Posts Tagged ‘Designspeaks’

Design Week Portland Is Ready To Rock

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

Design Week Portland

By David Burn

Portland—Portland is Beervana, Stumptown, Puddletown, Rip City. There are as many descriptions for Portland as there are prisms to view the city through. From an industry point of view, Portland is a sustainabilty mecca, a hotbed for tech startups, a sportswear capitol and a friendly home to thousands of independent makers and doers.

Eric Hillerns, principal at Pinch says, “Everyone’s an innovator here.” He adds, “Portland is shaped by the idea of design,” hence, the small downtown core and Urban Growth Boundary. By “design” he is speaking about something much larger than graphic design. “Design is manifest in any product we use,” says Hillerns.

With this expansive definition in mind, Hillerns — who also runs the popular single-speaker series, Designspeaks (with with 52’s Brooks Gilley) — teamed with Tsilli Pines of Creative Mornings and a group of stellar event producers to offer something new to members of Portland’s design community, and those interested in the many forms design takes. The collective’s new baby is Design Week Portland, a five-day cross-disciplinary event scheduled to kick off for the first time on October 9. The opening party is at Ace Hotel’s event space, The Cleaners.

Drawing on the exceptional design programming that already exists in Portland, DWP is a new opportunity to promote design as a key industrial sector in Portland (along with the city’s focus on clean tech, advanced manufacturing, software, research and outdoor industries). DWP’s organizers want to highlight much of the existing programming that not everyone in the community knows about or participates in. “We want more awareness for these existing events, many of which are open to the public and free,” says Pines. “The rising tide raises all ships,” she notes.
(more…)

Prepare For Five Days Of Design Goodness

Tuesday, September 11th, 2012


designweekportland.com

By David Burn

Design Week Portland is a collaborative celebration of the city’s uniquely rich design scene, co-created by Eric Hillerns of Designspeaks and Tsilli Pines of Creative Mornings, and sponsored by 52 LTD, plus a handful of others.

“If creativity is Portland’s currency, then the coming weeks are an embarrassment of riches,” says Greg Newland, Executive Vice President of Marketing & PR at Travel Portland. “Portland is a city of design and for design, unique in its approach to defining place, culture and attitude,” adds Hillerns.

Starting Tuesday, October 9th and running through Saturday, October 13th, the first ever Design Week Portland will offer main stage talks, studio tours and a full slate of free and paid design programming at venues throughout the Portland metropolitan area. Please see designweekportland.com for detailed descriptions and exact event details.

Design Week Portland events will be hosted by ADX, AIGA Portland, CreativeCares, CreativeMornings, Designspeaks, Museum of Contemporary Craft, PSU, PNCA, WebVisions, WeMake, and a multitude of complementary organizations, studios and maker spaces.

There’s no badge or wristband to acquire. Please see the online schedule to plan and chart your own path through the week.

“Design Week Portland will be a celebration of design and designers as our city’s most promising cultural and economic resource,” says Hillerns.

Thanks to the many free and affordable events throughout the week, access for students and for those with a casual interest in a wide range of design topics is available.  In other words, this is an inclusive party by design.

 

David Burn is Chief Storyteller at Bonehook, a Portland-based content marketing and brand identity studio. He’s also the co-founder and editor of AdPulp.com, which covers media, marketing and advertising from the practitioner’s point of view

Designspeaks: September 30th OMFGCO… oh yeah.

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

THE SEVEN STEPS TO MAKING IT “OFFICIAL” (Or, Designspeaks with The Official Manufacturing Company)…Brought to you by 52 ltd. and AIGA

Because, in pure and simple terms, you do not want to miss this one. You’ve come to know Designspeaks for its diversity of speakers, each sharing their own unique perspective. From Byron Ferris to Jelly Helm, Aaron Draplin to Frank Chimero, Modern Dog to Patrick Coyne, Designspeaks has set out to introduce and re-acquaint. To inform and engage. To gather and celebrate the most intriguing thinkers and makers within our region. And if anyone is makin’ it real, it’s the fine gentlemen of OMFGCO… here’s a peek behind the curtain:

We are The Official Manufacturing Company.

We have the necessary documents.

We are thing makers.

We are Mathew Foster, Fritz Mesenbrink, and Jeremy Pelley, although not necessarily in that order.

We are on the same team and have already won the game.

We are out of jail.

We have reviewed our past mistakes and taken notes.

We receive sporadic recognition for our unrecognized genius.

We floss, both literally and metaphorically.

We consider the facts.

After having separately worked for some years for Wieden+Kennedy, Ace Hotel and a handful of other fantastic places, we now know exactly what we’re doing. More or less.

In October of 2010 we are opening a bar for sporting enthusiasts with our friends Jack Barron (co-owner of Ace Hotel) and Nate Tilden (of Clyde Common) and we are calling it Spirit of 77.

Who knows what we will do after that. (We do.)

Join the fellas of OMFGCO, together with 52ltd and AIGA:

When: Thursday, September 30. 7:00-10:00 p.m.

Where: Cleaners at the Ace Hotel 403 SW 10th Avenue (and Stark Street) Portland, Oregon 97205

How much: Don’t let the absurdly low price of admission hold you back. The beer and wine is free.

AIGA Members $15

Non-Members $25

Students $10

A selection of light nibbles, beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages will be provided. ID required for beer and wine. As if that isn’t enough, we’ll be giving you stuff. Want to know more? Come on out! Besides, unless you’re generally foul-tempered or deathly afraid of handsome crowds, you will certainly not be disappointed.

Planning to Attend? Please RSVP via email to ashley@52ltd.com and include your full name and whether you are an AIGA member. Payment will be accepted at the event. We will make every attempt to accommodate walk-ins. Reservations will close on Wednesday, Sept. 29.

ONLINE REGISTRATION WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR THIS EVENT. We will accept cash and checks at the door. Unfortunately, we will not accept credit cards for this event. For the AIGA member discount, you will need to bring your AIGA membership card.

About 52 Limited

52 weeks a year, 52 Limited is busy connecting our stable of freelancers with assignments in Portland, up and down the West coast, and now in, New York. We offer freelance and fulltime talent and can also pull together customized project teams to fulfill the needs of our agency and brand clients alike.  As far as talent goes, 52 is located neatly at the intersection of left brain and right brain, representing both creatives and the more cerebral thinkers of the creative industry. Contact us at www.52ltd.com.

About Designspeaks

Showcasing the most intriguing design voices in the Pacific Northwest, Designspeaks was developed to inform, engage, and inspire. The small-talks quarterly series delivers an intimate venue intended to connect to others, to see what they are doing and how they’re doing it. Some speakers will be household names and others will have managed to maintain a lower profile. Either way, all will challenge you to think a bit differently about design and its impact on this region.

Simon Mainwaring’s Take on Advertising Ideas, Newly Bound

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

The Creative Process Illustrated: How Advertising Ideas are Born is a compilation of ideas from many advertising heavy hitters on their creative process, where their ideas come from, and what inspires them.  Simon Mainwaring a former W+K creative brainiac weighs in inside the covers about his processes, as well as on Fast Company about the book itself.  Below is a quick look at his article.  This book seems like something that should live on the coffee table of every agency!!

If there’s one quality that defines Deborah Morrison, Phd and W. Glenn Griffin, Phd, it’s a passion for creativity. It’s a passion for ideas, how they are generated and how to put them in the service of marketing. So much so they asked a bunch of us to try and explain how we come up with ideas to help our clients. The result is a wonderful book that celebrates the diversity of approaches to the business of thinking.

The Creative Process Illustrated is full of hard won lessons and insights from ad vets (greats like David Kennedy, Glen Cole, and Hal Curtis) who have created some of the most memorable advertising campaigns. Plus at their site, Pure Process, you can see connect with leading psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, ad star and the author of Fascinate, Sally Hogshead, Seth Godin (as if he needs an introduction), and Russell Davies, one of the smartest and most entertaining planners around, plus many others.

Read the article in entirety at: Fastmoney.com

Simon Mainwaring is a branding consultant, advertising creative director, blogger, and speaker. A former Nike creative at Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, and worldwide creative director for Motorola at Ogilvy, he now consults for brands and creative companies that are re-inventing their industries and enabling positive change. Follow him at SimonMainwaring.com or on Twitter @SimonMainwaring.