My wife and I visited Mexico City in July. To cut down on weight, the DSLR had to stay home, but I still took lots of photos with my Nexus 5X. The best ones, as measured by aesthetic and photo quality (it's a phone after all), I've posted to my photography blog. You'll also find a few other photos from a recent camping trip that the DSLR could come along for. Check out Written in 35 mm for both sets!

Mountain Steward, a new mountaineering organization based out of Vancouver, WA, recently approached me to design and develop a logo. The logo will be used on all their web and print materials, and as a patch or badge for hiking jackets and bags.

I started a web, graphic, and print design business ten years ago today, May 19, 2006. I basically had no clue what could be done by real graphic and web designers, but it interested me and I wanted to try. With the help of mentors and friends, I convinced some brave "mom and pop" businesses to let me build them a website or design their brochures. Business cards, social media, online stores, reservation systems, videos, handouts, logos, posters, and much more followed. When a client asked me for something I didn't know how to do, I had to Google it until I understood. I always said I could do it, and with the help of YouTube, I learned. I taught myself the Adobe Creative Suite and focused my design aesthetic. Eventually my business helped me pay for college.
​
Today, I work in marketing as a graphic designer for a tech company in Washington state. I am still very much interested in design, and I am floored by how much I continue learn. However, I have decided to retire my business. I have gained experience and lot of knowledge, but it's time for the next thing.

The next thing is Harried Type, my own little type foundry and web store. Like it's predecessor, it's launching as little more than a brand name. Probably not the soundest business model, but like before, I hope this outlet will allow me to continue to explore the medium. Over the last few years I've become enamored with typeface design, and it's become a defining part of my identity as a designer. I want to enrich my understanding of this world and experiment, and I can think of no better way than a "fake" company that slowly becomes real. If a method isn't broken, why fix it?

I am finally making progress on a new round of paintings. My 63rd and 64th acrylics, "Landscape I" and it's as-of-yet untitled companion are now available on this site as stand alone work. I am continuing my journey into abstract impressionism, and I'm very pleased.

Introducing my tenth typeface, Barcode Deco! Born from my need to break out of the fixed-width grid typefaces I have been designing recently, I started drawing Barcode Deco! to soften the sharp corners of my self-imposed rulebook. Like all of my fonts, it's free for personal use.

Over the last few months I've been doing some digital doodling with line art and faces. As a graphic designer I am (thankfully) infrequently asked to draw faces. However, I am constantly working on line art. In my free time I married the two together and the above has resulted.

The piece on the left is my tribute to the late, great David Bowie, one of my favorite recording artists. I wanted to share it here on my blog, and I saw an opportunity to show off a few of the other line drawing portraits I've been scribbling with my mouse. For the works on the right, I was hoping to illustrate who the subject was with as little detail as possible – I chose not to include eyes for that reason – but with Bowie, I couldn't omit what his arguably his defining feature.

Housekeeping tidbit: For organizational purposes on this site, I've included these images under the Design > Doodles tab, where I've moved my Marginalia series too.

I'm pleased to introduce my ninth typeface, Granite Postmodern. I designed this font over the last few months in response to the popularity of Granite Modern, a font I designed in 2014. I started what became Granite Postmodern with the intention of simply making a bold version of Granite Modern, but the project took on a life of its own. With its history in mind, this new font is something of a spiritual sequel to the original. It's squarer and more angular, following a new set of aesthetic guidelines that reflect my current taste.

You can download it free for personal use.

Side note: I redesigned the Typefaces tab to account for the increasing number of available fonts. No more endless scrolling!