One day I was going through going through my sketchpads and source material looking for strap lines and ideas for possible t-shirt designs.
I wasn’t aware at the time but I think I wanted a face or symbol to use to say things sometimes I wish I’d said in the past in certain situations or had heard people say who were quicker off the mark than me, a snappy one liner you get the idea.
So I started drawing designs not really looking for and end product, that was too much pressure I started to get the feeling of whatever it was it was going to speak for us, introduce boundaries for us, say ‘no’ for us when both Lisa and I couldn’t say no in the past in our lives.
I also wanted to use subversive content to have fun to be cheeky because we can’t anymore can we?
I don’t know where a pink teddy bear came from but I thought what could be more inoffensive than this? A pink fluffy bear….except this bear whilst looking pink and fluffy is not your best friend and will probably try and murder your family after the lights are off and everyone is tucked in.
The first rendering of Bad Ted was taking the mickey out of all those soppy nice sweet bears who were splattered across cards and mugs with messages of sickly support during the early 90’s I drew Ted sitting on the floor with a red balloon (IT) and a carving knife after cutting out a human heart and offering it to the object of his affections…. “I give you all of my heart” well not all of his heart, someone else’s…you get the idea, so from then on in Mr pink fluffy bear picked up a couple of ‘bad habits’, tattoos, smokes a cigar and carries a knife.
After that I went on to redraw him in various incarnations stating things which may, offend or raise a smile. Tom of Finland also gets a tribute design with Erik and Oskar ‘Love is Love’ right? It doesn’t matter who you are in love with as long as its mutual, no judgements, no prejudice {no stalking) just the freedom to love.