Steven Palmer did not know that he would find the inspiration for his future T-shirt design company while flipping through a copy of Better Homes and Gardens. The local artist was struck an image with the caption, ‘Where is Everybody?’, and decided he had to use that image in his artwork.
‘It was a woman opening a door, looking out, and it said, ‘Where is Everybody’ ‘ and I’m thinking, ‘that’s a really cool illustration’,’ Palmer said.
The depiction of a woman opening a door was the starting point for Palmer’s Binghamton-themed T-shirt company which uses vintage art and puns to poke fun at Binghamton.
Born and raised in Binghamton, Palmer has been making T-shirts since high school.
Another local artist and BU grad, David Skyrca, established the Box Factory Fine Art Gallery with Palmer in 2000 and together they began making T-shirts showcasing their art. Palmer also worked to create the First Friday Art Walk.
‘On a whim, I decided to put my art on T-shirts,’ Palmer said.
After gaining some popularity with the shirts, Palmer spotted the image which would help him expand his company and create Gagrags, a pun-based joke T-shirt company.
‘We came up with all these names and we thought, Gagrags,’ Palmer said. ‘Gag as a joke and rag as a T-shirt.’
Gagrags started off with the one design of the woman with the words ‘Where is Everybody?’ and underneath the image, the words Binghamton, N.Y. After this T-shirt sparked people’s interest, Palmer and Skyrca began coming up with more ideas that poke fun at the city.
Some of the feedback was positive. Palmer found that ‘a lot of people said, ‘That’s a great idea. You should go into that more.’
Others, though, continue to find some of the shirts insulting to the area. But as natives of the Southern Tier, he and Skyrca do not give their critics much credit.
‘We’re allowed to make fun of Binghamton because we were born and raised here,’ Palmer said.
The shirts are intended to ‘tastefully’ mock the city, Palmer said, and many of the shirts reflect the unique qualities of Binghamton.
Between the ‘Twilight Zone’-themed shirt (after Rod Serling, who was raised in Binghamton), or the shirt which uses pictographs to spell Binghamton, Palmer has found a way to depict the city’s quirks.
The Box Art Gallery on State Street in Binghamton will be featuring both Gagrags T-shirts and the art of Palmer and Skyrca at the First Friday Art Walk. The shirts are also available at the gift shop at the Roberson Museum and Science Center in Binghamton. You can also check out the Web site, gagrags.com.