Be the Nerd

The message “Be the Nerd” originated from Mark Zuckerberg in response to a grandmother’s comment left on his Facebook profile. The message was an encouragement not to “date the nerd” but rather to “be the nerd” as a path to success. The message can be extrapolated further to one of following your own interests.

The poster nearly went in an entirely different, more engineering-focused visual direction, but instead I chose to push it in a more iconic, and flexible direction that could elevate the message beyond just the field of computer engineering. Although glasses on their own are an obvious trope, they allowed the design to take on different forms and visualizations that represent all manner of people and interests.

More than four years after it debuted, it remains one of the most beloved and enduring designs produced in the Analog Lab. I printed the first edition of two hundred 3-color prints across a range of French Pop Tone papers in January 2016.