"Sweetheart had an internal contest to come up with a new stock design and Gina's Jazz Design was selected. "The Jazz design was created in 1991 by an artist in the Springfield, Missouri Art Department at Sweetheart," a consumer response intern wrote back at the time. It's interesting that some designer made this pattern, probably without too much effort or consideration, that possibly found itself in front of more eyes than the Mona Lisa."Īt one point, pdschatz - who did not respond to a message I sent asking to speak with him - emailed Solo Cup (which was acquired by Dart Container in 2012) asking about the creator of the design. "There were plenty of other patterns out there, but I recognized this one immediately. "It's just a design a certain paper products manufacturer added to make its cups seem less plain," another Reddit user wrote. The results can be seen on the fan-managed Facebook page and Tumblr. The artists made templates of the design and sold shirts, cataloged various non-cup places the design had appeared and Photoshopped it on even more places. "I was part of a community of artists on the Internet that helped appropriate the Solo Jazz design back in 2010 or 2011," pdschatz wrote on Reddit. People seemed to associate the cup's design, which now seems somewhat dated, with growing up in the 1990s. That was exactly what interested me about Jazz - its fan base. But if the airport had tried to create this kind of fervor for the carpet, there's no way it would have caught on."
90 paper cup design free#
"It's great for PDX it's basically free marketing for them. "That's what interests me about this whole carpet phenomenon," episode host Julie Sabatier said in the February show.
90 paper cup design series#
In February, the series did a show on the carpet in the Portland, Oregon, airport (PDX) - a "loud, decidedly 80s geometric pattern over a vast sea of teal" that has achieved cult status, and can now be purchased on socks, tote bags and throw pillows.
After mcglaven posted his request to find Gina, another Reddit user that goes by pdschatz suggested that it "would make for one hell of a 99% Invisible story." That refers to the "99% Invisible" radio production that, according to its website, focuses on "design, architecture & the 99% invisible activity that shapes our world."