Come Watch Me Botch Up Twitter, Too.

2064.This is something I so don't plan on taking seriously:

http://twitter.com/SJKPDX

Because it's not like I do anything important or interesting, so I just act out. Pretty much same-ol'-same-ol'.

Technorati Tags: Samuel John Klein, SJKPDX, Twitter

Sic Transit ... Something Or Other

2063.If Silverton had been this cool when I was growing up, I never would have left it.

It makes me rather proud that my little town has become such an interesting place.

Technorati Tags: Silverton, Silverton Oregon, Stu Rasmussen, Oregon Towns, Oregon Characters

We Haz A Pulse

2063.We're all rather sick and very tired. Life's been a bit tough on us lately. Some challenges remain intractable, but giving up is not an option.

Will resume regular posting shortly.

Technorati Tags: ZehnKatzen, SunDial, Liff

Can You Find The Eleven In The Big Ten?

2062.There's a artistic trick called trompe l'oeil (close-enough English pronounciation "trump loy", literally "trick of the eye"), which is an artist's way of using implied perspective to make a flat thing look three-dimensional; the painting actually seems to offer a window into another world, to tell a deeper story, to mean more than it seems to mean.

Logo designers go for this. It's not necessarily a triumph of design to have a logo tell a story, but it is wicked clever to have them do it subtly. The inimitable Larry Fire of The Fire Wire pointed me to an article at the Graphic Design Forum that illustrates logo design trompe l'oeil-age.

For instance, consider the design of the Big Ten Conference's logo, pictured right. The oldest Division I collegiate athletic association in America, it has a brand-recognition second to absolutely nobody (except maybe the Ivy League). But in 1990, Penn State joined the constellation, making the membership not ten schools, but eleven.

Big Eleven conference?

Well, no. Just like 20th Century Fox didn't change its name in the year 2001 (and the 20th Century Lanes here in SE Portland off SE 92nd Avenue and Powell Blvd retains it suddenly-rustic name) you don't mess with success. You design it into the logo. By now you should see the number 11 in the BIG TEN, but if you don't, look at the negative space on either side of T.

There you go. Logo trompe l'oeil. It tells a bigger story and makes the logo appropriate even if the name is no longer.

Via Larry Fire, then, here's a bunch of similar logos. It's pretty cool tour, and not all of them are of Randian brilliance, but many come close, and have the same deft subtletly that allows the logo to tell the story without a lot of fuss, bother, or mess (including the Toblerone bear, which I documented as well).

Technorati Tags: logo design, graphic design

McCall's Restaurant is Getting The Rose On

2061.As reported in The Big O today, Randy's Rose is going up on the old McCall's Restaurant (once the Vistor's Center) Building:

Last month the City Council waived the sign code to allow the large red neon rose that will twinkle during the festival. That waiver meant a lively discussion and a lone "no" vote from Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who said she was "beyond troubled" that the sign proposal didn't go before the city's Historic Landmarks Commission.

We're troubled, too, Amanda, but I've noticed that's the way things roll around here. Maybe I'm tired of all the sign and landmark controversy around here, but I kind of like it. It's not as bad as some things that they could be putting up there.

Sadly, no unicorns. A man can dream, though.

(photo screenclipped from The Big O's online version. Photo credit:Thomas Boyd)

Technorati Tags: Portland, Portland Rose, Portland Rose Festival, Waterfront Park, McCall's Restaurant

Even More Capitolism

2060.I'm turning my attention on State Capitol buildings today because Pril left me this amazing link.

The architectural definition of a cupola is a dome-like structure atop a building. The site Cupola seems to be a privately-run gallery of really excellent architecture, and there's a section devoted exclusively to American capitol buildings, Cupolas of Capitalism. It's replete with great pictures, snappy little thumbnail histories and architechtural summaries, and the picture galleries are not to be missed.

Lots of Greek Revival out there, it would seem.

If you want the start of the seven pictures of Oregon's Capitol, you can go here; the page with the Oregon Capitol entry is here; and the start of the list, with A-for-Alabama, is here. Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: design, architecture, state capitols, capitol buildings, Cupola

More Zines I've Seen

2059.More zine coolness available at your local Multnomah County Library (seriouslys! They have a zine collection!). Contact information, where available, embedded within the review, taken striaght from the publications. Typos are mine.

The Zine Standard Deviation by J.V. Whimper (jvwhimper@gmail.com) bills itself as "Science for you, not for them", and lives up to that promise. The main feature of the hand-sized zine, "Caffeine from Green Coffee Beans", noting that green coffee beans (unroasted, that is) have more caffeine in them than roasted, is an experiment designed to see if the high-test beverage can be extracted and consumed via one of two cold-brew methods. Short answers: yes and yes (though it be tasting as crap), and the buzz is quite real.

The zine rounds out with an advice column (Ask Dr. Dūm), a quick bit of myth-busting (Science Will Break Your Heart), Graphs!, and a 4 panel comic on the back cover (Scientist and Robot).

I thought this one a bit of fun, and actually seems like it would be a great introduction to the scientific method – the procedure of the caffeine experiment seems solid.

The next two zines are perfect for those times when life is leaving you cold and you just want something that'll give you a little lighthearted smile.

Monsters Make A Stew, by Lisa Eisenberg (lisa.rosalie@gmail.com, http://i_draw_pictures.livejournal.com), is just what it says it is; a gently funny, simply drawn series of panels showing some kinda squishy, cuddly, friendly-looking monsters getting together at a friend's house to make and share a stew. I don't know if there was any sort of message there except "get together and share good times with your friends", but whatever there was, it left me with a light feeling.

The comic is almost completely wordless, save for a monster on the cover saying that he could bring the peppers (and he did) and one of the monsters at table at the end signifying his satsfaction with a petite burp. Most charmingly cute.

Above: Scene from Monsters Make A Stew, by Lisa Eisenberg.
Copyright, the artist.

Super Crazy Cat Dance, by Aron Nels Steinke (http://aronnelssteinke.com) is billed as a "super fun crazy comic for kids and grownups alike", and it also lives up to its billing. All black and white and using a joyously simple illustration style (see scene below), we get to see a girl celebrating all the cats she knows, teaching another girl how to do the SCCD, dancing to the moon, and then returning. It's the kind of stuff that makes you smile to read even if you are a dog-person, because even the dogs and the kitties lay down together at the end of the comic. Gently funny, and done by someone who must be a gentleman, as it's dedicated to his girlfriends three cats, which I find nifty.

Scene from Super Crazy Cat Dance by Aron Nels Steinke, copyright the artist
How can you not like this stuff?

Two more and I must dash.

Oregon 101 features Angela Wyrens and Chris Phillips (ohthedrama2003@yahoo.com) car tripping down the Oregon Coast (hence the title). They see the Sea Lion Caves, explore tidepools, sleep in the car, panic over getting something stuck in they eye, and have a minor car repair issue.

In other words, the same sort of thing that just about all of us go through on a car trip to the coast on a tight budget. I really related to it.

Scene from Oregon 101, by Angela Wyrens and Chris Phillips
Copyright, the artists.

Finally, a serious one with a lighthearted tone. Just about everyone has heard of the Dvorak Simplfied Keyboard layout (it's an option on just about every computer) but just what is it? The Dvorak Zine: Changing the World One Keyboard At A Time by Alec, Frunch, and GCB (http://DVzine.org) wants to not only show you but bring you over. They are Dvorak keyboard enthusiasts and evangelists, and not only want you to know the history of the typewriter and keyboard but bust some myths along the way:

• Sholes, perfector of the Typewriter and the iconic Qwerty layout, didn't do that to slow down fast typists – since the board was laid out before the typewriter was even released, there still were no typists, but did it because the original mechanism was likely to jam.
• After the typewriter was released by Remington, Sholes tried to come up with a more logical arrangement, but it was too late – The Qwerty had already taken the world by storm, as had the typewriter
• Dvorak is hard to learn – actually it's quite easy. And since it's available in just about every computer made, you can have a Dvorak keyboard at any time.

You may be fine with Qwerty (as I am) but if you want to learn Dvorak, this conversationally-written and graphically-friendly zine, complete with three interesting personalities, should get you well down the road. It even functions as its own learning aid, and is replete with references.

Frunch introduces us to Dvorak. A scene from the Dvorak Zine,
copyright the artist.

Technorati Tags: Zines, Dvorak keyboard, cats, liff, monsters, PDX Zines

Something I Should Probably Be Abashed About, But Am Not

2058.I like Yanni.

Hey, there's no accounting for taste, man.

Technorati Tags: liff, music, Yanni, ZehnKatzen

I Think I've Been Insulted

2057.I love it when someone links to something clever I've done on this blog, but sometimes one wonders ...

I found, in examining my inbound traffic, I got a link from a blog referring my Periodic Table Of Oregon. And it was from a German blog, auf Deutsch! Nifty.

Although, when I fed it into Babelfish (I was lazy) I detected the writer was not all that thrilled about what I had wrought. Here's the last 'graf, as x-lated:

Therefore all are neither useful nor necessary straight periodic systems appearing in the Internet, but simply only sense-free arrangements after an outdated sample.

Here's the whole entry. I'm not sure if my feelings are supposed to be hurt here, or something. For what it's worth, I see to be in a sort of rogue's gallery, which isn't such a bad thing I suppose, since I'm in company along with the Periodic Table of Type, which is a cleverness I only wish I could bring off.

The nub of the fellow's gist seems to be that the Periodic Table of the Elements is an inappropriate lens to be looking at pop culture (and allied things) with. Either that, or he wants a pizza and the Emmentaler cheese has gone off, and his Volkswagen is full of eels.

Ah, well. Can't please 'em all. Don't know art but do know what we like, and all that.

Technorati Tags: Periodic Table of Oregon, ZehnKatzen, Samuel John Klein, graphic humor, graphic puns, criticism

For Those Who Like Dungeons & Dragons, And Those Who Love To Hate 4th Edition

2056.I've not played D&D for years. I just kind of lost interest; I only look like someone who plays RPGs. I still enjoy the atmosphere over at Bridgetown Games and similar places, but the RPG train rattled on without me some time ago.

Still, I did note with interest a group over on Facebook which hates on 4th Edition D&D, now published by WOTC (TSR, the giant of the industry, now but a memory). As a matter of fact, that's what they call it: 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons Haters Club.

Stop by if you feel the need to vent. I've looked at it, and it looks like they game-lawyered all the fun out of it. YMMV, of course.

Technorati Tags: Dungeons and Dragons, D&D, WOTC, Wizards of the Coast, TSR, Gygax, Arneson

KOMO Adds FM Side, Numbers To Logo

2055.The Seattle radio station constellation has shifted just a little bit once again.

Tip o'the cap to Gentleman Ben in Seattle who keeps an eye out for these things for me, for which I am grateful. He catches such interesting things!

KOMO 1000 AM radio, a big talker in the Space Noodleplex, has signed an agreement to simulcast over 97.7 FM, KFMY, licensed to Oakville WA, currently broadcasting a Classic Hits format and serving the south Puget Sound area. It's branding is The Eagle 97.7 FM, which is kind of a confusing fit until you see all the motorcycles, pick-um-up-trucks and bikini babes on the site.

But it's going on May 15th, so get your looks while you can, you chauvinists. Anyway. An Agreement between The Flag and South Sound Broadcasting will get KOMO 1000 AM signal on both KFMY and KOMO, and KFMY will be rebranded KOMO News Radio 97.7 FM.

The KOMO AM logo looked like this:

Very straightforward, static and dependable, with a red slash under the word 'radio' for dynamic interest.  The spare typographic treatment brings to mind The Flag's former empire style, and synchs up well with the style used by all the KOMO broadcasting outlets, both radio and TV.

Adding a frequency calls for a change to the logo in KOMOland, and here's what they did:

This has works and not-works to speak for it. Overall it's an improvment, but I'm not sure I'd execute it quite that way.

Here's the works about it:

• The overall balanced aspect of the logo – the square, stable shape – has been retained. The call-sign and frequencies have remained in a very modern, machine-like font, which resonates with the old look, thereby maintaining the identification on a visual level.
• The same blue, black, and red colors are used. Consistent use of color continues to stableize the brand identification.
• The serifed, humanist type in the middle would be an off note, but it's bookended top and bottom by the stable rectangular shapes that define the limits of the design. It's not unlike a book and its pages that way; you have thick covers and thin, flexible pages, but it's a single unit. The choice of a serifed font is a dignified touch that gives an impression of seriousness and tradition.

Now, what doesn't work:

• My essential crotchet about this design comes from the division of the bottom stripe into red and blue parts with a slanted line. In and of itself, this isn't such a bad thing; it reminds one of a slash one might write when making a note about the two frequencies (1000AM/97.7FM), and also is engineered to be parallel to the slated strokes in the 7's. The sour note that rings comes from the inclusion of a slanting element where it seems actually rather awkward. The entire logo bases itself on a stable, locked-down look, which is appropriate for a broadcast outlet that specializes in news – a commodity that you want people to trust when it's your product. The slanted division introduces tension in a logo where tension isn't necessarily a good thing.

It's been opined to me that it's a little boring, and I'm not going to contradict that. Boring is kind of in the eye of the beholder. Solid and ordered can be a plus if you're looking to generate an attitude of trust and respect.

And a slant as part of the logo design of a news station can work: just check the slant in the KIRO AM logo, which I analyzed to death pretty much, here.

Thanks again, Ben. You have an esteemable eye!

Technorati Tags: KOMO, Eagle 97.7 FM, News Radio, Seattle Radio, Graphic design, logo design, broadcast graphic design

Meet Les Kerning

2054.Y'all will remember that, back here, I introduced you the singular Max Kerning, the god of clean, well-spaced, orderly type.

His döppelgänger has emerged. Yin to the yang, the self-proclaimed Jackson Pollock of type (I shudder, I do), Les Kerning does everything Max does not. He has hot girlfriends in cute underwear. He wears hoodies. He hangs around gritty urban alleys. He mixes Comic Sans and Wingdings in newsletters.

He does pretty much what he wants.

Have you seen my brother's "manifesto"? Sheesh, give that guy some aviator sunglasses and a hoodie - he could be the "Uni-typographer".

Well, he's just as opnionated as his brother, that's for certain.

Les doesn't have a web page, but he does have a Facebook page*.

You can run, Max ... but you can't hide.

* No, I will not say "has a Facebook". I believe in complete sentences, yo.

Technorati Tags: Les Kerning, Max Kerning, type design, type humor, Extensis

The United States Of Capitol Buildings

2053.I give you a work in progress.

I adore Capitol buildings. I particularly thing that Oregon's is the most lovely, but there's something about that form, which makes the bifurcated nature of the national personality stone-real, that I find addictive. Also, in the main, the form a Capitol takes is usually quite graceful or inspiring.

Perhaps, I thought that mashing together Capitol pictures with the map of the nation would give an idea of how styles develop or match up with sense-of-place, and in a way, the following map does (clicky upon it to embiggen):

The big blank area on the right is an area I'm going to break the small states out into so the photos could be more better seen, and add some expository text.

I found out some interesting things. For instance, the Arizona state government has long since outgrown its Capitol building and has moved to symetrically-designed and placed legislative buildings making up their Capitol Mall; the Arizona Capitol remains as a museum. The North Carolina Capitol only contains the governor and lieutenant-governor's offices; the state Senate and House are in a legislative building across the street. And Viriginia's Capitol was built along the lines of a Greek temple, with wings for the two legislative houses added on at a later time.

The Alaska State Capitol is a poky building in downtown Juneau, and there are fewer than fifty individuals between the two houses. The legislative chambers, while formal, are decidedly intimate. And the New Hampshire House of Representatives has over 400 members, making the combined state legislature (which in NH and Massachusetts are called the General Court, a holdover term from when the two bodies actually adjudicated legally) one of the largest single deliberative bodies on earth, something like third or fourth in population behind the US Congress. In fact, each representative consituency in New Hampshire serves a district of only about 3,000 people. If US Congresspeople were similarly ennumerated, the US Congress would have over 99,000 members.

The big version is in a PNG format-the file has to be huge to include all the pictures (which I did my best to make sure are CC licensed (typically from the Wikipedia entry) so this online version is not as detailed as one would like. This is the verity of online storage
.

Technorati Tags: Maps, Map design, thematic maps, state capitols

Here I Am, Stuck In The Middle With You

2052.I'm a fan of Gerry Rafferty. This is a little tougher to do than you might think.

Not that GR's music is hard to follow or uneven in quality (it isn't, and it sure as hell isn't!). Gerry Rafferty has been one of the smartest singer-songwriters in music history. Most people know him from his days in Stealer's Wheel ("Stuck In The Middle With You"), or his work beforehand with The Humblebums (which was him and then-musician, now-comic-and-TV-star Billy Connolly), or of course the AM radio classic "Baker Street" (you know, the one with That Sax Solo™) from his huge album City To City (the 1977 chart monster that was the number one album in America for about two and a half weeks in July of that year).

After two more well-recieved albums (Night Owl and Snakes and Ladders), he dropped off the popular radar (this usually credited with his reluctance to tour), leaving the impression of a one-hit wonder to those not completely familiar with his output. But the music continued and continued to be good. His last album, Another World, released in 2003, was a gem that you probably didn't hear about.

During the AW time, I grew involved with a group of Gerry fans that congregated around the message board run by Icon Music, the label under which that album was released. After straying for a while (I am easily distracted, remember), I went back there to find the site discontinued, which was sad. The Gerry fans are a quirky, quietly generous bunch (much like the singer/songwriter) and they connected reconnected me with a bunch of great music and rare recordings.

Just on a whim, recently, I cruised the Wikipedia entry on Gerry Rafferty and found a link to the Moonlight and Gold message board, established by Iconian refugees. It's quirky and interesting, just like the Icon message board was, with great discussions and scary discussions and people just having fun being Gerry fans. I've registered. It's great to be back home.

There are odd rumors about how Gerry's been recently. They seem to be just that, rumors. Gerry is famously private, which is kind of refreshing, and appears to have simply dropped out of sight for a while – as seems typical for brilliant performers, they get tired of fighting The Man just to produce great work and back off for a while. The most reliable rumor has him hanging out in Florence, Italy and coming up with great music again for a hoped-for future album, which I will get, without a doubt.

Oh, by the way, he has a MySpace page, and I don't really like MySpace at all, but knowing Gerry has a MySpace page is enough to get me to log back in after a long, long absence. It's here, and there's a nifty updated version of "Stuck In The Middle With You" that is really worth a listen to.

Nice to know Gerry Rafferty is still going strong. He's one of the most underrated singers of the radio age, and chances are you like him ... you just don't know it yet.

Did you dig that song in Reservoir Dogs?

Yeah, that's Gerry.

You like him. Just accept it.

Technorati Tags: Gerry Rafferty, Music, Stealer's Wheel, Stuck In The Middle With You

Mind The Gap

2051.My current obsession with TriMet Maps (and cosmopolitan transit map styling)(and ideas for map pastiches and parodies I've been mulling)(sorry about all the parens) invariably led me to the world-famous London Tube Map. You can get a look at the whole magila here (Transport for London guards the copyright with the ferocity of a lion, an ire I wish not to arouse ... the illustration right is sized really teeny, for illustration-y purposes). It's not only much loved and much imitated, it lends itself to a great deal of ... well, pastiche and parody.

By far the funnies one is a very simplfied map loaded with Brit-funnay that I understand only because of a steady multi-year diet of Britcoms (and a wife who's an Anglophile). It was orginally published in a BBC book called Have I Got 1997 For You, and I've found it displayed in quite a few places on the web. It's too good not to share, so I'll post the version I found on Craphound.com, and hopefully the copyright holders will view my disregard for the common weal with equanimity (click to embiggen):

Some of the things I don't quite get (such as the reference to John Gorman) but most of the stuff I do get, as I said, a steady diet of Britcoms over the past never-you-mind-how-many years have paid off.

Technorati Tags: Map Satire, Map Humor, London Underground, London Tube, Transport for London

The Evolution Of The TriMet MAX Map 4: Say Hi To Yellow

2050.Now we move up to 2004 in our series about the MAX Map, because between 2000 and 2004 several changes obtained, culminating in the quantum leap of the debut of a new branch to the network – The MAX Yellow line, for the Interstate Avenue corridor, nicknamed "IMAX" by some wags during construction.

The MAX System now has two dendritic branches rather than just one, and the design could have kept the old theme, but my guess is someone along the line found it too sprawling and probably was a stone pain to do layout around. So, treating the original Blue line as the system backbone (as indeed it seems) and the newer lines as subordinate branches:

You can clicky the map above to embiggen, or go here (while TriMet still supports it) to see the map even better and get a PDF copy.

This is the acme, so far, of geographical simplification and abstraction. The Yamhill-Morrison downtown axis has become the center of the system, remarkably so, and the system has been laid out along a single backbone line, even to the extent of mapping the SW 1st Avenue and Steel Bridge sections completely out-of-line with reality.

But the genius of this style of mapping is that it works, and works well. Think again about the London Underground map and consider. If you get on the MAX, according to the diagram, at Yamhill District, and go three stops, you're at the Rose Quarter TC. It matters not at all that after the Yamhill District station the system hangs a ninety-degree left onto SW 1st or that it makes a somehwat-complicated dogleg over the Steel Bridge and into the Rose Quarter. The map and diagram works and delivers you exactly where you think you should go.

The time stripes along the line give you good information as to how long you expect to be on the train. And your eyes will provide you with the rest of the information (I've lived in Portland for most of my life but I can't stop looking at my town. If the mere sight of Portland doesn't nourish you I say its time for your to find another town, to be blunt).

The following image zooms in to the vital enter, and shows the maturing of several cosmopolitan design elements:

Clicky on the image above to embiggen. The big point, and my hobbyhorse thus far, is the use of the cartouche-like ovals for stations that serve more than one line. If you look at the Rose Quarter stop, you can see why this works. The Yellow Line stop is a circle which is physically adjacent to the Red and Blue Line oval. This indicates while they are physically close, you have to be at one or the other to get a certain line. That's a big story told very effectively by only two well-chosen and placed symbols.

Amongst the other changes reflected in the map is the extension of the Fareless Square area by a "panhandle" encompassing the Lloyd district (hard to see in this map because the Red/Blue/Yellow lines in that area are so typographically busy, but I don't see how the designer had any choice there really – sometimes the best graphic solution isn't exactly ideal) and the extension of the Red Line, for Airport service, to the Beaverton Transit Center.

One other interesting point is the PGE Park station. In this (and the map before), the station serving "The Piggy" has been diagrammed as two stations. And, while the station itself can be thought of as a single system access point, in reality, the eastbound and westbound boarding platforms are separated by about half a block, making them physically separate, and though they are very close physically, they couldn't be more separated by intent, so the wide separation of east and west bound PGE stations are quite appropriate.

The next evolutions, by the present day (2009) saw the addition of not one but two lines: The Green Line (serving a new route up and down The Portland Mall, Gateway, and the I-205 corridor to Clackamas) and WES-which turns TriMet's rail approach into multi-modal thing, and creates a truly exciting approach (well, I sure as hell like it!).

About more which presently.

Technorati Tags: TriMet, MAX, WES, Map Design, Transit Graphic Design, TriMet Graphic Design, graphic design

TriMet Map Cover Designs: 1997, 1998, 1999

2049.Picking up a series I've dropped for a few entries, here's the continuation of the TriMet covers series. This time, we look at 1997, 1998, and 1999.

The design sense is starting to be very dialled back now. The 1997 cover seems inspired by the 1996 cover, it uses the same type and has the same color-block-and-dotted-line theme. The photo of MAX at the Civic Stadium (I don't think it was "The Piggy" quite yet) is similarly monchromatic and screened back just a little.

The 1997 Book, which I don't have to hand right now, was a different animal altogether. The format of the TriMet Schedule books have tended to resemble a paperback novel, about the same size, with newsprint pages and a cardstock cover. For this year, it was a newsprint pamphlet, about the size of a small magazine.

Being entirely newsprint and larger, it was simpler to get more than one schedule grid on a page, meaning instead of Weekday/Saturday/Sun-Holiday sections, each route had all three schedules (as appropriate) grouped under route number.

It sounds as though it was a great idea, and on paper it looks good, but in practice is was not a success. The biggest problem was durability. If you bought a Transportation Guide and Map it was something that was liable to go many places (if you were a heavy transit user) and could be stuffed in a backpack, and back pocket, a purse, or what-have-you. The smaller format also held up very well under the uses it would have gotten (I knew someone who drilled a hole through one corner and hung it up by a string by the phone, like a small-town phone book). A Guide that was wholly newsprint just didn't stand up, and the larger format was awkward, to say the least.

The preceding was my assumption, but I must be getting some of it right ... the old Guide format returned the very next year, 1998.

As far as 1998 and 1999, the design ideas, which went from restrained to raucous, went straight to restraint and stayed there. "Slice-of-transit-life" photos, friendly and quaint, formed the centerpiece of the design, and minimal type and graphic adventurism. The trend toward a new typeface is also confirmed, as the same type had graced the design since approximately 1996.

Technorati Tags: TriMet, Portland Transit, Transit graphic design, information design, graphic design, map design

More Examples Of Ligne Claire, and Hergé Meets Warhol

2048.The picture right, clipped from a work at the URL I'm about to reference, delights but does not surprise. Somehow to me it makes eminient (if ineffable) sense that Andy Warhol (picture, right) and Hergé (left) should meet once in their lives.

Or maybe it was something in Warhol's deliciously odd and culture-vulture-y art that suggests inspiration from such a gestalt thing as the Tintin vibe.

Anyway, after I posted my last on Hergé's art, the webmeister of TintinMovie.org, Chris Tregenza, suggested I look upon the collection of Ligne Claire art in the site. Impressive, to say the least.

Hergé's mastery of the technique enabled more than just the telling of unforgettable stories, it creates a look and a feel that is voluptuous even if simple. There's just something about the combination of simplicity and reality that is incredibly captivating. And there are some splendid modern exponents of ligne claire.

I've looked at the collection, and, liking what I see, perforce recommend. Go view. you won't be sorry.

http://tintinmovie.org/category/ligne-claire-clear-line/

Bitte sehr, Chris!

Technorati Tags: Herge, Lichentstein, Warhol, ligne claire, clear line, Tintin