Day 95

Eat pills, avoid ghosts.

Sage advice whether you're a three-quarter yellow circle who is doomed to a life of constant motion, or a recreational drug user who is a little rusty.

For Day 95 of my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE challenge I have once again returned to my seat on the controversy bus. Having already covered sex and rock and roll in previous days, today's T-shirt completes the trio with a nod towards drugs.
This is one of my more recent designs created only a year or so ago. It summarises the core objectives of the arcade favourite Pac Man in two simple instructions, which out of context of the game read as guidance on experimenting with hallucinogens (which I in no way advocate before anyone gets up in arms).
If you think about it, if you really break it down, there is no way of explaining the psychedelic and non-sensical experience of Pac Man to someone without sounding as though you were shut away in a toilet cubicle moments before.

"You have to control the circle man, you need to feed it! Feed it endlessly on pills of compacted remorse for the crimes it has committed, crimes that have led to its incarceration here in this pixel prison of woe - a prison of the polygon mind! Technicolor guilt ghosts from its past hunt will it down and judge it with their eyes, their floating, respawning eyes!"

Well, when you put it that way...

In order for the double meaning of the design to work I chose to retain some visual references to the video game, for instance, the type is constructed from the wall segments that entomb Pac Man and there is a horizontal rule of power pills between instructions.

So remember, Eat pills, avoid ghosts.

On the subject of gaming design, take a look at a strip from my guest comic slot on The Escapist website from a few years back.