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 |
[info_design, street_blades] Vancouver Flirts With Helvetica
2007-11-19 21:01:00
1132. We were up in VanWA today for a few minutes doing our last apres-Con bit–ferrying a dear friend home to his humble hovel out near NE Burton Rd and NE 98th Avenue, and I was, as is my wont, eyeing the street signs as we went. Now, I've always liked the street blades in greater VanWA. Big, clear, easy to read, and affixed with the City logo on the left end (the City of Vancouver's logo is one of the best local logos we have going, too–but that's another story, which we still might touch on along the way here, but let's move on the the nub of our gist here). I noticed something different about the type out near NE 95th Ave, something about the the lower curves of the numeric glyphs. the curled up tails, rather than the 'hanging' tails I expected to see. Here, for illumination, is an angle on NE 96th Ave at Burton Road:Like I said, clear, communicative, delivers information in adverse photographic conditions. There's something unexpectedly differen ...
Design
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[design] How To Make Them There Gel Buttons...
2007-11-19 12:55:00
1131. Here's an interesting how-to I stumbled on via Google Alerts just now: If you ever wanted to make gel-buttons like these, this tutorial takes you step-by-step through it. It's unique for two important reasons; first, it builds a "master button" object that you can alter the colors of without reconstructing–all you have to do is change the RGB values of three of the four objects that make up the button, and second; it uses a vector drawing program to build the object, and not a pixel-based program. Being vector-based, all the components scale up without getting the bad jaggies on the sides. Go read it here. NB: the demo involves Adobe Illustrator 9, which is three versions back if you're using CS3. It has the master button graphic available for download, but I'd suggest building it from scratch–the steps are quite clearly laid out, and the processes touch on some basic skills that every Illustrator user needs to know.(NB: illustrations were nicked ...
Design
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[pdx, pdx_geography] No. No. Please Make Them Stop. Oh, The Head Hurts When They Do This...
2007-11-19 02:16:00
1130. What, are they lining up this year or something? I love Douglas Adams, but no, please don't rename a street after him, even if it is NE 42nd Avenue. It doesn't seem to be an ironic joke. Other, cooler kids have had this in the news for days. I was kind of hoping that if I ignored it, it would go away. Wrong again. In A Related Story: The Red Electric speaks esteemable sooth on moving Cesar Chavez Blvd downtown. Technorati Tags: pdx,pdx_geography,Portland Geography,street names,Portland street names ...
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[liff] OryCon 29-The Aftermath
2007-11-19 01:21:00
1129. Sunday evening. OryCon 29 has begun to recede into recent history. Now comes the post-con letdown, sort of a post-coventiionum-partum semi-depression–yes, OryCons are usually that good that we regret them ending, and we watch them go with some sadness. Some cons are cons for the ages. The OryCon edition was one. It wasn't so much because of who I met but what they gave me. The people I met up with (some I'd never met, some I'd known for years) challenged me to go beyond what I'd previously thought of as normal and common for myself. You see, as someone who fancies themselves an artist (though unpracticed and with no success to speak of), I also fancy myself as someone who has some adeptitude at seeing things through other eyes when the occaision demands. i found out, this weekend, that I have overrated that ability of mine rather wildly–but I'm getting better, I hope.The panels I attended on Saturday amounted to feeding my need to understand why I'm so f ...
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[meme] ZehnKatzen's Weekly Winners #1 - Zapf The Destroyer
2007-11-18 10:36:00
1128. Today we make our first foray into SarcasticMom's (NaBloPoMo colleague) new mem, Weekly Winners. The meme is eminently simple–find your favorite picture or pictures from the last week, and post 'em, with or without a comment, every Sunday.Our first offering is, appropriately, a cat. As mentioned a little while ago, we are fostering two cats, Frog and Zapf, who would otherwise have been temporarily homeless while their catparents were evicted from their place because they couldn't have the kitty. So it goes in the renter class.While I was down at the Salt Mines this last week, The Wife™ called me to tell me that ol' Zapf, that agent of destruction, got into one of my studio's cupboards and pulled down a fair amount of my drawing tools into the bargain. She snapped the picture of a chaos attractor at ease with his work:Doesn't the atttitude of that cat seem to say my work here, it is done ? ...
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[bloggage] Late at Night at OryCon...
2007-11-18 02:01:00
1127. Saw the panels I wanted to see; had a beautiful lunch with The Wife™ at the Subway at SW 1st and Jefferson; met a lovely blind woman there and her majestic, beautiful service dog; got a good dose of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" (OryCon was doing it before that poser Drew Carey was) and had a lot of good feelings. And three new shirts-all of which actually look good on me.And, of course, punching the NaBloPoMo clock. I will post all thirty days (hell, I did it last month...)! Tags: OryCon 29 ...
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[or_politik] Q&A With Jeff Merkley
2007-11-18 00:43:00
1126. The "live chat" blog Q&A with Jeff Merkley happened today (as we announced here yesterday). We weren't able to attend, but we know "Lefty" Lane did. She asked a very good and pointed question and Jeff had a good answer for it.The full text of the Q&A is available here. Looks like there was quite a crowd...Technorati Tags: Jeff Merkley, OR politik ...
Amp
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[liff] OryCon29-The Panels, The Dealers Room
2007-11-17 13:57:00
1124. Got started a little late today (and am running a little late), but here's where the meat of the convention is-the panels. Off to one right now about artistic inspiration (something ere in short supply), then off to the Dealer's Room if that isn't interesting. Will have other panels to see after that, and my little Moleskine-analog will be out for notes.You see and hear the most interesting things at this place...Technorati Tags: OryCon 29 ...
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[liff] Still Hangin' Around OryCon 29 Hospitality...
2007-11-17 02:27:00
1123. Got here a little after 1800 so there was little, program-wise, to attract us. We've been hanging about "horse brutality" during that time, just soakin' in the atmosphere and reconnecting with old friends we only see about once a year.And, of course, doing my NoBloPoMo duty.OryCon 29, NaBloPoMo ...
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[or_politik] Jeff Merkley Q&A, Tomorrow Afternoon
2007-11-16 21:36:00
1122. This just in: Jeff Merkley's having a live Q&A session on his blog tomorrow, Saturday 17 Nov 2007, at 2pm (14:00).To participate, go to Jeff's blog (http://www.jeffmerkley.com/trail) and look for the posting that will go up about 1:30 pm, and post your question. For complete rules-of-the-game, go to Jeff's blog and read this posting.Technorati Tags: Jeff Merkley, OR politik ...
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[liff] Expressing Oneself EnRoute
2007-11-16 20:39:00
1121. This is being written from the hospitality suite of OryCon 29, in progress right this moment at the Portland Downtown Marriott, 1401 SW Naito Pkwy. I was just at the Portland Designers Coffee Club and it was a grand experience.I will post a recap of that meet later on today. Suffice it to say right now that we are fortunate to have a designer locally like Michelle Schneider, who did the organizing and is now one of my heroes. Thanks, Michelle!Technorati Tags to come later tonight. They're here...Technorati Tags: PDX Designers, PDX Graphic Design Social Club, OryCon 29 ...
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[logo_design] Adobe AIR Can Haz Logo Naow
2007-11-15 22:16:00
1119. In order to get Adobe AIR's branding unified, Adobe has created and debuted the AIR logo: I'm getting a discussion started over on Designorati here. I'd really be interested in hearing what people think about this (including how calling it "Adobe AIR" is the same as saying "ATM Machine" or "ABS Braking". Or, maybe not). Technorati Tags: logo design,Adobe AIR,Adobe Integrated Runtime,branding ...
Design
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