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 Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 0 3820

Articles from The ZehnKatzen Times

[pdx_media, liff] Nice Rack. What Happens To The Old One? 2008-02-03 22:10:00 1323. Congratulations on JustOut's new newspaper rack debut. Those clusters of newspaper racks get kind of ratty really quick (that's just the way it is in the big city) and it's nice to see them refereshed every once in a while. Though the rack is the standard plastic sort that we see very much of these days. they still stand out. Two reasons for this: the color purple (which, regardless of any cultural hook, is not much used. And, also because of the cultural hook), and the clear, uncomplicated masthead logo (designed by Portland's own Jeff Fisher (it should go without saying that we'd kill to get the chance to design a masthead for a major local periodical, but we're desperate for work, so we'll say it)). It's important to stand out on corners like 10th and West Burnside, outside Powells – USAToday realized this back in the 1980s when they started. Awash with color and coming at you like a video game, they were sold out of street boxes that looked like videogames. They sti ...

[bloggage, design] Q Interviews Me, Question 2 2008-02-03 20:43:00 1322. The Question 2 has a point that is a cruel, cruel thing; you can wish to your heart's content, but eventually the Great Impaling 10-Foot-Pole of You Wished One Time Too Many will get you. So, what do do? No amount of proven wish fulfillment is worth eventually getting holed by a 10-foot (or 7.2 centipedes in the fretric system) piece of metal. That's some ouchie. I figured that five wishes, appropriately stated, would set it up so that I could pump up the world and not put myself in mortal danger (sure, getting impaled might not kill me ... but I'm already rolling the dice on getting impaled to begin with. I didn't want to roll those dice two times. I usually can't win Yahtzee; I'm taking the hint). I don't believe in greed or in making things too easy, so I get something cool for myself, nifty for everyone else. That's everyone, whether I like you or not. And if we did have space travel, I'd be so there for that Moon picnic. I lurves me some Safeway fried chicken and ... Design

[bloggage, teh_funnay] Zrharc! Still Rules 2008-02-02 22:42:00 1321. I put on a post there today. Ryjoy. Go there to see it. Worship the Zrharc! Tags: zrharc!, bloggage, underrated blogs Powered by Qumana ...

[media_world] It Sure Looks Like Retaliation 2008-02-02 22:27:00 1320. A missive from a a member of the WTF generation. Time for amateur deductive logic: Montel Williams goes on FOX and Fiends to jaw with the hosts about the death of Heath Ledger. Montel, in an earlier life a Marine and Naval officer who served with unquestionable honor, as some point Has Had Enough™ and sideswipes the show's hosts, pwning them over their obsession with celebrity twaddle and disregard for small things like servicemen dying in certain foreign wars. Montel is gone from the show after the next break. Montel's show is suddenly cancelled after a successful run of 17 years. Everyone can play their Whiskey Tango Foxtrot games to thier hearts content. I don't think the question is whether or not the people behind these events decided to punish Montel so much for stepping out of line as why is it they were content to let the whole danse macabre play out where everyone could see it. The solution to that question is also left as an exercise for the read ...

[bloggage, design] Q Interviews Me, Question 1 2008-02-02 21:11:00  1319. Recently I participated in a quite fun meme started by Neil at the blog Citizen of the Month, The Great Interview Challenge, where everybody is somebody (you see, people, I told you I was somebody. The scheme is simple. Just comment on the announcing post. The person who commented before you sends you a handful of interview questions; you send the person who comments after you interview questions. You post the results. Q posted before me. SusanIsk posted after me. Over the next five days, I'll post the five responses I made to Q. Here's number one: A word on the style: It was actually inspired by question 3, Can you graphically design your way out of a paper bag? I'll not discuss that yet, we'll just let that hang there for now and say that that question inspired me to take a graphic approach to the whole thing. It made me think of airline instruction cards and Swiss-design-inspired iconic graphic instruction lists and cards. Once I had that, it was off to the races for m ... Design

[bloggage] My Questions Are Out: SusanIsk To The White Courtesy Phone Please 2008-02-02 21:10:00 1318. The Great Interview Challenge continues; my questions for SusanIsk have been sent. I'm standing by for her replies. I decided to ask questions about the intersection of her blogging and her work. She looks like she leads a fairly interesting life; not only does she blog personally, she supervises the blog at her employ, which is apparently in the P.R. sphere. There was at least one whimsical question. Depending on the responses I get, I may graphic it up, like I did my answers to Q. I may just do it anyway. I appear to be on a roll. Tags: The Great Interview Challenge, ZehnKatzen, bloggage, Q, SusanIsk Powered by Qumana ...

[art] The Year of Stan, 33 2008-02-02 21:05:00 366 Days of Creativity - Day 33 Originally uploaded by dinglemunch 1317. Proof that dialing the wrong number can be ... well, hell.I wonder how many solicitors he gets? Prob'ly not too many of them. Except, of course, the ones who are actually working for that dude. ...

[art] The Year of Stan, 32 2008-02-02 21:03:00 366 Days of Creativity - Day 32 Originally uploaded by dinglemunch 1316. One question: are thier contracts done in dog years or people years? And what would a text of a dog's butt be like ... never mind.(Critiquity: sometimes less is a whole lot more. Without the phone simply resting in the yarpy-dog's legs, it's just a picture of two dogs. Subtly done) ...

[art] The Year of Stan, 31 2008-02-01 22:43:00 366 Days of Creativity - Day 31 Originally uploaded by dinglemunch 1315. Hey, Stan ... Frank Gehry called, he wants his style back.As an aside, we send birthday props to Stan's wife Nicole, who must be some woman indeed to cause Stan to move away from the great Pacific Northwet. Good wishes to all. ...

[or_politik] You Can't Stop Jeff Merkley 2008-02-01 22:37:00 1314. Merkley Web Spot: We call caught our breath around here when we heard that Jeff was involved in an accident. From what I read in the article on it in The Big O Jeff's first concern was with his passengers then letting his wife know that he was alright before he did anything about himself. And "Belly up­ – just like the Bush economy" ... priceless. Via. Tags: Jeff Merkley, Merkley for US Senate Powered by Qumana ...

[design_tools] You Suck at Photoshop 5: Color Range 2008-02-01 21:42:00 1313. Donnie Hoyle explains how we suck at Photoshop by showing us that if you're using the Magic Wand tool to select areas then you're missing out; there's a better way to do it, namely Color Range. Wickedly funny. If YSAP Donnie isn't a character in a play, I'm hurting for him. Karma seems to work more or less instantly on him, and his life has a constant sound track of "Donnie ... Donnie ... Donnie ... DONNIE ... " However, mad PS skills yo. I've used a couple of tips already. Tags: Donnie Hoyle, Photoshop Tutorial, You Suck at Photoshop, Color Range Powered by Qumana ... Design

[design] A Science Fiction Convention Ad 2008-02-01 11:34:00 1312.  Herewith, the ad for OryCon 30 (21-23 Nov 2008) to run in the program book for NorWesCon:  Clicky, as always, to embiggen. It developed that an ad was needed for NorWesCon's program book and it had to be delivered quickly. What to do when you have almost no time to come up with a concept? Repurpose! The original version of OryCon's website looked just like a sheet of paper from one of those old line-printers: alternating white and green stripes, and a Courier font. Now, I've harshed on Courier before; it's like Comic Sans and Times; overused because people go to deaults. But here is where you find the sweet spot of appropriate use and context, which, here, is to remember those salad days when everything was green, including computers. I reasoned that the combination of Courier type and green-and-white stripes for the background were a great riff on the days when OryCon started ... 1978, with a one day symposium at what we then called the Northwest Service Center, that mag ... Design

[art] Free Online Comics = Good Thing™ 2008-01-31 11:56:00 1311. Just stumbled on this one: Marc Guggenheim (art by Dave Dumeer) has just dropped issue #1 of Resurrection, a dark tale of the days after the sudden, unexpected, and inexplicable end of a brutal ET invation of Earth. Nobody knows why the aliens have disappeared, where they've gone to ... or if they'll be coming back. The entire issue #1 is readable online here. (via) Tags: graphic novels Powered by Qumana ...

[design] Prepress Knowledge: It's Not The Law, But It's A Damn Good Idea 2008-01-31 11:18:00 1310. One more reason to stay subscribed to CreativePro.com:  those little things about trimming and folding at the printer's that will mean the difference between a successful job and an expensive FAIL. They talk. You listen. Tags: design, press, prepress, imposition, cutting, folding Powered by Qumana ... Design

[meme, bloggage] The Great Interview Experiment: Q and Me 2008-01-31 09:59:00 1309. The experiment is in progress: I've responded to Q's questions to me. Since I think graphically, I did so graphically. I'm quite proud of the work, if I do say so myself. Check it out here. (I'll be posting my own images here in a few days. Q has the exclusive rights to first-publication, of course, so I'll let him collect Google luv) Next, I have SusanIsk in my sights. I'll be making up and sending off my questions later today. Tags: The Great Interview Experiment, 650 Miles, Q, SusanIsk Powered by Qumana ...