Before there was a shop, before there was a catalog full of dragons and tarot cards and gamer jokes, there was one pun, one friend, and a whole lot of drippy green peas.
I'm an optimist. I genuinely believe that if we, as a human race, can visualize world peace — actually picture it, hold it in our heads as something possible instead of naive — it moves us closer to getting there. I also have a very silly sense of humor, so when I started thinking about how to say that on a product, I didn't want a peace sign or a dove. I wanted a joke that made me laugh first and made a point second.
That's where "Imagine Whirled Peas" came from. It's a pun, plain and simple — and I love it more for being one.
I brought the idea to my friend Paul, who helped me actually design it, and together we landed on the image that still makes me laugh every time I see it: drippy, mushy, grinning green peas, smiling their way across the planet's continents like the whole earth had been gently mashed and was perfectly happy about it. It's ridiculous. It's also exactly what I wanted — something goofy enough to make someone smile, with a real idea sitting underneath it.
This was my first real design. Before I knew what this brand would become, before there were a hundred other products, there was this one. I put a lot of work into getting it right, and it's still the one I'm proudest of — not because it's the most polished thing I've made, but because it's the truest to how my brain actually works: a little silly, a little hopeful, and completely serious about both at the same time.
The design ended up traveling further than I expected. It's currently living on a mug, a tote bag, a cap, a baby onesie, a set of stickers, and even wrapping paper — which means there's a version of "imagine whirled peas" for pretty much any way you'd want to carry a little optimism around with you.