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People

Gabe Kean

Designer and Born Magazine director Gabe Kean discusses abused fonts, Mark Twain, and exactly why people in the Northwest drive slow in the left lane.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rosecrans Baldwin
TMN co-editor Rosecrans Baldwin lives in Paris, France. He founded The Morning News with Andrew Womack in 1999 and has been waking up early ever since. He currently writes the Letters from Paris column. His work has elsewhere appeared in The New York Times, New York, The Nation, and on NPR’s All Things Considered. His personal web site is useless. Every month he makes a new Muxtape. Someday his ashes will be tossed off Mount Desert Island. His first novel, You Lost Me There, is coming out soon with Riverhead Books.
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NEWSLETTER

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More addictive than heroin, more challenging than Sudoku: the TMN Map Quiz, delivered hot, fresh, and diabolical to your inbox every Friday.

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Name, Date of Birth, Web site: Gabe Kean, August 17th, 1973. Born Magazine

Occupation title(s), both real and desired-in-another-lifetime: Real: Lead Designer, Second Story Interactive Studio, Art Director, Born Magazine; Next time: a chef cooking for monks in a Tibetan monastery.

Best story you’ve overheard at a bar/restaurant/park: I think it’s the story that Celeste told me: describing her and Marybeth’s adventures in West Seattle karaoke dives (posing as white trash women).

Favorite books: Songs of the Doomed by Hunter S. Thompson, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan.

Heroes: Mark Twain, as the humorist.

Most misunderstood font, and why: Comic Sans. People seem to think it is a really great and appropriate font for use on menus at Indian restaurants, signage at yoga studios, and garage sale signs. Hmm.

What makes you laugh: People in Portland and Seattle seem to think it’s just fine to drive slower than the speed limit in the left lane.

Five words that sound great: Sugar, pong, lily, home, booyah!

The Internet is used best for: General research and exploring new art forms (in particular, I’m interested in experimenting with technology).

Charity worth giving to: Born Magazine—now a non-profit organization.

—Published February 5, 2003