Today on Mistigram, an ANSI art Mist logo veering on the abstract by Tincat from a collaboration in our July 1997 artpack. As for the slogan? You know what you get when you throw everything at the wall and see what sticks? Then you take everything that stuck, and see which among those sticks the most… basically, the Mistfunk movement Tincat spearheaded was selectively breeding for catchiness rather than clear messaging.
The helpful transition from Mistigris to Mistfunk (even today, a useful workaround for namespace conflicts here and on Twitter and Instagram) was deeper than a mere rebranding – in addition to a fresh, post-World Tour identity, it went as far as yielding several pieces of internal jargon (such as “chunk” for awesome and “flog” for its opposite.) The move to Mistfunk probably would have been very useful if we’d followed Tribe!’s early lead and gone down that path in 1995, but by 1997, the whole artscene had so little gas left in the tank that we were but one high school graduation away from a stark crossroads.
It could sure be frustrating, but when it worked, Mistigris sure made losers like me happy! Today’s artefact from the vaults of time is a splendidly sketchy, self-deprecating piece of ripscrip vector art, drawn by the zany Tincat - a man with a beautiful mind - and first released as we were emerging from the Mistigris World Tour in July of 1997, eyes once again blinking in the harsh light of day, once more standing unsupported, on our own.
