Adventureson
After releasing music under my own name for almost a decade, I'm giving myself a band name. There's no reason for this other than I want to publish …
After releasing music under my own name for almost a decade, I'm giving myself a band name. There's no reason for this other than I want to publish …
I grew up in Maine and was fortunate enough to have parents who taught me and my sister how to ski at a very young age (2!). We lived about 45 …
2020 is over and I'm not even close to "recovered." I admit that the year went easy on my family. I am grateful. We're almost four weeks into 2021 …
Don't worry, everything is fine with our pup Yoshi, this isn't a dog memorial note! In fact, I'm publishing this a week ahead of the third …
You didn't come here for a hot take on a 20 year old album but that's what this is. Yesterday I saw a tweet, and it made me anxious. Because I'm …
Once a month I'll inevitably get an email from Paypal saying that "a nice dafont visitor" threw a couple bucks my way. Almost always $5. It's awesome …
Well, RBG died tonight and America is literally on fire. Metaphorically too, but not in a rad way. So, perfect timing for me to rebuild this blog …
I've been working on revisions to seven ETC typefaces for almost eight months now. Before that, I had high hopes for a little project called Public …
I haven’t mentioned this on my website but on January 1st I began a 52 week long project. The goal? Record one song every seven days. All year. It …
What better way to start a quarantine/lockdown than with semi-ominous instrumental music, right? These six ambient tracks span three years of …
I didn’t think I’d be writing a “love letter” to a certain device today, but here I am. The last time I did this was about my favorite ebook reader, …
It's been five years since I blogged photos from the New York State Fair, and you know what? We still hit the same spots and eat the same food. Fewer …
I'm writing this on a Monday, but the title comes from the fact that I spent many hours yesterday finalizing on improvements made to League Mono and …
This blog post started as a silly note on my phone. Less than a note really, just a list of every digital camera I've owned and used and loved and …
I just finished downloading all of my content from Flickr. It amounts to 21 ZIP files that Flickr prepared when I requested my archive, totaling …
This is a quick (relatively, it's 18 minutes long) video tutorial on converting an existing single style font to a multiple master/variable …
For the past few months I have been working on converting my typeface League Mono from eight weights (up from 5 when it launched) to a variable …
Kingston to Negril and back, with a mountain adventure in between. March-April, 2018. Allison rented a car for us that I had the pleasure to drive …
I recently made a quick (15 minute) video tutorial on introductory letter making in Glyphs Mini 2 . I think it is an improvement over my previous …
This is a follow up to last year's running infographic. I'll just let this thing do the talking for now, and get down to some of the details after. …
The world has more free fonts than ever, at a higher quality than I can handle (in a good way). I'm not going to make this a regular Friday thing, …
It has never been a better time to be a graphic designer in Ithaca. I write this as someone who has made a living here doing just that since 2006. We …
I've spent a lot of time over the years thinking about how I get by. Many of those years I was an employee with a salary. Some years were 100% …
I packed a microphone for my annual trip to Maine. You can see it in the photo above, very small, in almost the exact center of the frame. Aside from …
I began work on League Mono at the end of 2016, and had the bulk of it in a usable form in March of this year. Why? I had been looking through the …
This isn't a race recap as much as it's my experience as a bystander, but here we go. The date: Saturday, May 13th. Location: Philly's Pennypack …
Create Upstate is a great design event that has lived in Syracuse, NY for the past three years. It was wonderful there, but this year the organizers …
I'm not the first person to write something like this and given how much I love my Nook, I probably won't be the last, either. So I'll keep this …
In September of 2015 I quickly and quietly launched New O'Clock , a website that publishes and tweets an interesting, true fact every day at two …
I still have a soft spot for Gluten, now more than ever. Literally. Figuratively. In food, especially, but I'm talking about my font. I've recently …
My friend Josh returned home to record his third album at Wilburland . He invited me to the studio to document some of the process. I showed up with …
I’m writing this on a bus to New York City. A last minute getaway with my wife. After admiring the winter scene that also distracts me when I’m …
I’m going to try something new with upcoming typeface releases: overdramatic fake movie posters. So I set out to make a simple design and realized …
I was late to join my local (Upstate NY) AIGA chapter, and even later to hop on the chapter’s Slack list. Deplorable, I know, but I tried to make up …
I ran a lot over the past 12 months. More than ever, which was a surprise to me. I didn't have a goal of running over 100 miles each month for a year …
I visit a used book store in Ithaca’s Commons at least once a week. It’s called Autumn Leaves and sits on the ground level above a record/cd store, …
The Rio Summer Olympics kicks off tonight and even though I don’t often watch sports, hit the track, or the road if I can help it, I look forward to …
The Planetary Society (a non-profit with thousands of dues-paying members) needed a few different print pieces created. An advocacy pamphlet, the …
In the fall of 2015 I created a birdfeeder using a single sheet of 24″ x 12″ birch plywood. I designed the three dimensional object in two dimensions …
Yesterday after my son (age 10 at this posting) and I finished up some collaborative Portal 2 levels he went up to his room. He came down about 10 …
A few years ago I had an idea to create ambient music from classic literature. The concept was simple: choose a piece of writing, remove every bit of …
As I always say, if you want one of your fonts on a book cover, you’ve got to do it yourself. Okay I don’t say that, and honestly I’ve seen my stuff …
A simple thought popped into my brain during a run in the rainy woods today: replace the word “fight” in key quotes from the movie Fight Club with …
If only everyone had paid 50¢ per download It feels like not too long ago I wrote a similar blog post about hitting 1,000,000 free font downloads. A …
Things I'm Over India Pale Ales Higher education Apps “Entrepreneurs” Google Chrome Coffee that costs more than $2 Reddit Road races Seeing social …
This isn’t science, it’s personal. I don’t drink a lot. That is to say, when I enjoy a grown-up beverage, I do so in moderation. There are three …
In a flurry of awesomeness and dollars flying everywhere, the first expansion deck for Assumptions is here. After finding, hiring, loving Louie Chin …
I’ve never met Lauren Baker But back in February she emailed in response to my tweet looking for character illustrators for an upcoming project. In …
I got sucked into a bit of a 90s black hole when /r/typography shared a link to screenshots of every title shot from the show Seinfeld …
Sometimes all it takes to find great talent is a tweet asking for exactly that. Looking for the first expansion pack artist led me to Louie Chin, a …
When my friends at Adjacent asked me to take a few photos of their freshly updated space, I was happy to say "absolutely" and wise enough to bring …
I used to love bright, busy, vibrant wallpaper/background on my phone. They were fun but made the locked view/home screen busy, especially at night, …
In 2012 I put out an instrumental album called The Return Voyage of Christopher Mackenzie (TRVOCM). The music is kind of wacky, but it is exactly …
Jonah and I have been going to the Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk ever since my sister moved to that area over five years ago. My favorite room/exhibit …
There was a lot going on in town yesterday, but I was able to stop by Singlebrook's latest hackathon (hosted at their place, sponsored by many other …
My kid busted out a brand new hoodie recently. Not one he bought but one that he designed! He is still slightly obsessed with frogs, which I think is …
A few days ago I saw this and got really excited: #twithaca this friday, come make paper creations on the laser cutter @IthacaGen …
A lot of times I try to zoom out, or step back from something, to gain perspective. In this case I got in a close as I could. Closer than possible …
My kid is getting bigger, smarter, faster, older. Summer is gone. Even our schedule is completely opposite what it has been for the past 5 years. Our …
I've used Southpaw quite a bit since Allison and I brought it to life earlier this year. Almost every day, at the Beer co. actually. In fact, it is …
The fairgrounds are in Syracuse, just over an hour away from our home. It hosts the Great New York State Fair, an annual celebration of epic …
We've left Ithaca, barely, but it feels like a wonderful new world. Actually, we’ve been out of “the city” for almost two months now, but that time …
It isn’t new but it is hugely popular, and I’m using it these days in place of Rockwell Extra Bold (which is lovely, but not Chunk). I’ve also been …
That’s right, I made these three pixel fonts in 2007. Flash was a big thing that I seemed to spend a bit of time with, and tiny text was huge (lol). …
Had it been a clear day this view 👇would have included Mount Washington and the beast we hiked on the exact same day last year, Mount Madison. But …
For the second time in my life I was treated to a Lips experience that stimulated every sense and also left me more inspired than I could have …
Last week I received an email from someone asking about a specific usage and style stuff for one of my fonts blah blah blah. I linked them to the …
An Adirondack High Peak Adventure I packed light, aside from the dog, and pitched a tent near the trail as the sun went down. Thunder and lightning …
So when I do manage to get off the ground I find myself amazed at the experience. Luckily I’ve been able to share the past few trips with my son (who …
It’s rare for me to write about concert experiences. Over the past few years I’ve enjoyed MIA, Flaming Lips, Phoenix, and Fiona Apple (among others), …
One day at AWP I took a few hours to conceptualize and design a new kind of text overlay app. I started with the concept, a simple interface, and …
My sister has lived within an hour of New York City for a few years now. I'm not a city guy, but I can certainly love it for brief periods. How …
We went to find scarred landscape. I needed to see the environmental catastrophe that everyone around here has been talking about, trying to prevent. …
Metroid has been on my mind lately. It started when my kiddo obtained Nintendo Land / WiiU and found the Metroid level, which begins with the …
My friend Keith lives in a pretty sweet spot in New Hampshire. So the day after Christmas, while we were all in the same area, my life long friends …
Last month Adam Baker had a very impressive photo show in town. Having only seen his work as large as my browser window would allow I was blown away …
Seriously. Justin James Muir takes a good photo. When he sent me a few sample portraits for his beard book, titled A Book of Beards, my (bearded) jaw …
“Also known by the Algonquin name Tahawus, meaning Cloud-Splitter” I'm not really hiking all 46 Adirondack high peaks and it seems like cheating a …
Each year at the end of May all of Ithaca seems to come out for the Ithaca Festival parade! Sometimes it rains but this year we had beautiful …
I’m standing on what used to be Route 61, the now closed off southern path into Centralia, Pennsylvania. Underneath the road, and much of the old …
I recently released an instrumental album that tells the story of a spaceman (whose ancestors originated on Earth) returning home. I, for better or …
I posted this on Vimeo . I’ve been holding on to it for too long and putting off making the video, but here it is. This is in my opinion Radiohead’s …
📍Ithaca, New York
Currently I'm designing new type for Google Fonts through ETC👍I also maintain upstate.design, New O'Clock, and You Think This Is A Game.