Poldovian Merchandise
Before reading the rest of this web-page, may I commend your attention to the following speech, which was made by Professor Tom Körner at the Discussion about intellectual property rights on october 22nd 2002. Without having read that, you might find yourself somewhat confused ! Patrick Gosling and I were inspired with an idea, initially for a T-shirt, but the general principle could be extended to all sorts of merchandise. The image we would propose for such merchandise is shown below:
Note the famous slogan of the Bureau ! The Poldovian Academy of Literature's letterhead is also available:
as, indeed, is its crest (note the replacement of lions with barking dogs, ermine tails with caltraps, and the book with a disrupted abacus ...)
The point of this is, of course, to actually produce T-shirts and other stuff. I looked into doing it online via either CafePress or, rather more rough-and-readily, photobox (but the latter does allow you to take the picture and decide what product you want it on yourself, rather than being constrained by my idiosyncrasies). My view is that neither of these is particularly satisfactory; CafePress because it is based in the United States and charges wholly unreasonable postage on items, and photobox because the quality of the T-shirt I ordered from them was somewhat below what I'd hoped for. (The mug, on the other hand, was pretty much okay). Caveat emptor. It's a shame about CafePress, because I'd been able to factor in a small donation to the Campaign for Cambridge Freedoms for each item bought.
So it's back to the old stalwart for t-shirts: Talking T's. I have unfortunately currently mislaid the price-list they gave me, but I seem to recall that their rates were eminently reasonable if only I could get 25 people to wish to buy a t-shirt (a bit like calling for a ballot, then). They also believed that they could produce something of significantly better quality than photobox did and, having bought stuff made by them before, I think I believe that. Please please mail me if you have the slightest interest in buying such a t-shirt; I will tally the numbers, and if 25 people (or more) are interested I will go ahead (do feel free to mention this web-page to anyone you think might be interested ...). I'd quite like there to be an optional £1 or £2 surcharge to go to the Campaign for Cambridge Freedoms, but people's mileage may vary.
If you are a die-hard anti T-shirt person, have a look at what CafePress and photobox have to offer, and see if you're interested in some other form of Poldovian merchandise.
All images are Copyright (2002) Diana Galletly and Patrick Gosling. Please ask if there's something you'd like to do with them; I'm unlikely to refuse any reasonable request.
Content and design by
Diana Galletly
Last updated January 2005.