Rising Above Mediocrity

It was time to decorate my laptop; it has its share of scratches and dents, and I could personalize. So, I tried to find bumper stickers that worked well. Problem: not many work well. Most of the time, my positions are too nuanced to fit in a dozen words or less.

The “Atheist Bus” campaign was a reasonable start. I didn’t want to use their slogan, but I wanted to show solidarity through similar design. So, I found the font they used: “Dirty Headline“. In finding it, I found what is probably the most memorable pro-science quote I’ve ever heard.  Fire up Seashore, throw some colors together, add in a gratuitous Out Campaign scarlet-A logo, and voilà!

And I realized I really like the font. So, I found another idea that had been rattling around my head for a while. For this one, I had to upgrade to the Gimp because Seashore doesn’t seem to have a rainbow gradient, but I think it was worth it:

I bought some inkjet bumper sticker paper from Office Depot and printed these out… and they turned out great. I wouldn’t put them on my car, since they don’t seem particularly weatherproof, but on the computer I have no such worries. The atheism sticker is currently on my laptop; the second one isn’t yet, since I overestimated the free space on the display. (I own a MacBook Pro and don’t want to cover up the glowing status symbol.)

Feel free to download and print these; high-resolution versions of both are available. As for licensing, they’re Creative Commons Share-Alike; I can’t see putting heavy restrictions on something that only took me an hour or so to create. So, share and enjoy!