Urban Honking

VIDEO: Bobby Birdman “You’d Be Surprised” While in Portland, Oregon to rehearse for the upcoming New Mystery Moods Tour with YACHT and the Straight Gaze, Bobby Birdman was asked to perform on Portland Community Media’s underground televised variety sensation, The You’d Be Surprised Hour, hosted by “local favorite” Steve Schroeder of States Rights Records. For […]

Stage two of the collaborative website I’ve designed with AQ for the Asics Olympic team now online. It includes new animated content, as well as many other goodies! — plazm blog has moved to http://blog.plazm.com — — plazm design studio: www.plazm.com — — plazm magazine & blog are now published by new oregon arts & […]

I recently finished reading You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier. The book is the latest in a series of prominent polemics decrying the effect of the internet on everything from pop culture to basic human cognition. Because I live most of my life surrounded by people totally taken with the promise of technology […]

Brand new Cooper revival out as of 5 minutes ago! http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/wordshape/cooper-highlight/ Cooper Hilite Complete is a complementary set of two fonts- Cooper Black and Cooper Hilite. Either typeface can be used alone, or as a stackable, multi-colored set.  The history of these typefaces: Cooper Black, the most famous and successful of Oswald Cooper’s type designs […]

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior designer (iPod, iPad, iTouch, et al) likes the YACHT logo so much that he and the Apple design team dropped some free custom laser-engraved iPods on the YACHT team last week. — plazm blog has moved to http://blog.plazm.com — — plazm design studio: www.plazm.com — — plazm magazine & blog are […]

Host Nora Robertson sits down with Mayor Sam Adams, Randy Gragg and Brad Cloepfil The New Oregon Interview Series brings Mayor Sam Adams, Portland Monthly editor Randy Gragg and prominent architect Brad Cloepfil together to discuss their work in shaping urban space and how our built environment is evolving. Monday, Feb. 22nd, 7-8:30 PM, Urban […]

Ever since seeing Man On Wire last year, a brilliant documentary about Philippe Petit, a french high wire artists who tightrope walked between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of balance. The film contains striking footage of Petit 1768 feet about the ground, standing (or even […]

This blog’s date of birth is somewhat lost to the mysteries of time and blog engine migration, but the most likely candidates are December 13th, 2004 and February 9th, 2005. The former is supported by the existence of this post on blogger; the latter by the earliest post imported here, on Urban Honking. Regardless, sometime […]

I’ve been writing a monthly business column in the zine ‘Portland Underground.’ Each issue is based on a theme like Rain, Dinosaurs, Sleep, or Sex. It’s been harder than I anticipated as I attempt to write a column of about 700 words on something business-related to the theme. So far I’ve written about weather control, […]

I wrote a 10,000 word essay called “Heft, Gravy, and Swing: The Life and Times of Oswald Cooper” for the latest issue of Idea. The essay serves as the definitive biography of the Chicago type and lettering designer, famed for his Cooper Black typeface. The essay is the result of a long-dreamed of trip to […]