Black Gloves

Jul 16
Tommie Smith, left, and John Carlos, Olympic medal winners
One pair of black gloves split between two black men, and it would be just a coincidence that both black men had each hurt their hand?

One of the best, most incredible photos that has ever existed. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, first place and third place in the 200m dash, respectively, Oct. 16, 1968, Mexico City. Wearing black to represent Black America. No shoes, black socks to represent the poverty in which American Blacks lived. As a representation of lynching, Smith wore a scarf and Carlos a bead necklace.

But they also wore black gloves.

They only had one pair, so they split: Smith wore the right, Carlos the left. But the man who put the medals on their necks, Lord David George Brownlow Cecil Burghley, was blissfully ignorant. When asked later what he had thought of the gloves, he said: “I thought they had hurt their hand.”

Throwing Shade

Jul 10
The cover was designed on a 150-by-150-pixel canvas at 72dpi and is scaled up regardless of application.
The cover was designed on a 150-by-150-pixel canvas at 72dpi and is scaled up regardless of application.

Charli XCX tested 65 shades of green before settling on “the most ultimate brat green.”

“Imagine AI coming up with this. It would never.”

Max Ottignon

More great commentary from Ottignon on the campaign.

“We designed the album at 150px/72dpi then resized for whichever format we needed it for in the earlier days of the campaign. It then became a daily task for someone at the studio to have to communicate to a printer that the low res was intentional.”

SPECIAL OFFER, Inc.‘s Brent David Freaney