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Crack Press 1995 | Portland Type 2010

I moved to Portland from Vermont in the early 90s to attend the Museum Art School, as we called it back then, after an art director / mentor sat me down in her office – “Pete,” she said, “you should go to college.” So, I did. In my second year at PNCA, I had the opportunity to work on my first project at Wieden + Kennedy, for OK soda. From there, I had the wonderful opportunity to work with many top creatives and agencies. I graduated in '95 and won my first big art commission to create large format screen print canvases for artist Peter Wegner. This all started the ball rolling and the intersection in my creative life of art, music, design and type with two businesses the two businesses I founded.

Crack Press is a Graphic Art and Print studio which I formed while attending art school. My first large scale commission was creating Peter Wegner’s seminal body of art, titled American Types. My very good friend Hawthorne Hunt worked with me, side-by-side to make large format screen prints on canvas. Since then, the studio has become an avenue for creating my artwork as well as working directly with artists, musicians, designers and illustrators to realize their vision.

Portland Type is a design studio that specializes in creative / art direction, brand and typeface design, which evolved from Portland's first digital type foundry I founded in the early 90s. Originally conceived as a conduit to release commercial fonts, it has grown into a multifaceted studio. As the primary creative dude, I feel fortunate to have worked directly with great companies and internal creative teams in bringing over 75 type designs to life for global companies, including MTV, Adidas, Starbucks, Dr. Martens, Target, W+K, SPORE (Electronic Arts), Dodge, Skylab Architecture, McMenamins, TaylorMade Golf, Nike, REI and Columbia Sportswear.

Thanks for reading and swinging by,

- Pete McCracken

Founder | Owner | Creative, Dude.