The ZehnKatzen Times
A blog by a Portland graphic deisgner about finding interesting and fun things in design and life and looking for his big payday |
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Articles from The ZehnKatzen Times |
[logo_design] KVDO TV-3 Logo, More Finished Version
2007-12-06 20:34:00
1177. Another despatch from Electric Logoland. This is a polishing of the KVDO logo we just presented:We've cleaned up the typography quite a bit here, and extended the type treatment into the station's call-sign. The call-letters align with the letterforms TV, leading the eye across and through. The 3 calls attention to itself through sheer size, leading the eye to the type, where we naturally reset to the left end of that string, reading back rightward to encode the information.The majuscule T and V letterforms formed the basis for almost all the rest of the type; the D was created from the stem stroke of the T and a clipped O, which was simply composed of two ellipses. The stem was again borrowed as the basis of the K, and the hairline and leg strokes for the K were kept simple so it could all be augured in by sight.To cap off this trip down Oregon broadcast memory lane, the studio building for KVDO still stands, only, of course, it hasn't been used as a TV studio since the day i ...
Design
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[logo_design] Salem's Own KVDO-TV 3 (1970-1976)
2007-12-06 07:11:00
1176. From our headquarters in Electric Logoland, another ZehnKatzen Labs production:Salem's own Channel 3, KVDO TV. KVDO (the VDO meant video, and some locals called it K-Video for a short while) signed on in February 1970 to big capitial city press. It was an independent station that tried to mount its own news operation, and it was a moderate hit in Salem, but no matter how popular such a station is, it always had to operate in the shadow of the Portland stations–a competition which, by 1976, proved too stiff. Independent Channel 3 signed off an became a star in the OPB constellation.In 1976, after KVDO was acquired by OPB and began simulcasting PBS programs, Channel 3 went dark from February to September of that year, when an upset local Salem viewer decided to protest the sale to OPB by cutting down the transmission tower. Eventually the station was moved to Bend, which had no OPB coverage, signing on in 1983 as KOAB-TV.This version of the logo is about 90% faithful to the orig ...
Design
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[pdx, humor] Bobby Hacker Is Back. Just Accept It.
2007-12-05 13:37:00
1175. Cars III is coming. Seriously. Start building your bomb shelters now.The below clip is close enough to NSFW that you should just leave off it until you get home, unless you're lucky enough to have one of those bosses that have that sort of sense of humor (the kind that finds you astounded that he/she hasn't been sued yet):I'm thinking that green-screen "trailer was approved for all audiences" announcement up front was what they in "the biz" call a joke.Bobby's got a new one on the way–and there's pretty much nothing you can do to stop him. Just deal with it. Tags: Bobby Hacker, Cars, Cars III, Get Out Your Fscking Checkbook ...
Humor
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[design, art] In Which We Find Ourselves Wishing That We Could Get A Job Designing Album Art
2007-12-05 12:33:00
1174. Because coming up with this was liberating:Also, Snow Patrol is the best band we've heard come along in a hell of a long time.Fun chutzpah-themed Wikipedia trivia snippet: In the early days, the band used to pretend to be members of the Scottish band Belle & Sebastian in order to gain free entry to the Student Union club at the Glasgow School of Art. Tags: album cover art, snow patrol, shut your eyes, 94/7 Sessions, KNRK ...
Design
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[pdx, map_design] A Very Spare Map Of Metropolitan Portland
2007-12-05 09:53:00
1173. A production of ZehnKatzen Labs:Not complete–a few roads are left off, but the map is actually not complete. Oh, yes, and no nomenclature at all; impose your own truths, or none, as you see fit (actually, that's kind of scary, isn't it?).No roads on the Washington side, but nothing personal, Vancouver; VanWA is outside of the bailiwick of the project this map supports. I know you're up there.Adobe® Illustrator CS3, for those who are wondering.Oh, yes, this work is governed by the following license:This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.If you want to nick it, go ahead, just give me credit for it, neh? Tags: Portland, Oregon, Free Maps, digital maps ...
Design
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[sign_design] A Rough Proposal for a Metropolitan Portland Route Sign
2007-12-04 09:15:00
1172.A rather rough rough. The rose represents on behalf of the Rose City, of course, and was clipped from a lower-res photograph I have here strictly for visualization purposes.The rose graphic might not be completely acceptable for a metropolitan route network–after all, Portland isn't the whole of the Metro area, and other Metro area towns that are not Portland can be somewhat resentful of a Rose-City-centric symbol for a badged route running through thier neighborhoods.But this gets the general gist of the idea across. The pentagonal shield is, of course, the commonly-used county route cutout, and the idea of personalizing the shield with a commonly-recognizable symbol rather than words (such as METRO ROUTE) was inspired by the way Charlotte NC adorns the Charlotte Route 4 sign with the crown from the city's logo. Tags: Portland, pdx, Portland Metro, PDX Metro, Metro Routes ...
Design
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[or_geography, or_roads] State Route 551
2007-12-04 06:09:00
1171. One of the few signs or a post-2002 State Route badge–once simply the cutoff route to State Route 99E between Aurora and Hubbard, and Canby via Arndt Rd and Knights Bridge Rd:Taken on the shoulder of I-5 just before the exit, in less-than-optimum conditions. The "To" banner enables identification of the route but obviates (until the signage is updated at Exit 282A) the need to get a whole new sign up just now.This was the highest-numbered Route in Oregon before they got shy about a certain "below the Beltline" reference. Tags: Oregon Roads, Oregon Routes, road signs, state highways, OR 551 ...
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[or_history] Come Hell or High Water: Welcome Back To The 1940's
2007-12-04 04:34:00
1169. This weather event seems to be promising to be more significant that the 1996 floods, in terms of all-around damage and overall mayhem and chaos. Withal, we've heard that, amongst other things: Interstate 5 is closed at Chehalis and the main rail line in western Washington is buried in mud at several points, closing access from Portland to Seattle. Every major state route from metropolitan Portland to the Oregon Coast (State Routes 18 and 22 to Lincoln City and Newport, State Route 6 to Tillamook) as well as US 26 to Seaside are closed for at least a few days. US 101 is compromised in at least a few places in the annual "Will the Coast Highway Remain Open During the Storm Season" crapshoot. Tens of thousands of people remain without power or communications on the north and central Oregon Coast (we note that Chinook Winds casino in Lincoln City is open and providing some temporary shelter to locals) Last we heard, Vernonia is utter ...
History
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[bloggage] Blogger ist gefloogle
2007-12-03 14:33:00
1168. Weirdness at Das Blogger: the wheels have come off of whatever is supporting images. At first in complained that the clicker was suspciously like spam; then it stopped delivering images altogether (unless they're hosted on, say Photobucket or some other provider).Judging by the uproar in the Blogger Help group, this is happening to a bunch of us folken.Standing by whilst Google un-gefloogles itself. ...
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[meme] ZehnKatzen's Weekly Winners #3: Looking East at Sundown
2007-12-02 20:20:00
1167. For this weeks, edition, more night landscapes. We love the city lights–that's one of the reasons we live in the ... well, city:This is taken from the top of Portland's Rocky Butte. I love digital cameras–couldn't take this sort of picture with the old Instamatics or (yikes!) Disc cameras. that long sloped line of lights in the distance is the Glenn Jackson (Interstate 205) Bridge going into Vancouver, WA. The dark swatch going across the middle of the photo to meet it is the Columbia River. The actual PDX facility is off to the right of the frame: what's going across the middle there is actually NE Airport Way running up to the 'port.Now, we take a more due-easterly view:We look east toward Troutdale, Wood Village, Fairview, and the northern extent of Gresham. That beautiful light streak is Interstate 84, the Columbia River Highway.What I love doing is getting lost in the individual street lights. The subjective impression they give of just the area around them that the ...
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[bloggage] NaBloPoMo: Job Done!
2007-12-01 11:37:00
1166. I, along with a lot of other people, have completed that inspired silliness, NaBloPoMo. I enjoyed it. It never really became a treadmill for me; as a matter of fact, I found even more interesting things to explore and to write about.And if maybe my visitor volume didn't come up to where I'd hoped it would and maybe American didn't fall in love with me like I'd hoped it would, I did fall even more in love with writing and creating.I'm not designing for pay yet, but yesterday night I entered an idea in a contest (a lark, for non-design prizes, yo, still flyin' the NO!SPEC banner y'all) and since I'd left it off for the last minute I got it done quickly. The design had been gestating in my mind for a couple of weeks (sometimes, you just can't thumbnail except in the gestalt).I've upped my Photoshop game–I don't think I could have done those old Salem sign mockups a couple of missives back before. Now my skill set's bigger.I may still not be one of the more popular PDX ...
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[street_blades, info_design] New Portland Overhead Signs, and a New Street
2007-11-30 13:28:00
1164. If you've been looking up and forward whilst waiting at any light in the Portland corporate area latterly, you'll have seen a sign bound to the overhead like this:The City is, at last, addressing a real need in road signage. Most other larger towns up and down the valley (and across the Columbia too) have large signs denoting the street name on the traffic signal arm. Any driver who's been saved from having to frantically scan about on the corners to see what street they're crossing don't need to be told how good this is. The standard has seemed to have been set; the iconic representation of the "Portland Rose", the red rose with three green leaves, and a simple representation of the street name at cross. The notation on this particular sign deserves some explanation. For the past several months, a major realignment of the connection between Killingsworth Street and Columbia Boulevard has been becoming reality. The old Columbia Boulevard opening, a two-lane und ...
Design
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[bloggage] Blogger's Just Giving Away The Graphics
2007-11-30 13:07:00
1164. Currently, when you clicky to embiggen an image in blogspot blogs, instead of embiggening, the image downloads to your desktop. I'll keep this in mind when posting photeaux in the near term. The above link also has information on what they claim is a workaround. Fortunately, I'm not the only one having this problem. I'm always relieved when I find that sort of thing out. Technorati Tags: blogger,blogger problems,blogspot ...
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[pdx_transit] TriMet TV #7: A Ride on the #20
2007-11-30 12:36:00
1163. TriMet TV episode 7 is out, and it's a ride on the #20-Burnside/Stark line.This episode is in the travelogue mode. The #20 line runs from Beaverton Transit Center, via Cedar Hills Blvd, Sunset TC and Barnes Rd, then down Burnside from the crest of the hill all the way out to Gateway TC, then out Burnside to Gresham. The episode is light on info for the real local, but has a nice flow to it and ticks off the things you can do and see and go to which are right on the line (Mt Hood Community College, Powell's Books) and just off it via the Streetcar (Classical Chinese Garden, The Pearl).This vod is really for the tourist–and people like me, who like buses. But withal the production value is right where it should be, and makes a pretty nice calling-card and invitation to try for the tourist or the local looking for a little transit based adventure.You can watch it (again, less than three minutes, won't waste much of your time) here. Tags: pdx_transit, pdx transit, TriMet, Tr ...
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