Thursday, May 31, 2007

Postcard: Payseur & Schmidt (2007)

Here's a simple piece of silly ephemera that I generated for Payseur & Schmidt. It's kind of a worthless advertising piece, but it cracks me up, so I went with it. The front is basically stolen from a late 19th century trade card advertising a hat company. I just replaced the type with what I wanted. The back Riot Act image is from this cool Encyclopedia of Ephemera book (by Maurice Rickards) that I've had for a couple years. I didn't realize that reading the Riot Act was an actual practice starting in 1714 to disperse mobs of rioters. The Act needed to be read to the letter and then the mob had 1 hour to disperse, or face life imprisonment. The Act also absolved the police force for any injuries or deaths that happened during this period (after the hour had ended.) Fun times!