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The ZehnKatzen Times
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The blog of a graphic designer in Portland Oregon, trying to find his main chance. Filled with observations of the obvious and the not-so-much, an obsession on graphic design, a love of writing and Photoshop, Illustration, and the desire to become ma
Recent Posts Tagged With 'graphic design'
[type] Pen And Ink Journal - A Handwritten Blog!
2239.Naturally, I'm hoping the headline got your attention. But it's not a joke – the blog Pen & Ink Journal, an actual blog at http://www.penandink-journal.com/ is an actual, surfable blog, and the entries are handwritten – in a beautiful, m...
[design] What Is Graphic Design?
2227.This nifty little short will tell you what graphic design is the best way anything can – you'll react to it. … if you got a message communicated, that was graphic design. It's art and typography and color and hierarchy and awareness an...
[design] Hardcore Prepress Artists Get Tats With Crop Marks
2224.(Yes, I've moved off count again, meaning that there are at least three duplicates down the stream there. Ah, well).How do you know you're hardcore prepress?How do you tell the world that you'll quit electronic layout when they pry your Mac from...
[design] Paul Rand: "Don't Try To Be Original, Just Try To Be Good"
2207.Words of inestimable wisdom from the late Paul Rand, via Logo Design Love, in a nifty 3-and-a-half minute animated video: Here's a link to the YouTube page because there's just a white rectangle when I try to load the blog, and I never know ...
[design] PortlandOnline Design Contest Throws Light On The Poison Of "Spec Work"
2206.The recent retracking of the PortlandOnline.com "Refresh" web design contest into a banner-design only contest (thanks to local creative professionals standing up along with AIGA to remind the city that good design work comes from committed prof...
[design] Fantasy and Science Fiction Themes in TV Since Star Trek – Amazing Graphic Treat
2205.io9.com's Stephanie Fox is someone I am now a fan of. Her genius here is the chart, and her production goes to show how an aptly-designed chart can give you a distilled view of trends that you can get your brain around.Starting the year after St...
[design] 10 Gems Of Logo Design Truth
2195.Logo design talk frequently becomes the stuff of "whalesong and joss-stick', as the pugnacious IT site The Register likes to wag. To a degree it's true; the talk of color, influence, graphic elements and design frequently sounds like one needs a...
[design] I'm On The Bēhance Network
2189.A very happy thing happened today. I just received an invitation to participate in the Bēhance network, http://www.behance.net.The Bēhance online network is part of a company whose stated mission is to organize the creative world to make ideas...
[signs] No Alien Abductions Allowed Between 9PM and 6AM? Good To Know, Zendak
2179.Although it occurs to me than any ET with the chutzpah to actually abduct humans from earth probably don't bother too much with local Earth laws:Original from here, a Russian web site about somethingsomehow, I don't know, I don't know any Russia...
[branding] If You Have The Real Thing, You Don't Have To Keep Changing It
2174.You know how they say a classic is timeless? Check out this history of the Cola Wars:Copyright Duncan Riley, originally postedon (and hotlinked from) The Inquistr hereThe original article (see the link in the caption) has little to say about the...
[IP] The Associated Press Protects Something, Somehow
2173.This is apropos to anyone who thinks about design, blogs, or blogs about design, because in the end it goes back to copyright.Copyright is something every blogger should think about, actually. In the days before something could be copied-and-pas...
[graphic design] Harlan Ellison, The 70s, The Dillons, and Classic Paperback Cover Design
2162.The 1970s stood at a peculiar place in style and design. The sensibility of the Summer of Love was coming right up against the comparative Sobriety of the Nixon years. It was a curious time for design; as I remember it, if you wanted a certain w...
[graphic design] Virginia Woof Doggie Daycare – Divine Logo, Awful Type
2156.At the corner of SW 16th Avenue and West Burnside Street in Portland is the Virginia Woof Doggie Daycare. This is a noble venture that provides high-quality dog care and provides training to at-risk youth. This is a division of the well-known Po...
[print tech] I May Not Be Rich, But My Black Is
2153.I got a tipoff to a great article today about three sins in print design, and they're good things to remember. They reduce down to three things they even teach you in Community College design school, they are that basic. they are, in order: Desi...
Branding The Intertwine
2137.Noted in passing was the rebranding of the Metro initiative, formerly known as Connecting Green, into a new look they're calling The Intertwine.The idea behind Connecting Green is to create, cooperatively, out of the abundance of awesome green s...
I Do Happen To Be Having Trouble Finding My Muse These Days …
2125.And this cartoon shows exactly what I'm up against:You can have all the tools in the world, but if you're low on inspiration, it ain't gonna happen, Sparky. View it bigly at my Posterous stream.Don't take inspiration for granted, yo.(highly exce...
Designers: Draw! Don't Be A "Tooler"
2106.A great article on the value of actually drawing in graphic design rather than only using your digital tools to create was referred to on the Vonster's Art Backwash blog.It's opinionated, but if it comes off as arrogant then you've not been samp...
This Is A Great, Sexy, Inspiring Cartoon Character
2096.Makes me want to open my sketchbook right now:Here is her and 99 others (which run the gamut from abstract to cute to edgy) at designblurb.Found via Design Float.Technorati Tags: graphic design, cartooning, art...
Looking For A Quick DIY HTML Resume?
2095.(also via Calvin at Mayhem Studios) Sometimes you just want to get your information up and out there. As someone who's trained in design I have certain disdain for the default, but even I know that there are some times when using a packaged solu...
This Cabbie's Tip Is Your Impromptu Artwork
2088.The function of a cabbie in culture is kind of a stereotype; he'll listen to your problems, keep your secrets, and get you from point A to B boldly, if the tip is right.According to the New York Post, however, New York cabbie Fabio Peralta may h...
Two Free Fonts: Days And Pico (The One Twitter Uses In Its Logotype)
2081.Twitter is really paying off in terms of win. Found two new highly fun fonts, one of which answered a question that I didn't know I had.First is the font called "Days". It's a nifty design that rather reminds me of what a production designer doi...
Fairley's Pharmacy: Classic Drugstore Style, Classic Typography
2079.After the events of the last posting I continued westward down Sandy Boulevard ... because Sandy's awesome, yo. Just west of 74th and Sandy is the center of the Roseway District ... a big sprawling thing were NE Sandy Blvd, NE 72nd Avenue, and N...
More Capitolism: The US Capitols Photo Map, Take 2
2075.Got out the Cap Map and bashed it out a bit. As said before, I broke out the small states in the northeast so you can see the pictures a bit better, and added a list of states and capital cities:Click to embiggen. I'm hosting this one on my Post...
Can You Find The Eleven In The Big Ten?
2062.There's a artistic trick called trompe l'oeil (close-enough English pronounciation "trump loy", literally "trick of the eye"), which is an artist's way of using implied perspective to make a flat thing look three-dimensional; the painting actual...
I Think I've Been Insulted
2057.I love it when someone links to something clever I've done on this blog, but sometimes one wonders ...I found, in examining my inbound traffic, I got a link from a blog referring my Periodic Table Of Oregon. And it was from a German blog, auf De...
KOMO Adds FM Side, Numbers To Logo
2055.The Seattle radio station constellation has shifted just a little bit once again.Tip o'the cap to Gentleman Ben in Seattle who keeps an eye out for these things for me, for which I am grateful. He catches such interesting things!KOMO 1000 AM rad...
The Evolution Of The TriMet MAX Map 4: Say Hi To Yellow
2050.Now we move up to 2004 in our series about the MAX Map, because between 2000 and 2004 several changes obtained, culminating in the quantum leap of the debut of a new branch to the network – The MAX Yellow line, for the Interstate Avenue corrid...
TriMet Map Cover Designs: 1997, 1998, 1999
2049.Picking up a series I've dropped for a few entries, here's the continuation of the TriMet covers series. This time, we look at 1997, 1998, and 1999.The design sense is starting to be very dialled back now. The 1997 cover seems inspired by the 19...
TriMet's Iconic Past: Service Sector Symbols
2042.In the last entry, I mentioned something about TriMet Service Sectors. That brought that though to the fore, and I decided I wanted to obsess on that for just a posting.One of the things I was a big fan of, and that I was sorry to see go, was th...
TriMet Map Cover Designs: 1995, 1996
2041.Now we move up to the years '95 and '96. Here they are:The designs from these years are very different in style and mood. The 1995 map is very businesslike and celebrates the most charming feature of the TriMet graphic oeurve from prior to 2001;...
