that we haven’t seen before. As our awareness expands, we will also open up to new ideas that we never entertained before.

Illumination is about bringing something into the light that was previously in the darkness.

Which brings us to the next number, which is about each of us:

11. It’s time to shine your light!

Illuminate the world with your light! Share who you are from your heart!

Always,
Alice Always

My Curiouser and Curiouser Fascination with Words, Words, Words

In Act II of the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is found in the library by Polonius where they engage in a conversation. At one point Polonius asks Hamlet what he is reading and his response is: “Words, words, words.”

It is one of my favorite lines from Willie the Bard, nothing is more succinct and to the point. Yes, Prince Hamlet could have replied with a simple one syllable “Words”, but as another late great Prince so aptly sang it in his song, “Joy in Repetition“:

There’s joy in repetition
There’s joy in repetition
There’s joy in repetition
There’s joy in repetition

If you read Alice in Wonderland (or saw any of the movies), you would know that the author Lewis Carroll used words that were unusual, to say the least. A word like curiouser appears to be poor grammar because it does not follow the standard rules of the English language. The -er ending is almost never used with words of more than two syllables.

According to the Old English Dictionary, the word curiouser was first used by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland in 1865, as the phrase “curiouser and curiouser”. The OED cites this phrase only, and does not treat curiouser as a word by itself; the phrase has the meaning “increasingly strange”.

I think that by repeating the word twice, you are reinforcing it and expounding of the notion of curiouser, making what is already strange, stranger even still.

I like to look at “curiouser and curiouser” and see it as something that attracts your attention, something that you never saw before, like almost everything in the Alice books. Every new experience makes Alice think and that is what words do for me.

I enjoy researching the etymology of words, or word origins if you prefer. It can be fascinating to find out where words come from, how they evolve and their impact on our consciousness.

Always,
Alice Always