This was inspired by a New York Times article about how even after years of remote work, there’s still the inevitable “You’re on mute.” I admit it still happens to me too. Marcel M. is a reference to Marcel Marceau, a famous mime. (Oh, and in case it’s not clear - I know the actual phrase is ‘moot point’.)

These are all drawn from real life. Growing up we had a neighbor who had scrawled “NO DOG MESS” in giant letters on their own fence, which we all thought was uglier than any dog poop that might have been left in front of his house.

I had the idea of ‘pre cell phone pocket trumpeted’. Wasn’t sure exactly what that meant; played around with bugles, etc. But I thought the Lord of the Rings type horn worked. As far as the visual style, I was inspired by the book “Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design” by Theo Inglish, and particularly the works of Tom Eckersley and Harry Stevens. I tried to make a deliberately flat look.