Author Archives: XK9

About XK9

XK9 is a Los Angeles based Graphic Design studio that specializes in Motion, Identity, Type and Character Design. BONES is the blog of XK9 & Creative Director Bill Dawson.

The Best Logos on TV

May 18, 2012 / by XK9

On Mon­day I took a shot at nam­ing The Worst Logo on Tele­vi­sion. It was an easy tar­get. Look­ing at that post, I paused to ask myself, “OK, so what’s the best logo on tele­vi­sion?”* It’s not one logo, but … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in Culture, Design, Dogs & Stuff | Leave a comment

After Effects 11 Secret Exposed

May 17, 2012 / by XK9

Last week I upgraded my Adobe Pro­duc­tion Pre­mium Cre­ative Suite to the lat­est ver­sion– CS6. Today I opened the Con­tents folder of the new After Effects CS6 appli­ca­tion (ver­sion 11.0.0.378). Within the Required folder was an After Effects Project file … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in Design, Dogs & Stuff, Technology, Toolbox | Leave a comment

Movie Talk

May 16, 2012 / by XK9

The smartest show on the art and busi­ness of moviemak­ing has slightly higher pro­duc­tion value than Zach Galifianakis’s Between Two Ferns. It’s a chat show that presents a half hour of intel­li­gent con­ver­sa­tion with guests like Don Chea­dle, Gore Verbin­ski, Ewan McGre­gor, … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in Dogs & Stuff, Entertainment | Leave a comment

Typographic Tidbit No. 10: Space Exploration

May 15, 2012 / by XK9

Erik Spiek­er­mann and E.M. Gin­ger point out in their book Stop Steal­ing Sheep… that the goal of qual­ity type­set copy is to “cre­ate a con­sis­tency, with­out clumsy white gaps between let­ters, words, sen­tences or lines of text.” The key to that con­sis­tency is … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in Design, Dogs & Stuff, Typography | Leave a comment

The Worst Logo on Television

May 14, 2012 / by XK9

In 2006 Amer­ica got insulted by this hideous design. The insult continues.

Posted in Culture, Design, Dogs & Stuff, Entertainment, Typography | 1 Comment

Best Band Logos?

May 10, 2012 / by XK9

Today Paste mag­a­zine con­trib­u­tor Josh Jack­son posted his list of the top 50 band logos. It’s an impres­sive effort. Any sub­jec­tive list like this is fod­der for debate, so I thought I’d offer com­ments and share picks XK9’s Top 25 … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in Design, Dogs & Stuff, Entertainment | 8 Comments

“AVENGERS SMASH!”

May 9, 2012 / by XK9

Samuel Jack­son got in a bit of a Twit­ter tiff with New York Times critic A.O. Scott over Scott’s pan of The Avengers. Jack­son sug­gested that Scott find a new job. A lit­tle over the top. But in his defense, … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in Dogs & Stuff, Entertainment | 1 Comment

Typographic Tidbit No. 9: The Interrobang

May 8, 2012 / by XK9

In 1962 for­mer adver­tis­ing exec­u­tive and typog­ra­phy enthu­si­ast Mar­tin Speck­ter pro­posed the inter­robang. He believed in the need for a new mark in typog­ra­phy that could punc­tu­ate exclam­a­tory, rhetor­i­cal ques­tions, like “What did I tell you‽” or “What is it … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in Design, Dogs & Stuff, Toolbox, Typography | Leave a comment

Designer Kids’ Books

May 7, 2012 / by XK9

Two of my heroes have returned in print edi­tions of children’s books they illustrated.

Posted in Design, Dogs & Stuff, Entertainment, Typography | 1 Comment

A thought for today.

May 3, 2012 / by XK9

We should be able to have civil dia­log on mat­ters of dis­agree­ment. The prob­lem is that rea­soned argu­ments are inef­fec­tive on those who believe in absolutes. There can be no rea­son­able dis­cus­sion with those who have been trained to not … Con­tinue read­ing →

Posted in Culture, Dogs & Stuff | Leave a comment