[pdx_media] New look KATU News Open

1008. Now we come to what I've been wanting to see; the flagship news opening:

This is really energetic. It hits all the bases and has mad interest and flow (while I'm impressed with my own ability to make Quicktime movies out of stacks'o'screenshots, I really wish I could include sound. The punch is definitely lost in the translation).

A good opening such as this takes the viewer up and engages them. This, for me, does just that. Moreover, it exhibits the high production value and finished feel that the rest of the new graphics do.

The happiest thing about this, and the real stroke of genius, is the way the 2 has become the star again. Over the past several years, the number has kind of been relegated, and this is my impression; I've called the old-style KATU 2 "dowdy", and I stand by it, but by all the datedness it seemed proud to carry the standard out front for the station.

KATU is back to letting the 2 move up front in the new look, and the "Fisher Flag" treatment is a winner. I really feel they've nailed this one.

As far as graphic identities, KATU now has set the fashion. The distinctive "2" in the red flag stands on its own besides such nationally-recognized TV logos such as Los Angeles' KABC-7.

KATU's new identity is a winner with me, hands down.

Technorati Tags: KATU,Portland media,pdx media,news logos

[type] Blue Dog Rocks the Interrobang

1007. Blue Dog Blog™ caught my eye today–the scar will heal over fine, thank you all very much–with the mention of the little known interrobang.

Here is the interrobang, in case anyone needs a big look at it:

Interrogative mark (question mark)+bang (exclaimation-mark in printer- and geek- speak)=interrobang. It was developed to simplify sentences such as the following:

You can't be serious !?

Informational links can be found at Blue Dog Blog™ at the link above. I wanted to mention it because, hey, it's type and hey, it's cool when someone brings the old interrobang out to play.

Technorati Tags: type,type design,interrobang

[pdx_media] The New Look of AM Northwest

1006. The newly launched KATU rebranding isn't just limited to the newscast. As noted elsewhere, it's extended to the AM lifestyle show, a Portland original since 1976 (meaning it's been on the air 31 years), AM Northwest.

AMNW came on as the local partner to ABC's then-new experiment in an AM newscast to compete with NBC's Today and whatever the heck CBS had on at the time. The network called it AM America; perforce, to sync with the network's branding (I am presuming here, but I bet I'm getting it), we had AM Northwest. For a good long time, it was helmed by legendary KATU weatherman Jim Bosley and a handful of co-hosts (notably the recent Consitution Party gubernatorial candidate, Mary Starrett).

These days, AMNW is being hosted by Helen Raptis and Dave Anderson. These two fit AMNW like a warm handshake. Both have a casual, friendly style that's pleasant to watch; for Dave it's no doubt from his history as a stand-up comic (and KEX afternoon host), and Helen...I dunno, maybe it's just clean living. Whatever it is, they're perfect for the show. Here's a screenshot of them and the standard AMNW chyron graphic:

What I didn't have the time or the equipment to really capture is that, like the newscast chyrons, AMNW's lower thirds have animation too. In this case it's the pastel blocks of color that characterize the rest of the graphics; they either bubble up or lightly fly in from the left, disappearing quickly, either way, imparting a light, bubbly sense of energy that's appropriate to a lifestyle program such as this.

Speaking of motion, here's another quick and dirty slideshow movie of the AMNW opening, composed of a stack of screenshots:

It might run a little fast. Sorry about not having any sound; my software is rather limited right now–because the new theme kicks ass. It's really good and really appropriate as well. Energetic and fun.

This is a vast departure for the program from it's most recent graphic treatments. The previous show logo, if all will recall, was a variation on the KATU logo, which was in stylistic lockstep with the rest of the Fisher net. The new look AMNW is a bright, confident, polished morning show with an identity all its own. The new look says it's arrived. The show even has a brilliant page with its own URL (http;//www.amnorthwest.tv) that reflects the change in design, and has pretty cool icons for sections such as books and recipes (Helen even has a "book club" reading list of her own).

Before we leave AMNW for now, let's stop by a few more screencaps:

This one looks like a typical announcement graphic of an upcoming event:

Note here also the use of what some (including me) call a "big-dot halftone" pattern–the "polka-dot" background that merges with itself and then demerges. It's a very effective theme that forms kind of the basement layer on which the rest of the theme is built. Whoever figured to use this nailed it two ways; first, it's unique at this time–no other morning program (so far as I know) uses it, and this treatment uses it just right. The house typeface for the new look seems to be Futura–clean, geometric, light, and in harmony with the rest of the design.

And here's one I caught that shows off the KATU logo better than my earlier nicking of the KATU.com version of the logo:

The tagline, "On Your Side", is obvously part of the new KATU identity.

But, Will It Blend?

The new-look AMNW has radically revamped its look and, even though the set's not been changed, the graphics package has infused the stalwart Portland morning show with a new energy and attitude. The graphics are bright, cheeful, and welcoming–completely in concert with the lifestyle sector the show stakes itself out into.

The whole thing works, and works well. The hosts like it so much they had it replayed just a few minutes in. If that isn't success for a graphics package, I don't know what is.

Technorati Tags: KATU,logo design,graphic design,TV logos

[pdx_media] The New Look of KATU

1005. It's a new day at KATU:

The above is the new "Fisher Flag" version of KATU's logo, ".COM" version.

Regrettably, I missed most of the 5PM report. But I did see enough to grab some screen caps off the KATU live feed.

The studio hasn't been remodeled (not yet, anyway), but there's a definite new attitude, splash, and energy with the new graphics. Here's the news set:

No change to the set, but the old logo has been duly replaced with the new.

Let's look at some lower thirds:

This one is in a tease for an upcoming story. Notice the bevelled curve form on the right forming a framing-element. That's part of the "2" glyph, sure enough. And another:

The lower thirds are now animated, coming into scene with a flash of light, the colors moving and changing. The type has had a rethink as well; it's, relatively speaking, not as "squashed", with a taller x-height and aspect ratio.

Now, for the "Vanna" Boxes. On the left, with Steve Dunn:

And on the right, with Katie Brown:

These are animated as well, two "stripes" of light chasing each other around a screened-back cylindrical form. The changed type is obvious here as well, as well as the liberal use of the new color palette–hot reds, warm purples. The sweeping curve seems to be a part of the "2" glyph from the new logo.

And now, here's Rod Hill with the weather:

As can be seen, the new lower 3rd doesn't mesh with the bug, the way it used to. It doesn't really conflict with it, either, because of the use of color.

Here's a "coming up" card:

And here is the closing, assembled as a slideshow from screencaptures. The new "2" makes a star turn here–literally; after heralding the arrival of the graphic with a flash of light, it turns to the side and forms part of the structure of the graphic itself.

Yes, But Will It Blend?

My viewing of the new KATU graphics was very short and sweet; I didn't get to see the opening (and nobody's posted video about that so far as I can see anywhere).

As far as I can see, though, this rebrand is working so far. This is all in motion and has heat and energy; by comparison, the old package was locked down and static.

Graphics like this can actually feel like channeled energy, and that's been achieved with the new animated chyrons. That, and they're fun to watch; it's interesting to watch things closely to see if you missed something the last time. The way the "2" emerges and then becomes part of the strutcture of the graphic is very fetching.

OMI promises to have an interesting discussion about this as well.

Technorati Tags: Portland TV,Portland News,pdx media,logo design,TV Logo design

[pdx] TriMet TV's First Episode

1004. TriMet's new promotional vodcast, "TriMetTV", has begun in earnest with thier first episode: a light, informational bite about the Portland Mall lnformation Center, the agency presence located now downtown at SW 6th Ave and Alder Street.

It's slickish but engaging. The tone is kept light throughout but shows off enough of the info center that, if this is your sort of thing, you'll want to check it out in person sometime soon.

The most intriguing feature is the simulated Mall MAX stop (illustrated). I definitely want to take a closer look at this.

At a lengith of 1 minute and 24 seconds' time, this episode won't waste much of yours. The format seems encouraging: if they stay with short, informative yet light in tone "bite"-casts, they'll have a communications asset here. Transit, in general, is not something even people in Portland want to take a lot of time learning about and discussing; your average transit user probably just wants to know what's heading at them, and you don't need a lot of time to tell people this if you know what you're doing.

That being established, I hope the minds behind TriMetTV take time to make a few "extended" episodes on some deeper topic, say, a day in the life of a bus line or something (I'd find that quite fascinating myself).

All the info you need to tune in to TriMetTV can be found here, and if you have the latest Flash player and view it online, you can have closed-captions too.

We give it a thumbs-up, so far.

Technorati Tags: Portland Transit,TriMet

[or_politik] Jeff Merkley Fans Can Has Blog Button Naow

1003. Good news for you, me and everyone else who's supporting Jeff–they finally came up with a blog-worthy button.

It's rather nice. Flat color, no special effects, the campaign logo reduces well (a hallmark of a logo that works), the message is simply delivered.

Get yours via this page here.

Bless Carla for the tip.

Technorati Tags: Oregon politics,Jeff Merkley,Merkley for Senate,web promotion

[pdx, liff] A Mount Hood Study

1002. I adore Mount Hood (or Wy'east, if you prefer). The following, taken just before we got started on the Sandy Blvd picture experiment:

You are looking east on NE Killingsworth Street, about at the old Columbia Blvd light (they are giving the Columbia Blvd/Killingsworth Street intersection a major rethink, it has to be seen to be believed). That big intersection you see in front of you there is the I-205 interchange.

This is a very evocative photo for me, and not just because of the nature/development tension. I remember, when I was but a neat thing, that Life magazine (or one of the big pictorials of the late 60s) had a few pictures of the PNW, and one of them was this telephoto smash-up of bright signs against Mount Rainier.

I love the Cascade volcanoes, and I love signs. I can picture it even now–I could stare at that photo for hours, and I did. And this one I got (at The Wife™'s prompting, credit where due) comes very close to that one. It's as though something has come full circle.

Tanjit, I want a better camera and a telephoto lens and I WANT THEM NOW NOW NOW!!!!

Technorati Tags: Mount Hood,Portland Photos

[pdx, tech] Google Street View PDX: Astoundingly There

1001. How good is Google's PDX Street view, commented on by better than I today?

You know how one of the best views of downtown is from the top deck of the Marquam Bridge–but it's a freeway so you can't pull over to look?

Well, hell...now you can stand in the middle of the damn Interstate...

And if you love walking downtown but just can't get down there today, you can at least get a piccy of it (tho' it do look a little Sim City-ish:

I wonder sometimes if there's nothing that Google can't do.

When you remember that Google started with two geeks in a garage, the mind boggles.

Technorati Tags: Google Maps,Google Street View,Street View,Portland Oregon

[ad_design] Never Too Late To Fix The Small Stuff

1000. Not long ago, loyal reader, you will remember I caught the following spelling gaffe in a local online ad:

The point of showing it off wasn't to mock the ad designer (which is another job we wish we could get) because this is an absurdly easy mistake to make and to miss; the word scaring (which was supposed to be scarring) was, while spelt correctly as the word "scaring" was incorrectly spelled for the context (while we'd hope a medical procedure wouldn't generate undue anxiety, that wasn't quite the actual selling point).

We caught it again today:

Spelling corrected, ad fixeded, message communicated properly. And the takeaway here is, when you make a small error like that, when you get a chance, just go back and fix it.

We are not arrogant enough to assume that this meagre blog's attention caused someone to go back and correct it, but we hope it's understood that we were not out to mock the ad designer. Good on them for fixing the error.

Technorati Tags: ad design,graphic design,web design

[pdx] My 2nd YouTube Video: Sandy Blvd in 56 Seconds

999. Here, a trip down Sandy Blvd starting from the Killingsworth I-205 Overpass and ending at Burnside and MLK. About 5 miles in 56 seconds:

Once again, the ViviCam 3705 in action, an amateur's tool. I could probably do a more creditable job if I had a more stable base–the ad hockery in this one was that I held the camera in my hands all the way down the road. But, it was an experiment, and we kind of enjoyed it.

I'm going to try more experiments like this over town soon, because I love Portland, and I love taking pictures of it.

Technorati Tags: Portland,Sandy Blvd,Portland Videos

[notebook] Two Brand Icons Who Really Existed

998. From the ZehnKatzen Notebooks:

Not every commercial brand-name icon is imaginary, like Betty Crocker:

• Evelyn Wood, the goddess of "speed reading", was a Utah schoolteacher who lived from 1906-1995. Her "Reading Dynamics" program was iconic through the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
• Today, Duncan Hines is a well-known branded cake mix. During the early and middle years of the 20th Century's American car culture, though, Duncan Hines pioneered the idea of travelers' food and lodging guides, which perhaps makes sense for a man who was a traveling sales agent in the days before interstate highways and chain restaurants.
• Wally "Famous" Amos was a talent scout for the William Morris Agency when the cookies he'd send home with his star clients caught on (after following the advice of friends who said he should open a shop and sell 'em). Mr. Amos lost control of his own brand some time back, but the reputation remains.

Technorati Tags: Branding,Brands,Duncan Hines,Evelyn Wood,ZehnKatzen's Notebook

[web_design] Horizon Air's "The Slog" Quite Funny

997. If you listen to radio, you've no doubt heard the many Horizon Air promos about the historic trail known as "The Slog", or as we like to call it, I-5 from Portland to Seattle.

We put off visiting it, mostly because we are very, very jaundiced about web-marketing tools, though we have found the "Clark & Lewis" commercial series quite funny.

Our mistake. "The Slog" turns out to be something of a tour de force, where they make rather effective use of comedy and American History documentary tropes (the endless sepia tone, the title cards with the filigrees, the Ken Burns effect, the drawly, fatherly tone of the narrator with that tinge of vague dispair, and the eternal harmonica soundtrack). The result is a pitch-perfect satire of historical documentaries that takes a few side-splitting liberties with the form, turning the account of what is usually a 3-hour drive into a trek the maginitude of the Oregon Trail:

• There's the story of the "feral hoopsters", near Exit 22, who were rumored to live in the woods near where a school bus was abandoned north of Vancouver when its driver gave in to the despair of the trip ahead.
• The stretch across the Columbia from the Trojan site becomes "Geiger Counter Straits", where travellers begin to experience strange vision after passing.
• We learn that, despite the traveller's standard tools for warding off sleep, named as "propping the eyes open with corn dog sticks" and "self-slapping", the Sandman proved a dogged copilot along "Longblink Gulch", located somewhere amongst the small towns in the western Washington interior
• And the generational story of the highway workers along the Big Repave has to be heard to be believed.

The best moment for me came during the short for "Molasses Pass", the area through Oly where drivers slowed down so much and so often that astronauts were said to have reported seeing "a giant glowing red snake" living in Olympia. As the narrator intones

"And the thought that astronauts thought a 12-mile red snake was living in Olympia is a more than a little disturbing. I mean, I thought astronauts were supposed to be really smart."

Laugh along with me here. Flash player plug-in needed, naturlich.

Technorati Tags: web design,web marketing,Horizon Air,The Slog,comedy.

[news_design] The Perils of Page Layout, 1: Type in Narrow Spaces

996. Here begins an occasional series (essentially when I can find fodder for it), "The Perils of Page Layout". This post carries a Dialup Danger warning; the pictures included are, by necessity, kind of large.

The reason page layout is taken seriously is that the understanding the grammar of placing text and pictures in a page can get quite complicated sometimes, and sometimes, the solution to a problem can be choosing between the lesser of a variety of evils.

For today's example (with due respect toward the layouter who's doing a job I'd kill to have a chance to do and undoubtely has to draw this sort of line more than often–because a food publication withough good illustrations just doesn't make sense), we go to The Big O's FoodDay suppliment, section FD of today's paper, specifically, page FD4, about halfway down, on the left. There is a sidebar with a showcase of interesting items for foodies to buy at various locations around town. One exhibits a book and a set of "tasting forks and spoons" available locally:

Taken from page FD4 from today's The Oregonian. Clicky to embiggen.

Note that really narrow column on the left on the picture. Something tells me the layout artist was right up against the grid here.

A problem with designing to spaces so narrow is that multiple-word sequences that need to hang together to prevent awkward reading. Join the / club causes the brain to "stub its toe": one seems to be called to knit them together again in the mind's eye before proceeding.

Note also the sequence of three consecutive hyphenated words at the lower left corner of the illo. This can be tough on the reader because you work to read and also, as before, to knit the words back together in the mind; moreover, the three hyphens tend to form a visual unit that can be distractive (the weight of the sans-serif type The O uses in its body type here go quite a long way toward mitigating that problem, however).

The biggest hazard in splittling words that need to stay together to complete a thought, however, comes when such things can actually consipre to change the appearent meaning of the text. If you don't think this is possible, check the zoom in here:

$22,255? That's one expensive book! (Clicky to Embiggen)

Note that the text is meant to read "DK Publishing, $22, 255 pages". The line break, however, comes between "255" and "pages". The result looks, despite the obvious space between the comma after the price and the number 2, as though the book is from DK Publishing, costs $22,255, and consists of pages (hell, at that price, I hope it'll contain one or two!).

In my unasked-for opinion, I'd say that that column needs to be widened a little bit–it's just too narrow for successful layout. Alternatively, it probably wouldnt' take too much reduction on the kerning in the the en-space (at least that's what it looks like) between the comma and the number to save enough space to bring the word "pages" up on the line where it should be. Maybe only a couple-hundredths of an em would be all that it needed.

(Disclaimer: I am not employed in page layout right now, but would like to be. I have no idea what pressures the layouter in the cited clippings had driving whatever decision was made)

Technorati Tags: News design,page layout,The Oregonian,Food Day

[liff] Alek's Doing The Light Thing Again for Coeliac Disease

995. Alek Komarnitsky is at it again. This year, he's annexed Halloween.

Those who've head of him know him as the guy who puts up Christmas lights that you can play with over the Intermets at http://komar.org–turn 'em on, turn 'em off, inflate and deflate the lawn decor, that sort of thing.

He's been doing this about three or four years, I think, and this year he's upped the ante; now, there are Halloween decorations you–or anyone–gets to play with (follow the link to the page that has all the information about when it's available and linky code that you can embed in your own page, if you're that sort of person)

As the man said, you have to serve somebody, and Alek does so by giving you a link to donate to Coeliac desease research.

What Is Coeliac Disease?

Coeliac is a genetic, auto-immune disorder that affects the small intestine, where your body gets the life-giving goodness out of the sustenance one ingests. Specifically it is a reaction to gluten, that protien found in grains that makes things like bread possible.

The body's immune reaction to gluten is, at the very least, discomfort and, depending on the complications, can be lethal. Coeliac was given a public face locally a few years back with the death of local radio legend Jimmy Hollister, whose death was the result of complications from Coeliac.

Coeliac was typically diagnosed under such nomenclature as IBS (irritable bowel) and gluten intolerance, but this is less so as time goes on and awareness of Coeliac increases.

Alek's two lovely sons suffer from Coeliac, so he's invested. If you are moved to do so, you might want to help him out. To date, he's raised over $17,000 through his web spectacles for Coeliac research, so if you're looking for a worthy cause and this speaks to you...well, here you go.

The decorations, however, are free for the playing with.

Technorati Tags: Alek Komarnitsky,Net Spectacles,Holiday Lights,Coeliac Disease,Fund Raising

[liff, silly] Because I Can't Let This TV Logo Thing Go...

994.The editoral staff of The ZehnKatzen Times would like to apologize for the following graphic:


I promise, this is the last time I make fun of the "Falling Block" logo. Promise. Props to KIMA/KEPR (who have really cool call signs) for being sports about this (not to mention KIDK, who I made fun of earlier).

I saw the graphics packages in action, and they really look pretty good in motion.

Technorati Tags: KIMA,KEPR,LOLNews,Image Macro

[liff] Still Slow: Pace of Life In Snailem

993. I've gone on enough about where I grew up: Salem.

Now, I love Salem. But the pace of life is so gentle there I had to come down the road. Even this gentle soul needs a little bit of excitement.

Brian Hines points it out in a crystal moment why Salem teenagers become Portland adults.

You think Portland's parochial? Hah. You just don't know. You just don't know.

Technorati Tags: liff,Oregon,Salem,Oregon's Capital City

[pdx_media] WW to Merc: Neener Again; Merc to WW: Backatcha!

992. The rivalry amongst the scrappers at the Merc and the olde guarde at the new-look Willamette Week continues with the sly redirecting of the Merc's link from WW's home page; from its first redirection, a local porta-potty company (Honey Bucket), we find the last word has not be had; it now points to the Bratz website (we include the link in the interests of the record; we do not suggest you actually click it. If you are over 28, you will vomit. You have been warned).

Not to be outdone, Blogtown at the Merc has the link to WW actually pointing to a place that suggests that, despite the facelift, WW still is your father's alt weekly.

The only opinon we have here is that this is the best bout of Portland Wrestling since Frank Bonnema died. We'll be off making popcorn.

Technorati Tags: Portland Media,Portland Alt Weeklies,Willamette Week,Portland Mercury

[liff] KDJQ, AM 890, Boise: A Craigslist Bargain

991. It may or may not be unusual to find a radio station in a rated market for $800,000, but is sure is unusual to find it on Craigslist.

Here's a story about the listing of KDJQ (courtesy KTVB), Here's the listing (which will not last), and below is snapshot of the listing itself, for posterity's sake:

At this price, that's $16 per Kilowatt. Such a deal!

Thanks again to commenter Ben.

Technorati Tags: Radio,Idaho Radio,Craigslist

[logo_design] It's New Logo Time In the Fisher Constellation

990. OMI today broke the news that, as far as anyone can tell, KATU's new logo shift (notied in the studio monitor at the legendary KATU Blogger meetup (which see, here too) is beginning to happen, if gradually. As mentioned at OMI, the new logo can be seen if you go to watch a show online; it's in the upper right of the viewing window. OMI has an actual-size version, and here's what it looks like when you blow it up a bit:


Another lesson in making your logo with resizing in mind. The image has fuzzed out a bit, since all I did was make a screen shot and blow it up in Photoshop, but detalis are still clear.

The most interesting to me was the treatment of the numeral 2, with its subtle oblique skewing and that interesting bevelling of the base stroke there on the right. the canted red square reminds one of the Fisher "Flag" logo, and the red color looks very close indeed.

Here's a before and after:

Your mileage may vary, but I think it's an improvement. Moreover, I like the movement from minisucle to majuscule (lower case to upper case) on the callsigen ("KATU" vs "katu"). The onld logo is strong, but it's locked down and static. The new logo, with the "airspace" all around and the tilted red tile, has dynamic tension and energy.

But it's not just KATU that's changing its look. Latterly, we've noted here that Idaho Falls's KIDK Channel 3, a CBS station, was changing its look as well. All kidding aside, it seems to be a bit of a movement amongst Fisher's Inland Empire; KBCI Channel 2, Boise, has a new logo treatment for its newly-renamed Eyewitness News flagship:

Earlier we notied, somewhat irreverently, that KIDK has a fearsome new logo that made us duck when we first saw it, with the tagline Watching Out For You. Notable, are general similarities in "eyefeel": the rectilinear block treatment, the same typefaces for the words. KBCI's logo differs in that it takes up less square footage, but the overall treatment is the same:

Notable also are the taglines. Sporting a similar red swipe underline, KBCI's tagline, Everywhere, can be actually combined with KIDK's to create a single thought: Watching Out For You Everywhere. These stations are getting just a little too friendly...

Seriously, though, yet another similar logo and graphics regime has surfaced in the Tri Cities and Yakima, where the Fisher affliates there, KEPR and KIMA respectively, have shifted to new logos and openings (though this alliance has retained the sobriequet Action News:

It should be noted that this Fisher shift to new logos is hardly uniform, While KATU and the Inland Empire stations seem to be going to a completely new look Seatlle's KOMO is going for a variation on the corporate theme, and KLEW (Lewiston ID) as well as the Eugene and southwest Oregon stations seem to be standing pat for now with the "old" look.

FWIW, the new graphics regimes can be seen by going to each stations site (If I missed a link, go to the station's pages via the Fisher Communications' "Our Stations" page) and digging through the video clips.

Technorati Tags: KATU,KIDK,KCBI,KIMA,KEPR,Fisher Broadcasting,logo design,TV Logos

[liff] Templars Off The Hook: Official

989. Good news for those who fancy Knights Templar; the Vatican has let them off the hook for something they did somehow. Don't ask me what it was fnord.

What really amuses me about this was that the document that exonerated them was actually misfiled for several years. Makes those extra waits for passports all those people had to suffer earlier this year seem kind of inconsequential.

Also, how secret can the "Secret Vatican Archives" actually be, now that it has a spokesperson?

And so it goes.

Technorati Tags: knights templar,catholic church,fnords

[logo_design] They Don't Make 'em Like that Anymore: Desilu Studios

988. A television company that really needs no introduction–Desilu was late 60s television (Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Star Trek:TOS–need I go on?)

This is the famous "merging circles" logo, hosted at youtube.com at the account of mcy919, to whom we give thanks.

To me, this was 60s logo design at some of its best. The merging circles are symmetrical and gracefully combined, Color TV was still new at the time and any, even subtle, nod to color production amounted to a competitive advantage in the mind of the public. Once merged, the circle becomes the jot over the "i" in a graceful sweep as the script "Desilu" finshes drawing by an unseen hand, and it's all tied together by a meaty yet fleet five-note fanfare.

Mind you, this was years before "Sit, Ubu, Sit. Good dog (bark!)" and the advent of the production company ID card as micro-productions unto themselves.

The Desilu fanfare was punchy and good-sounding enough that Paramount Television, the successor to Desilu, used it for several years after.

While more-than-somewhat ineffable, the feelings I get watching the logo come together more than amply explain why, in certain ways, we keep touching back to the 60s and 70s in television culture. Sure, those decades included mounds of steaming dreck–when it was bad, it was horrid. But when it was good, it was very good–even elegant.

They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Technorati Tags: logo design,Desilu Studios,TV logos,animated logos,1960s logos

[bloggage] Dreaming of 30,000

987. Vistor 30,000 logged here by Sitemeter.com at 13:37 today, from Boston, Massachusetts, via UUNET.

Thanks for stopping by, my friend, thanks for stopping by.

Sadly, I am not prosperous enough to give out prizes for passing the turnstile yet, but, hope remains evergreen.

Technorati Tags: bloggage,Zehnkatzen,Samuel John Klein,The ZehnKatzen Times,30,000 vistors

[bloggage] 98 Visitors to Go...

986. ...as of this writing, at the time of this missive, until we break through 30K.

Hey, it may not impress some, but every one of them is important to me...

Technorati Tags: bloggage,ZehnKatzen,Samuel John Klein

[liff, design] Dutch Bros. Rocks The Coffee Bean and the Peignot Bold

985. The stickers have showed up on cars of all kinds; you know the ones, the ones with "Dutch" in them, with the type in the funky 70's style. We see a lot that say "Dutch Playa", with the "hang loose" hand signal.

If you wondered where they came from, wonder no more; it's all part of Dutch Bros. Coffee's campaign for world domination. I, for one, welcome our new Dutch masters.

There are two Dutch drive-throughs in Portland proper: one at SE 136th and Division, hard by the pedestrian overpass, and one at SE 67th and Foster, by the Save A Lot store and the Dollar Store that used to be the Kienows and the Phoenix Drug Store. To those who thought that the demise of Coffee People as the local funky drive-through chain and dreaded the advent of Starbucks and thier burned-flavor house coffee, there is reason to rejoice.

Dutch Bros. rocks in two (count 'em) ways: one is product, and one is design.

Dutch Bros. Rocks The Bean

Regardless of how cool Dutch looks it wouldn't be even worth slowing down in front of without decent coffee, and it has that. The true measure of a coffeemonger, regardless of what else they sell, is their regular house blend–it's what they put in everything else. And Dutch Bros. Private Reserve is smooth and nice–almost as good as my personal gold standard, Allann Bros. House Blend (hey, Allan, one Beanery up in in the Metro–that's all I'm asking! Look into it! We are so there! Anyway!)

Compared to Starbucks house...well, it just doesn't compare. It just doesn't. That means that everything thier coffee goes into–the lattes, the Annihilator (just try it)–is going to be just that good. I have no complaints about this coffee.

Dutch Bros. Rocks The Font

Dutch Bros also has some interesting ways to approach thier identity. The bright, flat colors and simply-rendered graphics give a cheery start. But the way they work the typeface in is what I find most impressive.

One might look at that font and feel there's something very familiar about it. They'd be right–it's one of the most used commercial typefaces known, Peignot Bold. It was last in wild popularity in the 1970s, spurred by (amongst other things) the titles to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and was used very thoroughly by ABC in its titles to its evening movie broadasts. It has a history which goes back to 1937, when A.M. Cassandre developed it for the French typefoundry Deberny et Peignot.

The way Dutch Bros. uses it is unafraid and constant. In the context of the flat and saturated colors and the simple graphics, it fits very well, taking a typeface that might have seemed dated in any other context and making it cheerfully funky. It really is kind of brave to use such a font in today's visual culture, because it takes a touch to use it right. Dutch Bros., either by accident or by design, did it right.

Having it on such cool stickers that are sprouting up on autos all over the place certainly helps.

Dutch Bros. Is Getting Around

They've got two Dutches in Portland, at least one we can think of in Gresham (in the Rockwood area), and we're hoping they get more in here. We aren't the only ones. Subsequently we found ourselves at Powell's Books downtown and The Wife™ still had her Dutch Bros cup in hand, and a stranger exclaimed "Hey! Does Dutch Brothers have a location downtown now?"

Sadly, no, Well, not yet, anyway. But the way they're growing, it should be any time now.

http://www.dutchbros.com (view this one through Firefox, kids; with Safari under OS X, it complains that you don't have the Flash plugin installed even if you have the Flash plugin installed)

Technorati Tags: type,type design,coffee,Dutch Bros. Coffee

[urban_design] Mannheim: The Grid auf Deutsch

984. A couple of missives ago, I opined about the grid as a city layout basis and came up with an example of a European use of the grid. Milton Keynes, however, is an extremely recent (in historical terms–1960s) example. with the rectilinear grid going, in fact, way back. I did mention that I had read of examples going back as far as the Indus River Civlizations.

While Mannheim, A major industrial city in southwestern Germany, doesn't go back all that far–its city center was laid out in its present form sometime in the 1700s, if I read the histories correctly (and I may not, in all fairness). The city center itself is press-fit between the Rhein and Neckar (a major river in south-central Germany) and is conspicuously recticlinear.

The first illustration here, Exhibit A, is taken from the Wikipedia entry on Mannheim and is taken from the 4th edtion of Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (Meyer's Encyclopedia), which was published from 1885-1890. The grid, oriented more or less toward the Rhein, is encircled by a horseshoe-shaped ring road, and centers on a building that was then the palace of the Prince-elector (Kürfurst) at the south side of the grid (on this map, it's noted as Schloß, also spelt Schloss (the terminal charcter, ß, is a glyph in the German alphabet which simply reduces to "ss" and is my favorite letter in any alphabet, and we're deep in digression land again) It shows little of the surrounding areas (only a section of the neighboring city of Ludwigshafen (Ludwig's harbor) across the Rhein and the burg of Neckargärten (Neckar gardens) across, appropriately, the Neckar.

The next illustration, Exhibit B, is clipped from a Google Maps display, and gives a sense of surroundings. While straight streets and griddish patters can be found around, there is nothing that has the sense of planning that the city center has; the rest of the area seems uncoordinated in comparison.

The last illustration, Exhibit C, is a closeup of the most detailed online map of Mannheim that I could find (clipped from this page):

Now we get down to interesting cases. Perhaps you've noticed the abscence of one very imporant thing (and it was obvious if you zoomed in on the map in Google): there are next to no street names. The surrounds have names (the ring road is named, at different places, Luisenring, Friedrichsring, Parkring, and Kaiserring (the suffix ring tends to be used for semicircular streets like crescent in the Commonwealth or circle here in the USA) and a few of the grid streets have names as well (the horizontal street that intersects at Stadt Parade Platz is named, from west to east, "Rheinstrasse", "Planken", and "Heidelberger Strasse", and the vertical center street is named "Kürpfalzstrasse", essentially, "Electoral Palace Street"), but, instead of street names, we have what look like a sort of grid coordinate in each block (or Quadrate, as locals call them).

The pattern of Quadrate naming follows a logical sequence with an exception, and this pattern relies on the position of Kürpfalzstrasse as an assumed centerline. The ranks-the horizontal rows–are lettered increasing away from the Bismarckstraße baseline. Ranks on the west side of Kurpfalzstrße are lettered A through K, and ranks on the east side take up the sequence again with L and proceed through U. Files–the vertical columns–number in sequence away from Kurpfalzstaße both east and west. The exception comes with the L rank, which includes a row of blocks south of Bismarckstraße which are numbered in a leapfrog pattern until L14 and L15 at the Bismarckplatz.

My understanding of addresses is somewhat limited here, but if I remember my reading correctly ,it's rather Japanese in manner; your address is a number in the Quadrate your place is located in. For example, if you live in a flat (if such exist) four streets north of Bismarckstr. and three streets east of Kurpfalzstr., then your address is a number in Quadrate O4.

This seems rather innovative for the day, I'd guess. It certainly reinforces the ideal of the German as a lover of efficiency and precision, and, in its regularity and order, stands out as a unique city center plan on the European continent (as least as far as I'm aware).

Technorati Tags: urban design,city layout,street grids

[tech] Ever Wonder What Happens When You Send An Apple Crash Report?

983. So did I.

Paul Krummenacker at Extensis draws back the curtain a little.

Takeaway: Send the crash report. People do look at it.

Technorati Tags: tech,tech tools,design tools,Extensis

[tech] Speaking of Audacity

982. Speaking of Audacity, I just took a moment to check the page I linked to in the last missive and found that they've got some notable improvements in the 1.3.x development.

Current stable version is 1.2.6, and stable it is–works with no hassle or apparent flaw.

1.3.x has new support for importing audio from QuickTime files on OS X, also a new screen-capture utility. I've not tried it yet, but I may; ever the enduser, I stay away from betas unless sufficiently intriqued by them or made absolutely necessary.

As I said, if you want to play with sound and don't want to spend no money and get a quality product anyway, Audacity's your man.

Audacity. Here. Go. Download. Use.

Technorati Tags: Audacity,Open Source,FOSS,Sound editors

[liff] That Much Closer to Producing a Podcast

981. I finally got around to getting a cheapo Radio Shack microphone for SunDial Three, my PowerMac G4. I typically worry about whether or not things like this will work without a great deal of hassle; I found, of course, that I worried over nothing.

All I had to do was plug the mic into the line in jack, fire up Audacity, and record.

I've mentioned Audacity before. I found it when I needed a program to edit together sound clips; since this is neither my forté nor my ambition I wanted to find something that just did the basics and, if possible, was free. Audacity is worth much, much more than the price (which is free), and the help files give the novice an introduction to the sound artist's trade.

Audacity is available here. You really ought to look into this.

Good Lord, does my voice sound gooney! Still, it's the only voice I have, so we'll have to go for it. It's good enough quality that I can think about actually doing something I've always wanted to do, and that's a podcast.

Now, all I have to do is get some really interesting content!

Technorati Tags: Podcast,Microphones,Audacity

[design] Adobe Photoshop: We Are Family

980. Photoshop isn't just Photoshop anymore. It's Photoshop CS3 Basic, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Photoshop Elements...It's now a family. And the family coat of arms can be seen on the right there.

As announced by my colleague at Designorat, Jeremy Schultz :

Photoshop Is Now One Big Happy “Family” — Designorati

A few weeks ago at Photoshop World, John Loiacono (Senior VP/Creative Business Products at Adobe) revealed the new “Photoshop family” of products, complete with logo, which encompasses the various Adobe products branded with “Photoshop”

Here's the page at Adobe with the full skinny.

Here, at PhotoshopNews, is a display of all the various permissible uses of the logo and the new tagline.

Technorati Tags: Adobe Photoshop,Photoshop Family,Photoshop Lightroom,Photoshop

[urban_design] The Grid

979. The subject of city layout and address structures is one I've not touched on often of late (well, at all actually) but one which I keep mad keen interest in.

Latterly I was delighted to find an article in Wikipedia about that mainstay of the anglo-American city, the gridiron; read all about it here. The biggest takeaway for me was that, despite the prepoderance of such a grid plan in modern cities and the apparent lack in older ones, the gridiron type of street plan actually goes back a heck of a long way back–to the Indus Valley civilzations.

Grid plans actually seem to date, in the US, from the time of the original layout of Philadelphia which was design with wide straight streets and big blocks as a way to prevent the firetrap problems of cities that grew more organically.

And latterly, even though Europe is (at least to me) not known for griddled towns, there is at least one that qualifies–a town created in the 1960's, the "new town" of Milton Keynes.

While its more of a wobbly, wavy grid, MK's structure is that of the grid, with wide boulevards laid out to get you from one area of town to another, including wide roundabouts, as the map here will show:

This map was nicked from www.mkweb.co.uk, to which all credit goes. Read about Milton Keynes at Wikipedia here.

A net of H (Horizontal) roads mesh with V (Vertical) roads as a top-level in a street hierarchy, highly untypical for a European city–at least from an American perspective.

Technorati Tags: maps,map design,urban design,urban layout

[design] Drawing Maps in Adobe Illustrator

978. Just found this little gem: an article at a just stumbled-on blog by a much more successful graphic designer than I on how to use Adobe Illustrator to draw maps.

Amongst the most important Insights: how to form good-looking street marks. Solution: make 'em a brush stroke.

See it at Rae's blog here.

I plan on giving these techniques a bit of trial run hereabouts, and will post the results.

Technorati Tags: design,map design,Adobe Illustrator

[pdx] Schumacher: Can't Catch a Break

977. Looks like one of the protesters is off the hook.

Technorati Tags: Schumacher Furs,Schumacher Fur Protest

[ad_design] Sometimes, Spell-check Can't Save You

976. From an animated ad on a local TV Station's site:


While it is admirable and laudable that a medical procedure not be frightening (no scaring), I think what they meant to say was no scarring.

The trouble with spell check, you see, is that it's not context-check. Scaring here is correctly spelt.

(FWIW: cryoablation is a non-invasive method for removing certain non-malignant fibrous tumors)

Technorati Tags: ad design,graphic design,web design

[logo_design] KIDK-3's Eyewitness News Logo...It's Coming For You

975. Look out...here comes KIDK-TV's (CBS Channel 3 for greater Idaho Falls/Blackfoot/Pocatello Idaho) new Eyewitness News logo.

Holy yikes! "Watching Out For You"? With that angle and treatment, dropping out of an apocalyptically-purple mottled sky straight out of Damnation Alley , more like "We're coming for you!"

Duck! Wear a hard hat...something!

(Thanks to commenter Ben in this post about KATU's (another star in the Fisher constellation) logo)

Update: Ben also posed quite a good question–what did the KIDK news broadcast logo look like before? I rooted around on KIDK's website and Google images, and I think this is our answer:

A change of graphic identity, a change of show name, a change of attitude.

Technorati Tags: logo design,KIDK,TV Station logos

[liff] Those Who Do Not Learn From History....

974. ...are doomed to repeat it, in architecture. From Naval Base Coronado, on the Silver Strand, Google Earth gives you the US Naval Swastika Barracks:

Rah-oh!

Just a little embarrassing, seeing as we were the winning side in WWII (we jest here, of course. We are big-time fans of the Nav).

That said, they are budgeting over $half-a-mil (which is now also $half-a-mil Canadian) to make it a little less...Swastika-y.

And so it goes.

(Blessings on this one to Urban Honking, who pointed us to this posting. The building is yours for the finding in Google Maps and Google Earth–but here's a hint; It's not on the north end of North Island)

Technorati Tags: strange but true,swastika,architecture