For my freelance design and engineering work I've been using this business card, with contact information on the front and a list of services I offer on the back. The font is Gotham Rounded, which I've also been using for some CNC-routed signmaking recently as the inner radii of the letters in this font are ideal for that purpose.

These were printed by the UK firm Moo on 16 pt paper with a matte finish and rounded corners. Dimensions of 85 x 55 mm (Moo now calls this the “Moo size”) are standard in the UK and some of Europe.

In The Modern Housewife, a sort of cookbook-novel published in 1850 by Alexis Soyer (the Gordon Ramsay or Alton Brown of his day), you can find a list enumerating the various foods that a celebrity chef of the 19th century might consume in 70 years of feasting and idling. In the midst of the sort of numbers that sound reasonable to modern ears—4 1/2 tons of bread, 21000 eggs, 250 melons, etc.—is the following:

in poultry, 1,200 fowls, 300 turkeys, 150 geese, 400 ducklings, 263 pigeons; 1,400 partridges, pheasants, and grouse; 600 woodcocks and snipes; 600 wild ducks, widgeon, and teal; 450 plovers, ruffes, and reeves; 800 quails, ortolans, and dotterels, and a few guillemôts and other foreign birds […] 120 Guinea fowl, 10 peacocks, and 360 wild fowl.

What an extraordinary variety of birds were available to this heroic character! I'd like to think of myself as an adventurous eater but aside from the enormous numbers of chicken and turkey typical for a 21st century American and what I imagine is an above-average amount of duck, I can count probably less than 10 quail, one or at most two pigeons, one goose, and one pheasant—certainly no plovers or peacocks (!) or those intriguing “foreign birds”.

This list has me curious! For the sake of my soul I'll leave the poor Ortolans alone but it may be time to seek out some alternative sources of poultry.

I'm pleased and very honored to announce that my submission has been chosen as the official logo of the 34th West Coast Estonian Days, or Lääneranniku Eesti Päevad, to be held in Portland, Oregon next summer. My design process for this one wasn't easy but each setback eventually resulted in something better! Here's an explanation of the logo's symbolism from my proposal document (which also contains some variations and application suggestions that may be of interest):

• Overall an eight-pointed star, representing the cornflower or rukkilill
• Blue cross symbolizing the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers
• In the center, in white, the hypocycloid of Portland’s flag
• The end of the petal also suggests the forked tail of the barn swallow, Estonia’s national bird
• Stepped color gradients add depth and texture, recall traditional Estonian mustrid
• Arrows pointing inward, symbolizing the meeting of the West Coast Estonian community

I'm grateful to Kalev Sepp, Kalle Merilo, Triina Merilo, Helve Kalmann, the board of directors and all of the organizers of LEP 2019 for this opportunity to add something to one of my favorite festivals. I'll see you all in Portland!

Saturday night's talk at The Projects of FATVillage went well. I was glad to have the opportunity to do a live demonstration of the musical swings technology. Getting it to work again, presenting it, and having stimulating interactions with people suggested many ideas for improvements to this and similar interactive musical exhibits.

Many thanks to a great audience for attending and speaking to us after the show; it's obvious that many guests were simmering with interesting ideas, of which I hope to hear more in the future. Also, my special thanks go to the following people and institutions:

• The Projects of FATVillage
• Irene Revelas, Hacklab North Boynton
• Leo Wolfe, Makerbright
• Melissa Norelli Hassan, Unity School
• Gemma Ward, Unity School
• Edutec Research Group, Citilab
• Daily Tout Les Jours