YES! These are EXACTLY what I'm talking about! Who cares about failing algebra when you can put your homework in between DOLPHINS IN SPACE!
I think the Lisa Frank empire basically swallowed the middle-school accessory market in the '90s, and now it's all you can find when you search online for that sort of thing. which makes me sad because I was always WAY more into the OTT blue-and-purple airbrush aesthetic. After some industrious google image-searching (because heaven knows I don't have anything else to do this afternoon) I have managed to figure out that the artist who did most of my favorite binders, T-shirts, and other period sins against airbrushery was Sue Dawe. Unicorns, sentimentalized cat people, unicorns AND dolphins, bizarre Tron-inspired backdrops for fantasy subjects ... she's got it all.
But yeah, the only patterned ones I see around anymore are the Boy Stuff and Girl Stuff licensed-merchandise ones (same problem with kids' birthday cards, both in the ridiculous commercialization and gendered-ness of it, and the lack of variety), or occasional not-relevant-to-my-interest ones like the sports ones I was looking at last night. Maybe middle-schoolers would no longer be caught dead with unicorns, dolphins, and rainbows on their binders.
no subject
I think the Lisa Frank empire basically swallowed the middle-school accessory market in the '90s, and now it's all you can find when you search online for that sort of thing. which makes me sad because I was always WAY more into the OTT blue-and-purple airbrush aesthetic. After some industrious google image-searching (because heaven knows I don't have anything else to do this afternoon) I have managed to figure out that the artist who did most of my favorite binders, T-shirts, and other period sins against airbrushery was Sue Dawe. Unicorns, sentimentalized cat people, unicorns AND dolphins, bizarre Tron-inspired backdrops for fantasy subjects ... she's got it all.
But yeah, the only patterned ones I see around anymore are the Boy Stuff and Girl Stuff licensed-merchandise ones (same problem with kids' birthday cards, both in the ridiculous commercialization and gendered-ness of it, and the lack of variety), or occasional not-relevant-to-my-interest ones like the sports ones I was looking at last night. Maybe middle-schoolers would no longer be caught dead with unicorns, dolphins, and rainbows on their binders.