Making Up History
While at Made Agency, our daily creative project was designing and writing for a post called “This day Made in history.” It was a chance for designers and writers to flex some creative muscle.
Death of Prince
It’s ironic that he chose Earth Day to return to his home planet. He stepped out of the purple rain over half a century ago; our pansexual, biracial, doe-eyed god of the bou-doir funk, and the world would never be the same. Time continues to reap the creative giants it once sowed; as with David Bowie, George Martin and Glenn Frey earlier in the year, it’s with a heavy heart and swaying hips that we mourn the loss of Prince Rogers Nelson.
It’s hard to quantify the impact Prince had on this earth during his lifetime, or why he would grace us unworthy mortals with his presence to begin with, but we’re humbled and eternally grateful nonetheless. At a time when black artists barely had a foot in the door, those who did wore an aura of black masculinity as a badge of honour in their fight for recognition - Prince was outlandish; a beautifully androgynous misfit.
He was to become the purple flame that gave fire to something that had been long awakening in the hearts of the youth - individuality. With his ever-flowing pompadour and voice that was as powerful as it was quiet, Prince showed kids that society had no control over their self- expression, they could be anything they wanted to be. While the style of the time was artful askance, this was a dude who took masculine rock and added feminine flair.
The measure of what he did, not just for music, but for all of us who spend our lives searching for identity and meaning through society’s mass produced, stereotypical, shit-tinted glasses, can never be overstated. And so, to the pioneer of the Minneapolis Sound, we say farewell and thank you for teaching us to celebrate every day in our own extravagant way. This is what it sounds like when doves cry.
Lava Lamp Day
Happy Lava Lamp Day!
Yup, it’s time to turn off those lights, flip the switch and numb-out as the former symbol of all things counterculture and psychedelic, shape shifts your consciousness into a blissful stupor with its lurid glow.
The rather amusing contradiction is that this waxy monument, which the children of the free movement so loved, was created by an accountant – an accountant who’s real claim to fame was underwater nudist films;
Mr Edward Craven Walker. We’re a big fan of his second film, Boobs and Binary. Top-notch stuff.
Makes you wonder though how today’s helicopter moms feel about installing a water-nudist accountant’s, night- time love lamp in their kids rooms. Some say that to this day, if you look closely enough, you can see tiny, naked, waxy people swimming around in Edward Craven’s paragon of grooviness. #peaceandlove
Iguana Day
Imagine you were sitting at a dingy bar and an old fellow coughed his way up to you and offered you powers beyond your dreams. Think Captain America, Rogue or even Hulk! Your mind races with excitement before he tells you with an impish grin that you’d be blessed with the powers of an Iguana. Say what now?
Yes, a 3-to-6 foot pet reptile. Underwhelming you say? Perhaps, but that’s until you open your internet browser to misspell Iguana and have Google condescendingly tell you what you ACTUALLY meant.
You’d then find out that you would be able to hold your breath underwater for 28 minutes, inflate yourself like a life raft, survive falls of up to 50 feet and basically never get sunburnt. Sounds like a helluva’ deal. So you put blood to paper and he then tells you that you’ll also eat the poop of the elderly, potentially lay eggs and be a vegan for the rest of your life.
Not so keen anymore? Well, at least you learned a thing or two about these magnificent reptiles. Happy Iguana Awareness Day.
The Hulk
The Hulk is what happens when all the nasties festering in the emotional wounds of Bruce Banner’s soul reach their tipping point, plunging him into a gamma ray-powered temper tantrum.
If that sounds familiar it’s because the Hulk is us. First published today in 1962, by Marvel, The Incredible Hulk represents what everyone wishes they could do when faced with trying circumstances - Lose their minds, go full John McEnroe and wake up in purple jean shorts. It’s cosmic-level catharsis. Great success.
Cygnus
The vastness of space – it’s kinda’ similar to the deep recesses of our minds. When you find yourself feeling a bit like Matt Damon in The Martian – eating poo potatoes for breakfast, it’s easy to forget that even the vast and endless vacuum of space, a bright light can still shine forth. Like this day in 1975 when a star in Cygnus went nova, becoming the fourth brightest star in the sky.
It teaches us that even when you find yourself in the darkest of situations or places, there is always a glimmer of hope – somewhere. You just need to go nova – which means, exploding. We believe in you.