On the front a yellow warning triangle with a black lightning arrow, below it three lines reading Vertrau mir, ich bin fast Elektriker. On the back a yellow gear with a face winks, circled by two atom orbits.
Product description
This Electrician T-shirt carries a warning triangle on the front, the kind stuck to every distribution box, and below it three lines that briefly silence any building site: VERTRAU MIR, ICH BIN FAST ELEKTRIKER (German for trust me, I am almost an electrician). The small word in the middle does all the work.
The triangle stands with its point upward, the corners are softly rounded, the black frame runs broad and uneven around the yellow surface. Along the inner edge sits a grid of black dots that thins toward the inside, a halftone gradient as on old poster prints. On the outside a narrow yellow edge encloses the frame, and the same dot screen sits on it a second time.
In the middle sits the lightning arrow from the marking for electrical hazard: a short, thick zigzag that starts wide at the top, kinks twice and ends in an arrow point at the bottom. It points down and to the left. Behind the black arrow lies a second version in cream white, pushed a little down and to the right, as if one color had slipped during printing.
Exactly that offset gives the motif its tone. Added to it are the traces of a sign that has already done some work: black spray clouds in both upper corners, fine spatter across the yellow, a few thin runs of paint that bleed from the right frame into the field, and one drop just letting go of the bottom edge.
The type below it is a very heavy, slightly condensed sans in capitals. Three lines, each set so that it fills the surface to the edge: VERTRAU MIR with a comma, ICH BIN FAST, ELEKTRIKER. The letters carry the cream colored shadow too and the same grain along their edges.
Sign and type are not cleanly separated from each other, they reach into one another. The lower edge of the triangle drips into the free space, and the first line starts exactly where the drop ends. That way you read both in one go from top to bottom, first the warning, then the punchline. Only a narrow strip of air lies between them.
A second motif sits on the back, and it manages without words. A yellow gear, drawn head on, with a round cream colored disc as a face. The left eye is a black oval, the right one a squeezed shut arc, plus a broad, crooked grin and a short stroke for the chin. It is winking at you.
A yellow bolt with a black contour strikes through the upper right teeth, as if it had just caught the wheel. Two dark ellipses cross over the disc like the orbits of an atom model, each one ending in a black ball. At the bottom everything dissolves into dry brush strokes and a fading dot screen.
Three colors carry both sides: signal yellow, deep black and a broken cream white. There are no soft gradients anywhere, every gradation comes from the density of the dots. On the front that looks loud and official, on the back warm and silly, and the fact that both sides use the same bolt connects them without a single arrow in between.
An Electrician T-shirt like this is worn by people who perform the line with relish: by the apprentice in the second year, by the DIYer with one wire connector too many, by the master electrician who gives it to her team. The announcement to everyone on the front, the wink for your own crew on the back.
The appeal of the slogan lies in the fact that it claims nothing untrue. It promises no ability, it announces an almost-ability, and everybody knows that one from their own household. Which is why it also lands with people who never had anything to do with electrics, only with a shelf that has been hanging crooked on the wall for months.
As a gift the sentence goes off in two stages, first the sign, then the word FAST, meaning almost. It suits a passed interim exam, the birthday of the brother in law with a diploma from video tutorials, and every renovation somebody volunteered for. An Electrician T-shirt that announces its punchline from a distance.
