National Park Family Day is a FREE, family-friendly event that brings your northwest national parks to you! It has been said that the National Park System, which includes many of our nation’s most precious, revered and significant treasures, reflects who we are as a people and as a nation—that America’s spirit is reflected in the National Park System.

This year’s event on Saturday, May 19th 10am–4pm hosted by NPCA will be even bigger and better than before with a multitude of hands-on, kid-friendly activities. Park Rangers from Olympic, North Cascades, and Mt. Rainier National Parks will be on-hand for demos and to answer all your park questions. Local organizations will be on-site teaching families about the wonders, culture and history of our national and local parks, conservation, and wildlife. Kids will also have the opportunity to become Family Day Jr. Rangers and enter the Raffle Drawing to Win Fabulous Prizes including an America the Beautiful—Annual Park Pass!

Family Fun Activities:
11am to Noon—Live Wildlife Encounter with the Woodland Park Zoo

12:15 to 2:15pm—Camping 101 Demonstrations
How to Make Delicious Camp Treats, Identifying Animal Tracks, Learn to Set up a Tent, while covering the Ten Essentials for Safe Hiking & Camping, Stay Safe with the Lost But Found, Safe & Sound Program

2:30 to 3pm—What Are You Trying To Tell Me?
Wolf Body Language by Wolf Haven International

Participating Organizations Include:
National Parks Conservation Association, National Park Service, Seattle Parks & Recreation, Puget Sound Energy, Seattle Tilth, Mt Rainier National Park, Washington’s National Park Fund, Woodland Park Zoo, Student Conservation Association, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, National Wildlife Federation, Green Trails Maps/NW Link, Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center, Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, EarthCorps, Wolf Haven, Washington Wild, Outdoor Recreation Interagency Center, Red Tricycle, Mountain to Sound Greenway Trust, North Cascades Institute, Seward Park Audubon Center, Bike Works, Washington Native Plant Society, YMCA/B.O.L.D, Oregon Caves National Monument, NatureBridge, Olympic National Park, Talking Rain, and Snoqualmie Tribes.

View the 2012 Family Day event graphics project page. See previous years family day event graphics from Fort Vancouver NHS and Seattle.

Jack White’s Triple Decker Poster was designed and printed by Matthew Jacobson and Bryce McCloud. The three poster designs can stand alone or work together layered on top of one another. Jack White and Third Man records are describing it as “a ‘fourth wall’ inter-dimensional type thing.” The posters are for Jack White’s show in Nashville with the Alabama Shakes. (Can’t wait to see both of these bands at Sasquatch this year!) 

Visit the Third Man Records main page and see how these posters look, and work together, or jump to the end of this video (3:50) that shows the production of these limited edition laser cut poster designs.

BTW Third Man Records should definitely be giving these away for free.

With the University of Washington operating as the hub, the ISTC for pervasive computing combines researchers from six research universities including Georgia Institute of Technology, Cornell University, University of Rochester, UCLA and Stanford University. ISTC is co-led by Dieter Fox, associate professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, and Anthony LaMarca, a senior scientist at Intel.

Blank Space collaborated with ISTC to design and develop a clean cohesive website and identity design. The website showcases students’, researchers’,  and scientists’ collaborative findings in the development of the next generation of pervasive computing systems. Learn more about ISTC.

Here are my favorites:

“What a tremendous life this is. I’m doing everything I want to do” —Maurice Sendak

“Oh, please don’t go—we’ll eat you up—we love you so!” ―Maurice Sendak

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”― Maurice Sendak

Thank You Mr. Sendack for your brilliant creativity and honesty.

Hat tip to @cwebbdesign and GoodReads

Our design team at Blank Space collaborated with the University of Washington’s Creative Communications and the DRC to refresh the DRC’s website and create a new logo to match the sophistication of the DRC’s research.

Learn more about the Diabetes Research Center at the University of Washington.

by Gregory Pruden (Bexley, Ohio)

by librarianishish

by ms.Tea (Tracy Ducasse, Massachusetts)

by Mike McHolm (Vancouver, BC overlooking Science World and the Olympic Village)

by D.H. Parks (Daniel Parks, Berkeley, California)

by anietoko (Andrés Nieto Porras, Palma de Mallorca, España)

All photos are linked to their original source on Flickr. Here’s an additional favorite of the Super Moon with the Seattle skyline.

Blank Space had the pleasure of designing and developing this band’s new website with beautiful photography provided by Genevieve Pierson and Scott Everett.

Mike Notter’s lyrics have a sense of rawness and familiarity that simply feels like home. Listen to new folk music and find their next gig at HannaleeSong.com.

Headed West—The Sacrifice of the King by Chris Sheridan, Oil on canvas, 54 x 32 inches
Neighborhood Art Walk: Capitol Hill   Venue: Ghost Gallery

City Arts Spring Art Walk Awards are upon us!
Join the voting party in honor of the six finalist—Jody Joldersma, Chris Sheridan, Rodrigo Valenzuela, Dane Youngren, Lois Silver and Eric Edwards—at Melrose Market Studios on Thursday, May 10th from 8–11pm sponsored by Blue Moon with complimentary beers. For every free beer you drink you get an additional token for voting. (Yes, that’s right the more free beer you drink the more important your opinion becomes!) The Spring Art Award winner will be announced at 10pm.

The event is by RSVP only with limited capacity, RSVP on Facebook, or email your RSVP to promos@cityartsmagazine.com.

About the Art Walk Awards
Six finalists from art walks all over the city compete to be awarded $1,000, a spotlight in City Arts Magazine and to be crowned champion! There are neighborhood art walks nearly every week in Seattle! Find out where and when at SeattleArtWalks.org.

Melrose Market Studios on Capitol Hill
1532 Minor Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101
8–11pm RSVP Required

See you there!

“Our national parks are living classrooms that provide a space where families can spend time together and our children can learn things that cannot be read in textbooks,” said Sean Smith, Northwest Policy Director for the National Parks Conservation Association.

Seattle area residents who attend the event will hear from park rangers about the national and cultural history of our national parks, meet some of the wildlife that live in our northwest parks, hear from a Native American storyteller, play plant jeopardy, and see a nature puppet show.

The third annual Northwest National Park Family Day will be hosted by the National Parks Conservation Association and the National Park Service. This year’s sponsors are Snoqualmie Tribe,  Puget Sound Energy, Seattle Parks and Recreation, and  Slalom Consulting. For more information, visit: npca.org/northwest.

Look Up Here celebrates 5 years of exhibits at Bherd Studios Gallery and features 33 Pacific Northwest artists who have been an integral part of Bherd Studios and the Seattle art scene. In addition to the exhibit, a book under the same title features all 33 artists. The belief that the Seattle art scene is ripe for recognition has been Bherd’s main mission to promote the promising talents of local urban and contemporary artists.

“The range of media is extensive, from aerosol spray, acrylic, and oil paint, to stencil, pen & ink drawing, collage, sculpture, photography, encaustic, and street-based installation and performance. In just five years, Bherd has created a rich mixture of both lowbrow and highbrow that they bring together under the “urban and contemporary” umbrella. There’s also a fascinating hybrid or cyborg quality to much of the flora and fauna where organic shapes are grafted on to humans, machines, or robots. Nature also appears as a series of scientific specimens, and there’s a wonderful, collective take on the 19^th century (Victorian period), with gothic horror, ornate frames, and steampunk paraphernalia.” 
—David Francis (excerpted from Look Up Here, the book)

John and Michele Osgood, directors of Bherd Studios, worked with Blank Space to design their new website and the Look up Here book to mark the five year anniversary. The refreshed website design brings their online presence inline with the quality exhibitions they have curated since 2007. Bherd Studios is an urban and contemporary art gallery  located in the heart of Greenwood inside the eclectic Greenwood Collective building.

Look Up Here Exhibition and Book Signing next Friday, April 13 from 6–10pm.
See you there!