Observations on design, PDX haps, and beyond.

And so begins a new year. Here’s a quick little illustration I made as an incomprehensive snapshot of last year, and a few predictions for this one. Can you figure out what each icon represents? Answers below. [Left to right, top to bottom.] Occupy Wall Street. And Portland. World population reaches 7 billion. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, passes away. Water […]

Last Thursday, 2/3/11, XPLANE held another monthly Visual Thing School (VTS). This one focused on the visual alphabet and speed drawing, once again led by Tim May, who came complete with Danish impersonations. The session started off with him showing how all basic shapes, the alphabet, and expressions can all be made with just a few […]

A couple weekends ago I had the pleasure of popping down to sunny warm San Francisco with a couple other AIGA Portland sustainability committee members to attend Compostmodern. This bi-annual conference is about improving products, industries, and lives through sustainable design. And by sustainable, they don’t mean just eco-tactics, but rather the full impact — on the […]

It’s official — I signed my team up for 48 Hour Film Project’s GoGreen, happening the weekend of February 18–20th. I’ve participated in a “normal” 48 Hour Film Project in 2008 (which was fantastic, thank you Jodi Sweetman and team), but this year’s will be a little different and international eco-style (from site): Just like the 48HFP, the […]

“Evolved thinking for change” is the motto for this new bi-annual series, rolled out by AIGA Portland’s sustainability committee that I participate in. This first Generate event on Wednesday 1/26, “is a platform for designers and creatives to discuss and share with other forward-thinkers who want to see a more sustainable world.” The discussion panel is comprised of […]

Since I was a kid, I have been tasked with ironing all the napkins for the Thanksgiving family table. Due to many years of nerding out on origami, I often try to infuse paper folding techniques into the cloth napkins (often requiring a lot of starch, and thus rendering the napkins’ function useless). Around this time last year, I found myself […]

On Thursday evening, 11/18, AIGA Portland will have the 5th SHIFT, where 10 presenters share for 5 minutes their thoughts, tips, and observations on sustainable design. This evening, including a Q&A session and mingling, is in hopes of shaping the future of visual communications for the better.   The event will be held again at Ecotrust in […]

On the first of the month (generally) the Portland branch of XPLANE holds Visual Thinking School. During those two hours on a Thursday afternoon, brains and imagination are required to attend, as well as an interest in collaboration and drawing — no matter your level of skill. Despite everyone being on the same “team,” VTS is almost […]

This Thursday is ARTCRANK PDX, a poster party for bike people at the Ace Hotel’s Cleaners. More than 30 Portland artists will be representing their love of bicycles, sharing and selling poster prints  ($30 each, which goes to the artist and non-profits including Bike to Rwanda). The inspiration for my poster submission came from my 3+ […]

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