In 2008 Thomas Bradley & I made this John McCain campaign poster. You might recall McCain gleefully sang “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys Barbara Ann. You can find that on YouTube.

It’s a shame to have to bring it out again, but at least we have the art ready to go.

Find an event with your member of Congress this month here.
Contact your Congressperson here.

We have 60 days to stop a war with Iran.

Poster by Joshua Berger & Gus Nicklos, plazm.com

On May 18, 2012, I was riding my bicycle to Liquid Agency, as I do most mornings. Eyewitness accounts are fuzzy, but apparently I swerved and hit the brakes to avoid some kind of obstruction, went flying over the handlebars, and did a face-plant on the pavement. My helmet probably saved my life. I sustained a “moderate to severe traumatic brain injury” (TBI), according to a medical report which I am now looking at. I was taken to OHSU, intubated, and given serial CT brain scans.

I don’t remember any of that. The first thing I remember was waking up in the brain rehab unit at Providence two weeks later. It has been a long road to recovery. I have had to re-learn a ton of basic things. Like walking. And not-so-basic things, like reading, writing, or creating a poster. I’m not fully functioning or returning to work yet, but I’m at the point where I can make public comments like this one.

I want to take a minute to thank all of the friends, family, past business associates, collaborators, acquaintances, compatriots, the list is so long. It is your support, well-wishes, thoughts, and energy which has given me the strength to put in the effort and work towards a full recovery. Really. It means the world to me, and to my family. Also a special thanks to my medical team, they have been amazing. I have a ways to go, but I am a lot better than I was four or five months ago. Just to illustrate, here’s a photo my wife took of a white board in my hospital room. Every day the nurses would write a list of things to try to accomplish that day. In the early days, it was a very short list. As you can see. I moved from the goal of “waking up” once a day to using a wheelchair, then a walker, then a cane. I still have the cane, but I can see the day in the near future where I will no longer need that.

My occupational and speech language pathologists challenged me to try to create a poster, or some other piece of design communication, so I made one for Mitt Romney. I know he has binders full of women, but clearly he needs all the help he can get in spreading his message of economic prosperity. I enlisted the assistance of my friend Gus Nicklos to collaborate and develop this Mittopoly poster. Thanks, Gus! Click the image above for a high resolution version. Please feel free to share and propagate this artwork as you see fit.

Thank you all again for the love, energy, and support. I look forward to seeing you, hugging you, talking with you, and collaborating with you in the near future.

Love

Josh