design week portland

So apparently there's this thing called Design Week Portland going on right now, which is essentially a week-long event at various locations around the city highlighting designers in all fields. Events include everything from studio open houses and presentations by individuals showcasing their innovative creations to hands-on craft-making activities and fashion shows.

Oblivious as usual to local events like this, I stumbled upon it last night when a friend visiting from out of town was invited to one of the events, which happened to be a collection of presentations at Instrument, a digital creative agency. I missed the first couple of presentations, but the ones I saw ranged from a guy developing a cheap and easy way to produce homemade CD cases and a cute mobile app called Kaleidoscope to a new music app for slicing and dicing beats and something that did something cool with pics and tweets and stuff. They also had free beer and pizza.

Today I stopped by the Leftbank Project, where Fashionbuddha Studios, Sockeye, and Creativegirl (one of the WeMake crew) are located. At Fashionbuddha, where this one guy I kind of know sort of works, they had fun little animated photo booth set up where three cameras take your picture and turn it into an animated gif. They had a bunch of props you could use, and a handmade, 3D background. Can't wait to see how mine turns out.

In the back, they had an area where they were showing their 15min stop-motion scenes for Star Wars Uncut (which collectively won an Emmy) and the upcoming The Empire Strikes Back Uncut, including the set for The Empire Strikes Back Uncut and figures from Star Wars Uncut.

Right across the hall from Fashionbuddha is Sockeye, which specializes in creative branding. They had a collection of things they've done set up in their conference room, including a congratulatory MVP commercial for Derrick Rose commissioned by Adidas, assorted media from their "It's Our Nature" campaign, and a variety of printed material for clients like the University of Oregon, Portland State University, Pittock Mansion, and Ruby Receptionists.

I'm not sure how many more events I'll be able to attend this week, but I'm going to at least try to make it to WeMake's Put A Bird In It! party Friday night at Union/Pine. I know a couple of people who are going and it's supposed to be a pretty good time. Anyone interested in learning more about Design Week Portland or the schedule of events can find more info at Design Week Portland's official site.