IS IT ME? OR...

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Indie Ear is written by Brandon Kim. Drop him a line at indieear (at) ifc dot com

By Jim Shearer on 10/23/2008

Filed under: IS IT ME? OR...

sxsw tote bag1.JPG

...does this tote bag design really suck?

You'll notice that it's a SXSW 2008 bag, so yes, this rant is probably seven months too late, but while sitting in front of a computer all day in complete solitude, all types of random thoughts will cross one's mind.

(left: I'll bet you a quarter YOU could draw better than this.)

My wife has always been good about using the free swag I've received over the years, and while blogging yesterday I looked down at the floor and noticed her SXSW tote bag. After looking at it for a couple seconds, I couldn't help but think, "Wow, that's one crappy-ass design." I then noticed the tag on the right-hand corner of the artwork, thurston/moore 2008, which led me to believe that Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore created the picture.

Because I've drawn a picture or two in my lifetime, I came to the conclusion that it took Moore approximately 23 seconds to sketch the design. Each time I looked down at the bag I became more and more angry. Why would SXSW accept a design like that? Did they think we would be so impressed that--ooooooh, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore took some time out of his busy schedule to scribble some stick figures--we wouldn't notice how shitty it was?

Apologies to CMJ. I guess it's proper etiquette to not talk about another music festival while one is currently going on. I can only hope that five months from now, SXSW will have a better tote bag design for 2009.

Note: If by chance some kid created the design for some type of charity effort, I preemptively apologize. Like I said, some random stuff can cross one's mind while staring at a computer screen all day long.

Tags: CMJ, Sonic Youth, SXSW Tote Bag, Thurston Moore