Sep 8, 2010

Shop has gift of capturing R.I. essenceBy Ed FitzpatrickProjo.com

Providence, RI – The poster shows an alligator baring its teeth against a backdrop of neon orange and blue. At first, you might think it’s a Florida travel poster, but when you read the words, you know it’s pure Rhode Island: “You can go to hell,” it says. “I’m going to Pawtucket.”

I’ve had that poster on my desk for about a year and recently realized it’s the first in a series of posters and T-shirts that capture some of the idiosyncrasies of our little state. They manage to both laugh at and celebrate the places we know so well. They’re inside jokes best appreciated if you’ve lived here awhile.

Another poster shows a rampaging monster, like something from a Creature Double Feature. “It Came From Johnston,” the caption says. (I imagine the monster emerging from the state’s Central Landfill.)

The posters are the brainchildren of Asher Schofield. He and his wife, Erin Schofield, opened the Frog and Toad shop on Hope Street, in Providence, nearly 10 years ago, and he began producing the posters about a year ago.

“It’s a faux tourism campaign for the area, both making fun of and embracing the provincial state that we live in,” Schofield said. “We all have our hometown here, and it is amazing that in such a small state there is such a distinct difference from town to town.”

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