When the Huffington Post posted a 2011 story with the headline, "'Arrested Development' Character Tobias Fünke Gets Ben & Jerry's Flavor," fans of the famed sitcom and the famed ice cream brand alike went nuts.
The exclusive pint flaunted a cut-out image of Fünke, notably played by David Cross, alongside bold letters displaying the ice cream's official flavor: "I Just Blue Myself." As for its actual makeup, the frozen treat promised a blueberry flavored base with rich chocolate swirls and white chocolate cut offs. Quite tasty, right?
Well, there was just one problem with the grand announcement. It was all fake.
The Huffington Post story encouraged readers to click through to learn more about Fünke's Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor and offered a link to a Vulture story, which displayed an enlarged image of the ice cream container. Aside from the classic Ben & Jerry's typography, the ice cream was clearly an imposter… c'mon now, what in the world are white chocolate cut offs?
Turns out, the ice cream artwork was made by Jon Defreest — a creative director, graphic designer and digital illustrator from Boston, Massachusetts — who garnered online fame for his collection of faux Ben & Jerry's flavors. In addition to Fünke's "I Just Blue Myself," there's Ron Swanson's "All of the Bacon & Eggs You Have," Dwight Schrute's "Beet It," Boba Fett's "Carbonite Crunch" and Dexter Morgan's "Miami Slice."
"I was a TV kid growing up. I watched a lot of cartoons and most of my art revolved around the things I was watching on TV or a lot of cartoons or a lot of my favorite characters," explained Defreest in a recent interview with Salon Food. "So as I got older, when art became more of my full-time job, I started to pull from some more resources on TV."
He continued, "You see a lot of 'Parks and Recreation,' and 'Breaking Bad,' 'The Office' and other stuff that I was into at the time, I'd say about 10 years ago. I just started blending graphic design with pop culture references to TV and television characters and I did it for a few websites here and there that I was working on at the time that no longer exist."
Amid the mid-2000s, Ben & Jerry's artwork was a common sight on social media, namely on Tumblr, where illustrations — from hand drawn anime styles to Western cartoons and realism — were quick to attract major fanbases. Defreest asserted that his Ben & Jerry's creations weren't unique per se, but they certainly showcased his love for comedy and parody art. Each of Defreest's creations pay homage to his appreciation of pop culture, good TV and good ice cream.
"I love comedy. So if I wasn't doing art for a living, I'd do something like writing a comedy because those are just my two favorite things — design and comedy," he said. "I don't do a lot of serious art. I like to weave comedy into my artwork."
Making Defreest's Ben & Jerry's art requires time, patience and plenty of attention to detail. Defreest said the easiest parts are finding stock images of his chosen characters and recreating the Ben & Jerry's logo by hand, which can then be created as copy-and-paste templates. The hardest and most time-consuming part, however, is making the bottom of each pint resemble the real deal.
"But the fun part is the details, the small things that you hope that people don't notice right away and hopefully pick up on," Defreest added. "I always like to hide something in my art to at least give it a few more dimensions than just the main event…something in there that's like a little hidden joke or a little hidden something that people can appreciate."
Defreest hasn't updated his Ben & Jerry's collection recently, especially after settling down with his wife and four-year-old daughter. But if he had to make a new faux ice cream flavor, it would definitely center on Netflix's hit anthology television series "Black Mirror" — his latest obsession,
These days, Defreest is straying away from digital art and creating more tangible pieces, like wall art. In the same vein as his past work, his wall art is also inspired by pop culture and popular television shows. His most proud creation is "Bluey" themed art for his daughter.
"I'm not doing [art] commercially so much anymore," Defreest said. "I'm still making TV inspired art. I don't think I'll ever escape it."
