Take a look for yourself.

Look at those banana shoes! All kinds of awesomeness.

This past spring, while their space was under development, I created a custom, screen-printed design for the coffee shop’s tables that plays off of their eco-consciousness (organic and Rainforest Alliance Certified beans) and emphasis on coffee education. Ultimately, we made three printed tables for the space, each with a different color printed under the coffee seeds to highlight the different stages of the plant’s growth.

Loved this project. Best of luck to you, Portola.

A finished table in the space.

In-progress printing by Danny Askar

Brewing in a lab coat (via Portola’s Tumblr)

Tables getting put to use.

For those unfamiliar with ROFLCon, it’s a biennial conference held on the East Coast that celebrates all things internet. This past weekend, it paid West Coasters a visit for the first time dishing out some serious subjects but with an air of silliness, and I was fortunate enough to be on the team that brought the conference to life. Despite the long hours, the past few months have been a blast filled with ridiculous moments. And how could they not when you’re spending your days and nights making a life-size Pedobear, designing on a Mac from 1987 (not a lie) and buying 8″ floppy discs from eBay.

I just wish all projects ended with a massive party
and an animated .gif photo booth
aand double rainbow Jell-o shots (also not a lie).

::clink:: Cheers to one srsly amazing team!

Tune in by visiting wk.com/wkradio.m3u.

We spent two intensive days consumed in FontLab carefully shifting points and delicate curves, all the while simply trying to train our eyes. Below is one of my favorite fonts created during the workshop (Italian Job by Brandon Wilson).

Coming from a design/advertising world, the experience was pretty mind-blowing. So many of us are use to the go-go-go pace, the tight deadlines, the last minute changes and the instant gratification. Text type design, while absolutely demanding, seems to operate in different realm where perfection is king, not time. After learning first-hand just how much love, labor and time goes into a single font, it makes your head spin. It takes an infinite amount of patience to perfect each glyph, build upon one another and eventually get to a point where you’re developing 20-something different weights, perfect kerning and interesting ligatures. Talk about months of intense focus.

At the end of the two-day workshop, Veronika shared more about the inner workings of TypeTogether and some of the work she and her partner, José Scaglione have created over the years. They done some beautiful work that’s found its way into several international editorials. Below are a few of my favorite TypeTogether typefaces.

Bree – Typodarium (photo courtesy of TypeTogether)

Ronnia – Transatlántico (photo courtesy of TypeTogether)

Athelas – PNCA (photo courtesy of TypeTogether)

Chelsea Guidry, our letterpress master, printing away down in the basement.

If Harris’s name doesn’t sound familiar, you’ve probably encountered his work without knowing. Back in 2006 he and Sep Kamvar released a fascinating project called We Feel Fine. I was dumbfounded when it was released and still am. In short, their program continuously collects sentences posted online that use the phrase “I feel” or “I am feeling.” The infographics and trends are incredible. You should check it out for yourself if you haven’t already.

Since then Harris has developed a number of other projects including I Want You To Want Me, an interactive installation about online dating, Whale Hunt, a beautiful photographic storytelling project that correlates to Harris’s heartbeat, and Balloons of Bhutan, an intimate encounter with a nation that prides itself on its Gross National Happiness.

Source: balloonsofbhutan.org

I think it’s safe to say we were mesmerized by Harris as an individual – his unusual collision of talents and free roaming lifestyle. But what I found especially interesting and refreshing was his willingness to admit that the older he gets (by the way, he’s only 32), the less clear things become. Just because someone can capture a mountain a data and discover unique trends in our human existence, doesn’t make the world any simpler. When you step out of the programmer roll (or another highly focused roll, in my opinion) and remind yourself to be human, to dig deeper, you realize there is so much more in the world left to learn. And as we age, we discover more things that we don’t know or understand. I suppose that’s the beauty of it. We can continue discovering new things until the day we die.

If anything, watch to this video from Harris’s photography project Today. It provides a little insight into the notion of aging without gaining clarity. His closing line is perfect, “Boy meets world. Boy still baffled.”

Be sure to keep an eye out for Harris’s new project, Cowbird, revolving around storytelling. Hopefully he’ll share it with the public soon – it looks amazing.

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“Somebody said they saw me swinging the world by the tail…”

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I’ve always thought that’s such a beautiful visual but wondered what that might actually look like in real life. What does it look like for someone to be swinging the world by the tail? I think I finally saw something, rather someone, who is pretty close.

Last month, I went and saw the Bill Cunningham documentary here in Portland. I walked in knowing the basics – he’s quite old and crazy influential in the street fashion photography world – and walked out completely enlightened. The film exceeded my expectations tenfold. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an pure, focused, passionate and independent individual. I loved that the wealthy, the powerful and the beautiful fell over themselves for Cunningham like he was some kind of god. I mean really, I’ve never seen Anna Wintour express such enthusiasm like she did when talking about Cunningham. And all the while the man continues living an extremely modest lifestyle completely unswayed and disinterested in the power he carries. He pedals to the the beat of his own drum. And this, I think, is the closest manifestation of someone “swinging the world by the tail.”

And on a side note, I absolutely love this notion from Cunningham – “See, if you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do.” Passion in the purest form. Something to aspire to.

Bill Cunningham New York Trailer from Gavin McWait on Vimeo.

That special time of year has arrived – when we RSVP to an ungodly number of parties, wait in some gnarly bathroom lines and push our bodies to live off of free beer, popsicles and BBQ for a week straight. Sadly, this is the first year in a long time that I won’t be there to help deplete the free booze supplies and bathe on the French Legation lawns. But I’ve decided it’s time to rein in my SX-sulk and bring a little of the music here to Portland. Here’s a mixtape I made of some awesome artists that’ll be playing down there next week.

Download the mix – An Ode to Free Beer

1. Alex Ebert (of Edward Sharpe) – Truth
2. Star Slinger – Mornin’
3. Fitz & The Tantrums – Moneygrabber
4. Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’
5. The Joy Formidable – Whirring
6. Phantogram – When I’m Small
7. Papercuts – Do What You Will
8. Sharon Van Etten – One Day
9. Tennis – Baltimore
10. La Sera – Never Come Around
11. The Antlers – Bear
12. Cults – Go Outside
13. tUnE-yArDs – Bizness
14. Toro Y Moi – New Beat

Update: SOLD OUT. dang

“You’ll shoot your eye out!”

Each month I post a personal piece of work. Read usage limitations.