Graffiti Type


AIGA Portland is currently showing an exhibition of letters inspired by graffiti as part of Design Week Portland. The 26 letters of the alphabet, each interpreted by a different artist, are on display at Ziba HQ in Portland, Oregon, and my letter K is among them. The show is in conjunction with the premiere of GRAFT by director Jared Levy.

Intricate hand drawn letter K with tribal, feather and mitochondrial patterns.
The letter K.

I’ve recently been drawing things with a tribal and mitochondrial patterns in them. The style felt appropriate to the theme – interpreted as a sort of original graffiti, a mish mash of elemental inspiration. I also signed off my letter with my personal tag in hieroglyphics: a fossilized leaf from Oregon, a rock with a hole in it found on a Danish beach, a heart shaped rock my mom found and gave me, and a figurine of the Black Stallion.

Hand drawn hieroglyphs, three rocks and a horse. The left most rock is a petrified leaf from John Day / Fossil area in Oregon. The horse is a figurine from the Black Stallion movie.
Little personal hieroglyphics - three rocks and a horse.

Drawing patterns in things has become a sort of relaxing meditation time for me – once the basic form and complexity is decided, it’s pure patience and several CDs of Kurt Vile / Carla Bruni / Wilco to reach the end result.

Close up of patterns.

A Flickr set of the entire alphabet can be seen here of the below participating artists.

A – Aaron Rayburn, Portland
B – Jason Bacon, Portland
C – Scrappers, Hawaii
D – Mary Kate McDevit, Portland
E – CERN ONE, NYC
F – Cory Say, Garland, TX
G – Carolyn Sewell, Washington DC
H – Will Miller, Chicago
I – Rachel Caldwell, Philadelphia
J – Taka Sudo, BC, Canada
K – Mette Hornung Rankin, Copenhagen / Portland
L – Christopher Derek Bruno, Seattle
M – Lotta Nieminen, NYC
N – Roxanne Danner, Los Angeles
O – Keegan Onefoot-Wenkman, Portland
P – Bethany Ng, Portland / W+K12
Q – Tom O’Toole, Portland
R – Thomas Bradley, Portland
S – Dana Woulfe, Boston
T – Alanna MacGowan & Cassie Klingler, Seattle / New York
U – Anne Ulku, Minneapolis
V – Dave Foster, The Netherlands
W – Adam Garcia, Portland
X – Zach Johnsen, Portland
Y – Blaine Fontana, Portland
Z – Stephen Holding, Brooklyn

Collaborative alphabet.

From the Archives: PSU Shirt Illustrations


Found these in the archives and I thought I would share. These illustrations were created while I worked at Sockeye Creative for Art Director Rob Wees. The starburst was printed mint-teal on a gray shirt and the noodle blob was printed gold metallic on a brown shirt. Rob personally chose the mannequin, Brenda, to sell this short run of custom shirts in the Portland State University bookstore. That’s one hot date, Rob!

Brenda sells hard.

Great Things From Portland


A while back, Portland every-where-man Jason Sturgill asked if I would contribute a postcard design to help promote Pinball Publishing’s new 4 color printing process called Print Pinball. I’m a big fan of Pinball, and was also psyched to collaborate in the series with other local artists Adam Garcia, Jen Wick, Kate Bingaman-Burt, and Thomas Bradley.

The theme was Great Things From Portland, and I didn’t have to dig very deep to pick one of my favorite Portland quirks: the tiny toy horses that are tied to old historic hitching posts around the city. Chronicled on The Horse Project and on Flickr, every time I come across one of these equines in person I feel a little bit happier inside my 12-year-old horse-crazy girl memory.

Great Thing from Portland postcard series for Pinball Publishing, featuring a horse from the Horse Project with some rope type and a Portland skyline.
Great Things...
Great Thing from Portland postcard series for Pinball Publishing, featuring a horse from the Horse Project with some rope type and a Portland skyline.
Wild appy stallion with halter.
Great Thing from Portland postcard series for Pinball Publishing, featuring a horse from the Horse Project with some rope type and a Portland skyline.
Rope typography starts...
Great Thing from Portland postcard series for Pinball Publishing, featuring a horse from the Horse Project with some rope type and a Portland skyline.
Great Things from Portland postcard design for Pinball Publishing series.