Jason Kottke
Jason Kottke (born
September 27,
1973) is a well-known
American blogger and former
web designer currently living in
New York City. He designed the popular
Silkscreen font which has become widely used in web design and has won a
Lifetime Achievement Award as a blogger.
After graduating with a degree in
Physics from
Coe College in 1995, Kottke started work as a web designer in
1996 working on website design projects for
3M,
E*Trade,
Charles Schwab,
Target Corporation,
The Bond Market Association, and the
University of Minnesota.
In
1999, he designed the Silkscreen typefont — since adopted by
Adobe,
MTV and
Volvo, amongst others. His design work has been featured in
The New Yorker,
The New York Times,
Forbes,
Brill's Content and
Graphics International. Kottke has served on the Advisory Board for
SXSW Interactive since 2000 and has spoken at the SXSW Interactive conference as well as the Seybold and
Netmedia Conferences.
Kottke's first site was
0sil8, a collection of "digital experiments."
Kottke, a pioneering blogger, began his blog in March 1998.
In
2000, Jason Kottke and his then-girlfriend (now wife)
Meg Hourihan were profiled in a
New Yorker article, "You've Got Blog", which introduced blogging to a wider audience. His contributions to blogging were acknowledged when he won a Bloggie Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.
His blogging also got him in
trouble with
Sony when he
broke the news of the loss that broke
Ken Jennings'
Jeopardy! win streak.
On
February 22,
2005, Kottke announced he had left his web design job in order to work on kottke.org full-time. He pledged that all content on the site would still be free while encouraging readers to become "
micropatrons" by making an optional contribution of any amount. This made him the first person to "professionally" pursue his weblog without relying on advertising or corporate sponsorship. By the close of business on the day of the announcement, over 200 people were listed as micropatrons on kottke.org. Exactly one year later, Kottke announced that over the course of the year about 1,450 micropatrons had contributed $39,900, the vast majority during the three weeks after his initial announcement, and that he would not attempt the feat for a second year. [
1]
Kottke is continuing work on kottke.org "full time". As of
May 1,
2006, the blog is supported by paid advertisements, as part of the new design oriented advertising network
The DECK.
*
Kottke's Blog*
Newsweek article on Kottke as pro blogger*
Wired News article on Kottke's decision to quit his day job*
You've Got Blog -
New Yorker profile
*
Lengthy conversation about Kottke on Metafilter*
leahpeah interview with Jason Kottke*
You've Got Blog
