Illustration of woman wearing bikini with arms up holding hair standing in front of city street and a red classic car.  Text appears around edge of button in small blue circles and red and yellow diamonds.  White text also appears in a black rectangle across woman's chest.

Easy Aces, Inc. was a producer of “fun and innovative” kitchen tools, party goods, tech products, and personal accessories, including pin-back buttons. Though they now call themselves Fred and Friends, Easy Aces, Inc. continues to operate out of Cumberland, Rhode Island and solicit local artists for product designs. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the company sought out photographers, illustrators, and graphic designers to collaborate on pin-back buttons. One such artist who partnered with Easy Aces, Inc. was Bob Holmes, who developed a series of buttons under the “Nourishing Adventures” collection in 1980.

Illustration of a harlequin's head and shoulder in black and pink on a white background.

A Harlequin is a mute character in a traditional pantomime that traditionally has a masked face and a colorful diamond-patterned costume. The role of the Harlequin is a light-hearted astute servant with self-serving intentions. He is agile, quick, and has trickster tendencies. The name Harlequin is said to descend from old French "hellequin" meaning demon. The Harlequin character was popularized in Italian comedia dell'arte; a 16th-century theatrical form. However, the origins of the character itself is debated as some scholars have suggested the Harlequin did not start with the Italian Renaissance but perhaps with the Greeks in Greek comedy theater or in Central Africa where a character similar to the Harlequin is seen portrayed in the African arts. 

Closeup illustration of monkey's face on a neon green background.

Like humans, monkeys are part of the primate family. It is estimated that there are over two-hundred and sixty types of monkeys. Their lineage makes up both new world species (those with tails), such as Pygmy Marmosets, and the Squirrel Monkey that live in South & Central America; to old world species (those without tails) that are more commonly known, such as Chimpanzee’s and Orangutan’s, which have been around for millions of years and can be found in Africa & Asia. 

Black circles, short red lines and two wavy shapes against a half green, half yellow background with a small white triangle between the two halves.

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Illustration of Golden Gate Bridge with an unrolling red carpet.

This spectacular bridge was the vision of two men, Joseph B. Strauss and Leon S. Moisseiff, who designed it using an Art Deco theme. Its name hails from explorer John C. Frémont who dubbed the entrance to the San Francisco Bay in 1846; the strait of the Golden Gate, which connects the Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It spans 1.7 miles and took four years to build. Once completed it was opened to the public in 1937; considered the longest suspension bridge ever built in the U.S. That is until 1964 when New York’s Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was built. So, number two in the U.S. and number nine in the world, that’s not bad for “the bridge that couldn't be built.” Today, the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most popular tourist spots of the west coast.

A yellow triangle, pink triangle, red circle, two green "greater-than" arrows, a thin black line and a human photographed from below all on a background image of shimmering water.

The image on this buttons was created by April Greiman and Jayme Odgers.  April Greiman is a contemporary graphic design artist born in 1948.  She is considered one of the first designers to embrace computers and digital technology as a design tool.  Her style also includes layering type to make it look like it is floating in space, using geometric shapes, exaggerated letter spacing and eccentric colors.  Her style also took advantage of combining graphic elements with photography, which is how she came to work with photographer Jayme Odgers.  Together they designed posters for Cal Arts that would become templates for the California New Wave design style. 

Illustration of woman in a blue dress and white apron sitting down amidst various objects.

"Dreaming in the Attic" is a painting by Norman Rockwell from 1923. In 1982, it was re-issued as part of a series of twelve painted plates titled, "Rediscovered Women." The collection of plates was crafted by Knowles China.

Norman Rockwell is a an important American cultural icon. He was an author, painter, and illustrator during the twentieth century. He is known for his illustrations for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post magazine, as well as his works Rosie the Riveter, Willie Gillis, and Four Freedoms.

Illustration of man in yellow suit and black bow tie combing their hair on a blue background.  Black text with white outline along bottom.

Don Juan is a term used for a man who has been known to seduce women or is a great lover. In 1630, Tirso de Molina, a Spanish writer, mentioned the name in his work "El Burlador de Sevilla El Convidado de Piedra," to describe a character that was a Spanish Cassanova. The first recorded instance of this phrase used in conversation or slang to describe a man of this character was 1679 and it is still used today.

Don Juan (Pomade) is a company that specializes in men’s grooming products, with their most notable product being the pocket comb. After opening up the business in Miami, Florida, Don Juan started production in 2013. The founders of the brand are duo entrepreneurs who are both Italian immigrants. The two had been childhood friends and had run other businesses centering around selling band clothing or technology like DVDs and video games. They eventually abandoned these businesses before moving into the grooming industry. Don Juan products are made in consultation with barbers for their grooming products and chemists for their perfume.

Blue line-drawing illustration of two women with bob haircuts smelling flowers.  Blue text above each woman.  Blue scalloped border around edge of button.

Through the 1940s, pocket mirrors were a popular advertising opportunity, given that the back of the mirror would be on display whenever the user pulled it out in public to check their reflection. Today, unusual and inventive mirrors can frequently be sold at auction for hundreds of dollars to collectors.

This art deco illustration is part of a more risque category of pocket mirror, metamorphic, that creates a different image when held upside down. The primary view is two women with bob haircuts eating, while the inverted view is a pair of legs with various views of the intimate areas.

Illustration of green and yellow cobra snake on a black background.

Stanley Weston at Hasbro created the idea for military-themed toys in 1963. Hasbro launched its first G.I. Joe toy line in 1964 as “America’s Movable Fighting Man” representing U.S. military branches: Action Soldier (army), Action Sailor (navy), Action Pilot (air force), and Action Marine (marines) with Action Nurse eventually added in 1967. G.I. Joe launched internationally with its Soldiers of the World series in 1966. Instead of calling these original 12-inch toys, “dolls” as associated with Mattel’s Barbie, G.I. Joe inspired the term “action figures” to advertise to all children. In the 1970s, G.I. Joe rebranded as “The Adventure Team” and introduced the first African American into its product series.

G.I. Joe relaunched in 1982 as 3.75-inch action figures, vehicles, and play sets. G.I. Joe is now a special-ops unit aka the G.I. Joe Team who battles Cobra, an evil terrorist organization aiming to take the world. Simultaneously, Marvel Comics debuted G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, a superhero comics series led by Larry Hama. This storyline inspired several animated cartoons, British comic book series G.I. Joe: Action Force, video games and films, and evolved into other retellings and toy lines. G.I. Joe was admitted to both the National Toy Hall of Fame and Pop Culture Hall of Fame.

The latest line of G.I. Joe is the G.I. Joe Classified Series (2020) celebrating 56 years of the G.I. Joe franchise. Several launches of live-action movies, TV series, mobile apps, and video games are in the works for 2021. The newest G.I. Joe spin-off movie inspiring the latest toy line, Snake Eyes featuring Henry Golding, is scheduled for release on July 21, 2021. Amazon Prime Video will stream the first G.I. Joe live-action series in development about Lady Jaye, an undercover operative.