Greater>Than Clothing

Great ideas can come from anywhere at any time. My vision is to make Greater>Than Clothing as idea-friendly an organization as possible so that we can take advantage of any and all the great ideas that come our way. Further, I hope to encourage people to send in those ideas by making interacting with Greater>Than as rewarding as possible. I’m all about giving credit where credit is due and I firmly believe that if you create ideas with value you should be able to reap tangible rewards. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to put my money where my mouth is. Intrigued?

Of course, it’s hard to create in a vacuum. How is one to know if his idea is a Greater>Than contender? First, I’ll say err on the side of inclusion. Greater>Than is young and still largely undefined. You can influence what it is and what it isn’t by letting me know what you think it should be. Second, I’ll be using this site to define the idea as I currently understand it and as it develops. It is in that spirit that I present an idea that I’ve been kicking around for a while, an idea that I think could easily make the jump from concept to Greater>Than product:

Sparrow>Snail

I have no problem admitting that I had a Simon and Garfunkel phase. Those two guys were really on to something for a while there. Plus, Paul went on to release Graceland a decade and a half later, and that album still rules. It is, however, important for me to make it clear that my S&G phase is behind me, and I realize that I’m risking that as I admit that as I started to think about Greater>Than, the juxtaposing lines from their song “El Condor Pasa (If I Could)” inspired me:

I’d rather be a sparrow than a snail.
Yes I would.
If I could,
I surely would.
I’d rather be a hammer than a nail.
Yes I would.
If I only could,
I surely would.

These lyrics carry an air of truth that transcends experience. This is a trivial point at first glance. Of course I’d rather be a hammer than a nail. Everyone would; you don’t need to have been hit with a hammer to come to that conclusion. But the song isn’t about choosing up sides, it’s about wishing you were what you aren’t. It’s the snail who’s singing, and we’ve all been there before.

I had long been vaguely aware that the song was a cover, but recently I had occasion to dig a little deeper. As it turns out, El Cóndor Pasa is a Peruvian musical as well as the play’s most famous song. The music was written in 1913 by Daniel Alomía Robles, and Julio Baudouin contributed the libretto under the pseudonym Julio de La Paz. It’s about a conflict between enslaved indigenous people and their European overlords. The murder of the slavers’ leader rekindles the hope for freedom among the natives, but he is replaced and the enforced social order is restored. The words were originally written in Quechua, the language of the Incan Empire (and incidentally still spoken by ~10 million people). Here is a translation of the original lyrics:

Oh mighty Condor, owner of the skies,
take me home, up into the Andes, oh mighty Condor.
I want to go back to my native place to be
with my Inca brothers,
that’s what I miss the most, oh mighty Condor.

Wait for me in Qosqo, in the main plaza,
so we can take a walk in Machu Pikchu and Wayna Pikchu.

The message in that one is a bit different, and it’s more direct and personal, but the longing is still there. It’s still a lament. Reading the original brings a new dimension to my interpretation of Simon’s version as well: an appreciation of the dignity of the snail, who bears the exquisite pain of existence. It elevates the snail’s predicament from pitiable to poignant.

What about the t-shirt?

Ok, the shirt as it originally existed in my head featured a sparrow, a snail, a greater than symbol indicating that the sparrow was the greater value, some background, and some contextualizing elements (a banner reading “I’d rather be…” for example). Since then, I’ve become convinced that the design should be much simpler. A sparrow, a greater than sign, a snail. Done.

In terms of style, once I found the information about the original El Cóndor Pasa I decided I wanted to pay homage to Peru the design in some way. I did some research into Peruvian artists and found Pablo Marcos, an illustrator from Lima who has worked on comics put out by both Marvel and DC. He’s best known for his work as the inker for several different Conan the Barbarian titles. Here’s his first cover, Giant-sized Dracula #2, from back in ‘74. This gives me a great chance to give a nod to Peru and create a cool comic-inspired t-shirt at the same time. Thanks Pablo! You rock.

The art for the Sparrow>Snail t-shirt is currently in production. I think it will turn out great. As soon as it’s ready it’ll be all over this blog. Stay tuned.

I hope you’ve gotten something out of this view into my creative process, and I hope you have a better understanding of the kinds of ideas I want to turn into Greater>Than products. If you have an awesome idea of your own, let me know. Leave a comment or hit me at joey [at] greaterthanclothing [dot] com.

• Pablo Marcos’ official site
• El Cóndor Pasa at Wikipedia