Product Etcetera

When it comes to commissioned art, the paycheck's not always worth the heartache, a sentiment summed up by Michelangelo's famous tirade, "I wouldn't have spent four years on my back if I'd known you were going to obscure all the penises!". Now unleashing their own vision, the guys behind Product Etcetera.P-Etc is fronted by two Bonita Vista High grads who pursued graphic design at different U's, then teamed up on a commercial studio in '09; now they're launching their own colorful, lightly ideological apparel brand, starting with 6 Ts, hopefully in honor of the Dahm triplets. The "flagship piece" is the hand-signaling "Westside Love", created for the LA Still Loves You art show; then there's "PRDTetc.", whose ellipses-formed "E" is a comment on collaborative creation and bland consumerism; and "Aware", a Mr. Potatohead-esque face formed by the letters of "LOOK", a design originally intended to be plastered about town drawing attention to things P-Etc didn't agree with (bad news for your face). Complementing each other are the Yankees-logo-styled "24/7" (praising New York's lack of REM), and "Unrest", featuring a Monsters Inc.-ish eye, with the top lid symbolizing day, the bottom night, and bleary gaze illustrating the dangers of being a city that never sleeps, and thus never remembers to take out its contacts. The most provocative number's "Mary AK", where the Virgin Mary wields the best gun in MW2, and one sleeve bears the text "Mary AK / PTL & PTA": "Praise the Lord & Pass the Ammo", an effective method for virgins to ensure all peens remain obscured.