Imaginary Foundation

I don’t wear many t-shirts with slogans because I rarely see anything that’s truly my style… but I want every single one of the shirts from the Imaginary Foundation.

Not only are the graphics absolutely stunning (and art/design/font snob worthy) but the words work for me too.

Beautiful/Decay, a diverse magazine documenting the convergence of fine art, design, fashion, graffiti and other relevant forms of art, features a in-depth article about the Imaginary Foundation, describing the foundation’s mysterious Director, a Swiss philosopher and the son of Tristan Tzara, founder of the Dadaism:
“The Director is a 70-something year old super intellectual who realized that imagination is fundamental to all learning. Individuals should shy away from convention, and turn instead to the abstract and innovational. This idea led him to present his Doctorate Thesis from the Department of Theoretical Art at the University of Sankore entitled “Deep Pattern Structures: Consciousness and the Articulation of the Possible” in 1951. I have never read it. I, along with the majority of my peers, probably never will. But unlike the majority of oximoronically obtuse super-intellectuals, The Director realized that would likely be the case. Using his dissertation as the basis, The Director formally established the Imaginary Foundation in Geneva in 1973 with a team of academics in order to do research on new ways of thinking and the power of imagination. In order to spread ideas and appeal to people’s interests, it’s necessary to find a transmitter, an effective medium. The crew chose streetwear as their unconventional channel for catipulting their ideas from the academic realm into popular culture.”

• “Think Globally, Act Locally”
• “If”
• “To love beauty is to see light”
• “Slave to the Rhythm”
• “My Other T-Shirt is Ironic”
• “The Kids Are Alright”
• “Express Yourself.”
• “I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.”
• “You Have the Right to Remain Positive”
• “Create beauty.”
• “I Believe in Music”
• “The power of the imagination makes us infinite.”
• “There are no limits, only plateaus.”
• “Hope is a waking dream.” (With a phoenix!)
• “Feed Your Head”
• “Lost in Music”
• “Music is a Force of Nature”
• “Think for Yourself”
• “Keep is Surreal”
• “Power to the Imagination”
• “The Future is Unwritten”
• “Avoid the Paranoid”
• “Happiness is a New Idea”
• “Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live”
• “Live out of your imagination, not your history”
• “Brewing the ridiculous since 1973” (With a teacup!)

Should you happen by chance to ever be browsing the Imaginary Foundation around my birthday or Christmas, ahem, I happen by chance to be a size small…

Another great quote from the art section of the site:

“Be disciplined in your life so you can be violent and original in your art.”

I love it.