Inksie’s online shop launched on Monday.

The shop, envisioned as a core part of the brand, is the fruit of a year-long effort. We currently have three custom designed t-shirts, two prints and a set of Scout Books notebooks available for purchase. We aim to increase the number of products and expand our product base as we evolve. Sign up for the newsletter to receive the latest news on Inksie releases.

The Inksie Shop and Journal of Design & Culture are currently in beta. Our team is tirelessly testing the site for glitches and bugs, but that doesn’t mean we’ll catch everything. If you see something that needs addressing, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line.

On the Inksie Journal

We foster an appreciation for design and its expressive qualities. To this end, we operate The Inksie Journal of Design & Culture, where we interview highly regarded professionals, feature exceptional artists and more. Through visual and conceptual content we aim to grow.

So goes the mantra for the Inksie Journal, aptly titled “Growth by Inspiration.” As you may have seen in previous posts, The Journal is not the place to search for the “latest,” most “advanced” Photoshop techniques or recent, re-appropriated visuals of mediocre, “minimal” “design.” Instead, we aspire to provide creatives and non-creatives alike with a source for traditional and non-traditional inspiration, education and relevant news.

Plans for the Future

Unfortunately, the shop launch has, due to time limitations, detracted from The Journal’s consistency. We’d like to put more of a focus on The Journal, as we feel it important to educate and provide interesting content to those in the industry and enthusiasts.

The Journal is intended to be a champion of reading in the digital age. We would like to continue exploring Design while also examining Culture. These topics are heavily influenced by one another – design directly impacts cultural trends, culture shapes the needs and requirements of design. In these realms, we seek to maintain a consistent level of quality and are continually striving to improve upon the content that we provide to our readers.

Here’s what you can look forward to:

• Visual work of interest and importance from well-known and unknown artists and designers
• Interviews with acclaimed artists and designers
• Tasteful opinion pieces of relevant content
• Cohesive editorial illustration
• Written series on various design- and culture-related topics

If you have an idea of what you’d like to see on The Journal, please leave a comment.

A Call for Contributors

The Inksie Journal of Design & Culture is looking to hire contributors – both writers and illustrators – in an effort to push its content. Please review the requirements. If you would like to be considered for one of the contributor spots, please email The Journal’s editors.

Update: We are looking to pay contributors, depending on experience. Please email us for more information.

Writers

We are seeking writers who are comfortable writing essays or brief discourses on various topics ranging from culture to design, specifically in the fields of design or the visual arts. In addition, we are looking for individuals with perspectives and opinions on various topics. Please provide:

• 2-3 writing samples
• A list of blogs you currently follow
• Topics you are interested in writing about

Illustrators & Designers

We are looking for illustrators and designs who are able to think conceptually and bring a new level of understanding to a written piece through visuals. We are looking for illustrators who are able to glean relevant information from an article and create a visual from it. We are looking for designers who work with information graphics, expressive typography and other visual elements to add interest to a written piece.

• Link to portfolio
• List of blogs you currently follow
• Topics you are interested in

The Inksie Art Team is pleased to showcase Brent Couchman’s Print & Production Poster, now available in the Inksie Shop.

We commissioned Mr. Couchman to create a design based on one of the four Inksie Principles:

Inksie engages artists and the public alike in the medium of print. We believe that it is a powerful, communicative platform. We exercise the medium’s strengths through distributing original works of printed art and design to the public.

The print is a three-color serigraph on 18″ × 24″, 80-pound cover. Mr. Couchman chose French Paper’s luscious Hot Fudge from their Pop Tone line. It comes in a limited edition of 100.

The Inksie Art Team is pleased to showcase our very first product, the Inksie Ampersand Print. The design, made by Portland, Oregon-based creative studio Colorcubic, was inspired by Herb Lubalin’s famous ampersand designs. It utilizes patterning of Inksie’s icons to form the symbol.

The limited-edition, 11″ × 17″ posters were printed on Neenah Environment PC-100 White 80-pound cover with a metallic gold ink. Rebecca from Stumptown Printers, a print shop in Portland, made the prints on a Vandercook Universal 1 Press.

The Ampersand Print will be available in an edition of 250 upon the launch of Inksie’s online shop.

Update: Giveaway Wrap-up

Monday, August 23rd: After five days of iPhone and Droid winners, the Inksie giveaway is over. Be sure to check back for the shop launch. Our winners are:

Adrian Kenny	Anna Schwartz	Nico Schneider	Dylan White	Chris Koelle

Original Giveaway Post:

Did you miss your chance to win some Inksie branded merchandise in the initial giveaway? We decided to give you a second chance, to win something even bigger. Can you possibly guess what it could be?

The initial Inksie Giveaway contest ended on Sunday, August 8th at 12:00 PM. We randomly selected and announced winners this morning. Be sure to check our Flickr feed for pictures of winners’ packages.

An Extension of Appropriate Proportions

We want to create the best possible experience to customers and provide the best possible arena to sell designer’s products. There are still some bugs to fix and details to iron out on Inksie’s shop. Therefore, we’ve set the new launch date for Monday, August 23rd.

The Newer, Grander Contest

We have found a new love for the number 23. Notice, we have given away 23 prize packs and set the launch date for the 23rd. Now, we would like to further utilize this wonderful number: we are giving away two Droid 2s and three iPhone 4s.

This Way to Enter

We’re sticking solely to Twitter for this contest. If you are not already following Inksie on Twitter, do so. Then, tweet the exact message found in this link:

Entries are valid until Sunday, August 22nd at 12:00 PM. You must follow Inksie and tweet this exact message to be entered into the contest.

To The Winners, The Spoils

Winners will be selected and announced daily from August 18th to August 22nd. We’ll announce an iPhone 4 winner on August 18th, a Droid 2 winner on August 19th, and so on until August 22nd.

Just Some Minor Details

• Winners will be randomly selected by computer system the day before they’re announced.
• Inksie will contact winners through Twitter. If a winner does not respond within 23 hours, a new winner will be selected.
• Winners will receive a gift card that corresponds in value to their respective prize in their respective online store (either the Apple Store or Verizon online store). These gift cards will be issued as electronic store codes via email.
• We reserve the right to change these terms and conditions at any time. But don’t worry, we won’t pull a fast one on you.
• Contestants are limited to only one valid entry. Once a contest has won, he or she is no longer able to win again.

About Juice

Juice is Inksie’s experimental podcast. It’s a mix of electronic and analog sounds, with both ambient and lyrical songs that create a cohesive listening experience. The Inksie Team curates and mixes Juice (semi) monthly and commissions custom artwork.

Track Listing

About the Tracks

Inksie’s Creative Director, Dave, selected and organized Juice 002’s songs. He writes:

I ran across the B. Fleischmann & Ms. John Soda a couple of years ago. The intro resonated with me, so I decided to start the playlist out with it. I tested the waters with iTunes Genius and began researching suggested artists’ work, sometimes to a second or third degree. A few of the other artists were some old favorites of mine including The Radio Dept., Dntel and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. They seemed to fit in well with the other tracks, so I fit them into the mix where they flowed the best.

I’ve learned quite a bit in organizing this playlist. Please give this month’s Juice a listen and let me know what you think.

About the Artwork

The artwork for Juice’s second edition was created by the Inksie Team’s Creative Division. It was inspired by the fifth track, Eyes on Fire by Blue Foundation. The song’s quiet, haunting lyrics provoked a powerful mental image:

Eyes on fire

Your spine is ablaze

Felling any foe with my gaze

The idea was developed through several sketches that evolved into the icon. A vector version of the icon was developed for texture work. It was printed on a low-quality laser printer with cheap, course paper. The Inksie Team spent several minutes harassing the ink from the paper’s fibers with Bic pen-ends and fingernails, giving it a fatigued appearance. It was scanned and colorized using Photoshop.

The studio works primarily in print and packaging; their portfolio consists of magazine spreads, business cards, letterheads, promotional items.

We are extending Inksie’s launch giveaway for one more week. Entries will be accepted up until Monday, August 9th, when the Inksie shop will launch.

We have received a lot of entries for the drawing. We want even more people to have a chance to hear about Inksie and win something neat. In addition, we’re including a new Inksie mystery t-shirt to the prize package.

As before, the ways to enter the contest are:

• Follow Inksie on Twitter
• Become friends with Inksie on Facebook
• Subscribe to Inksie’s newsletter
• Leave a comment mentioning your favorite Journal article

What equipment do you use? Do you use off-camera lighting, or do you rely solely on natural light?

I use a Canon DSLR and lenses from both Canon and Tokina. I solely use natural lighting for both outdoor and indoor shooting.

What software do you use to edit your work? What do you do to process your photographs?

Most of my post-production work is done in Adobe Photoshop CS5 but I also use OnOne Plug-In Suite 5, Noiseware, Noise Ninja and several others.

Color is a strong subject. What is your goal here?

My goal is to desaturate my images to an “eerie” tone that suits the apocalyptic and lonely mood in my work.

A pairing of images from Mr. Høltermand’s ‘K3nc2r1Hus4t’ and ‘Illuminated’ galleries.

There is a particular location you photograph in both K3nc2r1Hus4t (3rd from last) and Illuminated (the first image). What is this place and what is its significance to you?

Yes. Those are special light boxes found on the walls of the K3nc2r1Hus4t (a concert house – the numbers in the title stands for the four studios in the concert house). I think I like them due to their very graphic expression and because I have a past in the graphic design business I specially loved these.

For The Strange Attractor’s Still Life project, you used the Diana F+. These images, especially the early ones, are a dramatic departure from your architectural style. How much did the camera influence this? Can you describe your process and intent with these images?

The camera influenced it a lot. I had never previously worked with an analog/film camera and had a blast shooting away, not knowing if the pictures would end up being good or bad. I wanted to give a more personal feel around my work – a look behind the scenes of my life and the world around me. Most of the landscape photos were shot nearby where I live. I also included people in my shots (the little girl in some of the last shots is actually my daughter Sally) which is definitely not my cup of tea but felt that I had to try it out in order to move closer to a more human and personal photo-series.

For the Still Life project, Mr. Høltermand shot with a film camera for the first time.

Regarding this project, you wrote it “has definitely triggered the inner experimental photography child.” How, exactly? Do you plan on exploring this more?

Yes, definitely. It made me want to play more and experiment with my work. Normally I crave the clean, aesthetic and minimal but sometimes I feel the need to break out of that perfectionistic box that I love so much and make some noise. The Strange Attractor’s Still Life project definitely helped me want to try that out even more.

Who do you look to for inspiration?

I find inspiration in a lot of different places; magazines of all kinds but specially magazines about graphic design, photography and architecture. Books; I love those big coffee table books on graphic design, art, movies (mostly Sci-Fi) and cult classics – currently I have The Stanley Kubrick Archives lying beside me when I work – Kubrick is King. Music; Icelandic band Sigur Rós has been the number one inspiration in my work, I must say. Their music is almost always in my mind (and in my iPod while shooting) when I work on a photographic project, but also Hammock, Moby, Air, Efterklang, Trentemøller, M83, Max Richter, Mikael Simpson, Mike Sheridan, Olafur Arnalds – the list is endless. All of these sources of inspiration are my driving force in making my errie, melancholic, post-apocalyptic and moody world come to life.

That comes across in color and composition, but it is most apparent through the absence of people in most of your photographs. Can you comment on this?

I like the viewer to feel alone. Like the last person on earth wandering around among this deserted beautiful architecture. It sets an unsettling and eerie mood that I like very much. And it makes the architecture stand out even more.

What are you working on now?

Right now I am working on several different projects; among others I am in the preparation for an upcoming exhibition in St. Petersburg this fall, where 40 of my photographs will be exhibited in the Manege, the largest exhibition hall of St. Petersburg. I’m also working on some personal projects and maybe a re-design of my website – who knows. Right now, no two days are alike, so you will never know which cool projects awaits me or are currently being shot and produced.

What are your plans for the future?

I always strive to become better in my field and hopefully I will be working with even more creative people and on even more insanely cool projects than I already have. So far it has been a true joyride and hopefully this is just the beginning.

If you’ve not seen the launch page and counter, then beware: Inksie is launching its official online shop on August 9th. We’re hosting a giveaway in celebration of this momentous occasion.

The Goods

• A T-shirt with the Ampersand Icon design. It is a gold-foil print on a black, jersey cotton American Apparel shirt.
• The Ampersand Icon on an 11″ × 17″ letterpress poster. It is a limited edition print on 80-pound cover stock (edition of 250).
• Three Inksie-brand Scout Books notebooks, useful for sketching or jotting down notes. One of each: lined, blank or grid paper.
• Gift card to Inksie’s online shop for $23 (redeemable for one tee with free domestic shipping).
• A mystery designer Inksie t-shirt on a jersey cotton American Apparel shirt.

How to Enter

Inksie will randomly pick twenty-three winners, each of whom will receive a complete giveaway package. You have four ways of entering: follow Inksie on Twitter, like Inksie on Facebook, subscribe to Inksie’s newsletter, or leave a comment mentioning your favorite Inksie blog post. Each method is worth one entry. You may increase your odds of winning by entering four times. If you are already engaged with Inksie through one or more of these mediums, you are automatically entered.

Selecting the Winners

Inksie will announce the winners on the shop launch date, August 2nd. We will randomly select from all entries through electronic means. Entries are valid until August 8th at 12:00 PM, Pacific Standard Time.

Upon Winning

We will contact winners via their method of entry (direct message on Twitter, message on Facebook, or email). If winners do not respond within 24 hours we will randomly select another winner. Please expect your packages within four to six weeks from the launch date.

About the Design

The ampersand tee and print was created by Colorcubic, a multidisciplinary design studio in Portland, Oregon. Inspired by typography, it incorporates Inksie’s four icons in the shape of Herb Lubalin’s famed ampersand.