New Always with Honor Tshirt

Fellow Portland designers Always with Honor have just released the 3rd edition of their Animal Tshirt series.  A mighty fine looking moose if I don’t say so. Get yours here.  Read More

North Coast Dreams

Spring break. It was largely desolate on the north Oregon coast – suited me just fine! I hopped in a trusty white Prius (hah) and booked myself a room in the tiny hamlet of Manzanita. I still have a bit of sunburn on my face, and there is sand in my cuffed pants. The Oregon coast has been my playground for about two decades, this time I wanted to see it and feel it simultaneously. This is hard for me, I usually don’t really see a place until I leave it. School... Read More

Mixtape: Bring your Scantron

Our second tape! Hip hop from Scandinavians! I read on a Youtube comment last week that said “Scandinavians are killing it right now.” This isn’t anything new, but for some the idea of Scandinavian Hip Hop may be. All the hip hop artists in this mix are exclusively from either Norway or Sweden. The tape turns out to be optimistic, sunny, reflective, and appropriate for a run, or friends chilling on your sofa. Better make it an Ikea sofa. Track 11 gets a little... Read More

Neverend: A Designer Clock Series with Dan Funderburgh

Yesterday was a big day for friend of the Fort Bobby Solomon! He and Montreal based design/build shop Furni have just released the first in a series of clocks in conjunction with some incredibly talented designers. A new clock design will be released every month beginning with this gem from Dan Funderburgh. A few details from Kitsune Noir: – Limited edition of 88 / 44 natural & 44 black – Measure 16″ high x 9″ wide / These are HUGE! – Laser... Read More

Adam McRae

Adam McRae is about to graduate from uni up in Bellingham, Washington – I heard about his images over lunch the other day and somehow I remembered his name. Must have been the french fries. I don’t think Mr. McRae will have any trouble finding commission once graduated – his eye is solid and his work has a point of view. This is what I call dreamy. Nice work Adam!  Read More

Powells blitzkrieg

For those of you that are lucky enough to live in Portland, you know the program. I looked at my image library at home and realized it needed some refreshments. There is only on place. There is only one holy land. Powells Books. Here is what I found, all came from the Orange Room, in and around section 675, Nature Studies, in case you’d like similar publications on your shelf at home! Total cost: $29.25 All I will say is this could never happen at Borders. No... Read More

Fort Mixtape – #1!

This is exciting, our first mixtape! Having been inspired by the incredible bloggers that we follow often & the wonderful world of sharing music (Kitsune Noir + ISO50 + The Porch + Skull4Brains) I thought it was high time we contribute. So for this inaugural mixtape, the Fort has converted to the great teachings of Islam. Perfect timing, right? You were thinking about converting anyway, this will totally be the soundtrack on your journey to Mecca. Anyway, all the songs on... Read More

GOOD LOOK: Wireless Parking San Francisco

As anyone who has accompanied me to Portland International Airport can attest I can do some serious geeking out where well designed parking systems are concerned. Their short term parking system is incredible with lights that change from red to green depending on wether or not there is a car in the spot and signs that show you how many spots are open on any given level. While I’m sure this system isn’t unique to PDX it’s the only place I’ve seen it and... Read More

Aboriginal typeface

In doing some research for a school project I discovered the Canadian province of Nunavut has created its own typeface! Interesting, I’m totally intrigued. It’s called Pigiarniq. The latin portion of the alphabet is quite lovely, and then the Aboriginal portion is just incredible. So it’s basically a geometry class, to check out their phonetics. Tiro Typeworks took care of the design and also have another version available called Uqammaq. Tiro also has an upcoming... Read More

Metropolis cover

Lis Charman over at Portland State University teamed up with her husband Brad Trost to design the latest cover of Metropolis magazine. This is so so excellent, not only the final solution but all of the iterations. This is called prolific! What an example to set for all her students in the design program. While working on this Brad and Lis went through these gorgeous versions: From Brad & Lis: We were asked to come up with four different ideas. We gathered inspiration... Read More