eye contact

signage, type, numbers, etc. around Portland

surreal shop windows

amazing shop windows from the 50s and 60s, more here.

The Brothers Quay, The Calligrapher.

Elementary Brutalism

Random web research recently informed me that my elementary school was designed by Paul Rudolph, a main figure in Brutalist architecture which boomed in the 60s. He studied with Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. He served as dean of Yale’s architecture school. An example of his work, a Rudolph residence, can be seen in Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums (Chas Tenenbaum’s apartment, think fire drill scene..). 

Completed in 1968, J.W. Chorley Elementary in Middletown N.Y. was threatened with demolition in the last couple of years, sparking a movement to give it landmark status. It’s vast open spaces and sprawling arrangement of connected wings, gradually inclining against the landscape, definitely shaped my own artistic view, as well as my sense of the progression of time. Although I can’t say I’m fond of many other examples of Brutalism (see Boston’s Government Center), I feel kind of blessed that my formative years were spent in such a playfully designed space. And at this time, it has been spared from demolition and awaits students in September. Photos below from a member of the Rudolph foundation’s flickr page.

This scale model of Chorley (as well as all photographs above) was created by architect Kelvin Dickinson, a member of the Paul Rudolph foundation.

Calligraphic Works: A.J. Liebling piece

I was recently commissioned to write out a 230-word excerpt from A.J. Liebling’s “Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris.” This is the longest piece I’ve done and includes an illustrated oyster. The lettering is a formal italic style that was used by French scribes in the 1500s.

Doeuh t-shirts are in!

Just received samples of shirts I designed for the European tour of Group Doueh, a fantastic band from Western Sahara on the Sublime Frequencies label. A stateside tour is scheduled to begin late June – it’s gonna be a blast!

mind-blowing japanese design, 20s-30s

more here.

Group Doueh CD packaging

Just back from the pressing plant, another sweet digipak, this one for Sublime Frequencies.

new website for me

Having spent the winter immersing myself in Dreamweaver, HTML and CSS, I couldn’t resist a re-design of my own design site. A million times better than the old one!

FINGER website is up. Again, Dreamweaver and CSS. Also did the illustrations on listen and about pages.

More Portland signage

new website

The new website for Katharina Tunicata is up. I made the site in Dreamweaver using CSS for layout, no tables. Woohoo!