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Hoffman’s latest work is a silver-on-black T-shirt for Giveashi*t to benefit StreetWise, proclaiming “we are all equal.” “I am really a fan of StreetWise and the model and what it does,” Hoffman said. “I think it’s an incredible cause. I was talking with Scott [Marvel, president of the Daily Planet, of which Giveashi*t is a subsidiary] and he said that’s the general idea they were playing with this year, that ‘we are all equal.’ I said that’s perfect, that’s what it should be. For me the simplest phrase says the most and I went right with it.” “We were looking to expand our artist talent pool and I’ve never met Matthew but I know his work is very positive,” Marvel said of his decision to reach out to Hoffman as a contributing artist. “We try to get positive messages out there. We emailed him and got an email back right away.” Hoffman’s T-shirt design proclaims “a simple, classic, positive message,” Marvel said. “It’s clearly hand-drawn; it kind of mimics the classic ‘You Are Beautiful.’ “Some people gravitate to wearing a saying: ‘Empathy Rocks,’ ‘We are Born to Wander,’” Marvel said. “Those things hit a target of our audience. Some people see a T-shirt almost as a bumper sticker to put a message out into the world: ‘This is a saying I literally stand behind.’ We love the design so much it’s the first design we’ve done on a onesie.” However, the onesie features a centralized logo because Hoffman’s original design put the words where a chest pocket would be – and a onesie doesn’t have room for a pocket big enough for legible words. While the original YAB stickers featured the message in black typeface on a silver background, Hoffman has since added a cursive "We Are All Equal" version in wood. Both are trademarked now, but he says the shirt and onesie designs for GivAShi*t, block type and cursive versions deliver two different psycho- available at giveashirt. net, with all proceeds logical effects. The stickers are meant to blend in as signage. “It catches you a little off guard.” But the cursive -- and anything hand-drawn – “makes it a little more direct. A person is trying to tell me something. You see that through the human touch.”
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benefiting StreetWise. (photos provided by Jeannine RinglandZwirn) OPPOSITE PAGE: "It's OK Not To Be OK" installation surrounded by to-go orders during the COVID-19 crisis at Sip of Hope, 3039 W. Fullerton Ave., in Logan Square.
Soon after Matthew Hoffman started the You Are Beautiful project in 2002 with an offer of five free stickers to anyone who sent a stamped, self-addressed envelope, he was astonished to receive letters and photos of stickers on landmarks as far away as China and Antarctica. But it was a letter from Florida that really moved him. “Someone sent a photograph of a sticker they had put on a bridge railing,” Hoffman said in a telephone interview. “Right below, there was a plaque where someone had taken their life some time before. They put the sticker up and hoped that if someone was in the same position, they might rethink their action. It really struck me how powerful a few words can be. What it did for me was, it reminded me of the significance of everything I do and everything I put out, that I put through the lens: not only that it is open and accepting of everyone but that it will do some good and not add to the negativity. It reinforced my guiding principles.” Jonny Boucher, meanwhile, grew up just north of Chicago and entered the music scene at age 13 by putting on punk metal shows and creating community spaces where people felt they could belong. When Boucher’s boss and mentor, Mike Scanlan, died of suicide in 2010, he was the ninth person close to Boucher to do so. It was a “final straw moment” that led Boucher to found Hope For The Day
