Do You Pinky Swear or Pinky Promise?

Let's talk about this sacred oath from the grade school days.

Do you pinky swear?! Seriously. Do not grasp my pinky with your pinky unless you solemnly swear!

Ok, so I grew up using the phrase “pinky swear” — usually in the context of swearing to keep a friend’s secret, and occasionally to promise to follow through on something of critical importance.

Apparently, many people grew up saying “pinky promise” in this same context. Which honestly sounds a lot kinder and less intense! Pinky promise sounds like something you would say at summer camp or a girl scout meeting, and less like something you’d whisper under the monkey bars with your best friend while telling secrets (that feels like pinky swearing to me, just sayin’).

“Pinky promise” is also the phrase used in the movie “Despicable Me” — which is obviously a popular and beloved piece of cinema — so maybe Pinky Promise is the more popular phrase? Let’s take a poll!

Regardless of which phrase you use, I think we can all agree that the power of the pinky handshake truly meant something on the playground back in the day (and maybe still today?! I hope so!).

I initially drew this design with the hands only. I liked the simplicity and decided to roll with it at the time. But in the back of my mind I’ve always thought… “hmmm, maybe this design could be something more.”

Part of what kept holding me back is that I wanted to add text to the design, but I couldn’t decide between pinky promise and pinky swear. But then I realized, what if I didn’t literally label it and instead used words that would show more of the meaning behind it? Ah ha! Eventually I landed on “the sacred oath,” which feels like the right balance of humorously dramatic and accurate to my 8-year-old sensibilities.

I felt like I was on the right track (and though, hmmm, maybe I should keep it in black and white…?), but I had more in mind that I wanted to experiment with! I thought a mystical summer-camp energy would be cool, so I created a wooded landscape over a lake scene combined with a starry sky in the hands. I did a lot of experimenting with the color palette. I started with some of my go-to saturated jewel tones, but the hands felt out of place to me.

After some more experimentation, I landed on a slightly desaturated spectrum of blues with just a hint of yellow and pink around the sun and reflected in the water. I think this color combo makes the hands feel more integrated visually while still popping off the background.

Since I couldn’t decide which approach I liked better, “The Sacred Oath” is now available in full color and black and white on t-shirts, tote bags, and mugs in my store!

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for being here! It truly means the world to me to connect with you every week.

Paid subscribers, please keep scrolling to download “The Sacred Oath” as an art print and as phone wallpaper! You can save the image to your phone and easily set as your phone background on the home and/or lock screen.

Here it is on my phone. It’s super blue in this photo because apparently taking a photo of a phone with another phone creates some kind of crazy color vortex?!

Anyway… I’m pretty delighted to start sharing phone wallpapers now too!