STATE 08: Newark, New Jersey
VETERAN: Many Galvan, U.S. Army
ARTIST: Jennifer Bernstein
U.S. Army Veteran Manny Galvan collaborated with Jennifer Bernstein, Rutgers Newark professor and Principal/Creative Director of the agency Level, to create “And So It Goes,” an illustrative expression of Manny’s pragmatic outlook he cultivated while serving as a medic. Both avid readers, the pair bonded over their mutual admiration of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five.
Manny has a particular affinity for the saying “so it goes” from the novel, feeling that it represents how he wishes to accept life’s occurrences for simply what they are. Wanting to personalize the popular phrase as well as allude to life’s continuity, Jennifer added the introductory word “and” and replaced the letter “T” with a medical cross to represent Manny’s experience as a medic. On the patch and on the back of the t-shirt, the U.S. flag is superimposed within the medical cross, reflective of Manny’s patriotism and pride as an American. The flag and the cross is slightly offset, making it open to interpretation.
For Manny, who wanted to convey that “Veterans are simply just people with a slightly different path than most,” the offset motion could allude to the similarities among Veterans and civilians and the potential to unite. To learn more about Manny’s story and his design process with Jennifer, visit: www.hasheart.us/project/50states-newjersey.