I’ve just returned from Hawaii, and am trying to get used to these gray Portland skies. Here’s a little taste of the islands to spice up this dreary day.
The Traditional
Traditional Aloha shirts (known as Hawaiian shirts on the mainland) are usually adorned with traditional Hawaiian quilt designs, tapa designs, and simple floral patterns in more muted colors. The Aloha shirts manufactured for local Hawaiians are considered formal wear in business and government, and thus are regarded as equivalent to a shirt, coat and tie. These shirts often are printed on the interior, a style called “reverse print,” resulting in the muted color on the exterior.
The Contemporary
Contemporary Aloha shirts are often brilliantly-colored with floral patterns or generic Polynesian motifs, and are worn as casual informal wear. They may have prints that don’t feature any traditional Hawaiian quilt or floral designs and instead may have elements such as automobiles, drinks, surf boards or other elements arranged in the same pattern as a traditional Aloha shirt. The modern Aloha shirt was created in the early 1930s by Chinese merchant Ellery Chun in Waikiki, when he began sewing brightly colored shirts for tourists out of old kimono fabrics he had leftover.
Justin, with his Android phone, will shrug his Google-loving shoulders and say “who cares?”, but I’m excited. My iPhone just got a new App this morning called 
We here at Zoom Creates have been getting all kinds of interesting work lately. Some of this new work has led us down the path of animating in the third dimension. Naturally, we wanted to take a good look at some of the tools out there that could help us reach our goal.
In the design, web and marketing world, it’s nearly always award season. There are the HOW Awards, the Communication Arts Awards, the Summit International Awards, the Direct Marketing Awards, the Webby Awards and let us not forget our very own Portland Rosey Awards. The list is nearly endless. Every week, new mailers arrive on my desk that offer us the opportunity to pay a handsome fee to enter our work in their contests, with the promise of accolades, high profile judges and fancy trophies. So many categories! Such gorgeous awards!
I receive a column every other week by Nan Russell titled “
