Consumed: Viral Inflection
by Rob Walker
The New York Times Magazine
May 21, 2009
A design inspired by pandemic paranoia is one way for style rebels to reject the traditional necktie, with panache.
…”Terminal Illness” is the name of one of the most recent designs from Bethany Shorb, a Detroit artist, and the fact that it has a title is a good indicator that it is not a traditional tie. What at first glance resembles an abstract pattern well within the vernacular of the necktie aesthetic is, rather, a repeated image of the swine-flu virus connected by shapes based on international-airport-terminal diagrams.
A tie called “Snoutbreak!” features a simpler graphic that clearly suggests a pig”™s nose; if you order this tie, you get a matching surgical mask free. These offerings from Shorb”™s Cyberoptix Tie Lab were made available in early May, when the swine-flu freakout was at its height and the director general of the World Health Organization had recently warned that a pandemic had the potential to threaten “all of humanity.” … Read the full article here.