New Directory: Be visible & connect for opportunities and mentorship right here.
This year, instead of a brick-and-mortar festival, we're shifting to a fully virtual format. Questions about what's coming or the status of your tickets for events to the festival? Here's what you need to know about timing and ticketing.
Neon has a following. And Kate Widdows is a loyalist. She’s an independent letterer and typographer who designs everything from typefaces and record covers to GIFs and, you guessed it, neon signs. She’s also found a way to merge the two, having pioneered animated neon lettering for the web, work which has been exhibited internationally at design festivals and art galleries. We asked Kate a few questions about reaching peak neon fan status, and how that appreciation transitioned into her own bright work.
Design thinking is bullshit. It’s an opinion and a talk notable designer Natasha Jen is well-known for. And, sure, it’s a phrase that entices, piques curiosity. But it’s the experience behind the opinion—the years of exploring cultural intersections and divergence, design systems, philosophies, failures—that has made Natasha Jen a Name in the design world. Or rather, she has earned that reputation for herself.
Educators Kristin Rogers Brown and Kate Bingaman-Burt blessed us with a sunshine-filled chat on our Instagram Live about connection and showing your work. Here's an excellent resource guide on how to be confident with your portfolio, website, and outreach techniques.
Think back to your beginnings as a designer. Do you remember someone who took the time to review your work or offered a tip that helped you navigate your first steps into the field? You could be that person to someone else.
Based on our current research and understanding, we have made the hard decision to postpone Design Week Portland. The festival is now slated to run August 1-8, 2020.
Mexican-born and Portland-based Fabi Reyna is a guitarist and the magazine’s founder and editor-in-chief—the result of being fed up with women’s roles in music magazines (you know the types: wearing clothes as thin as the guitar strings they’re not playing). She Shreds was started in 2012 as the world’s only print publication dedicated to women guitarists and bassists, a platform where “people can listen, see and experience what it means to be a woman who shreds.”
Alejandra Oyervides launched her Ale O Moda label in fall 2018, debuting at Fade to Light, a Portland fashion show known for its unique experience. The introduction was fitting, as Alejandra has since won UpNXT’s Emerging Designer Award and its People’s Choice Award for a style that’s modern...almost futuristically so. During Design Week Portland 2020, Alejandra will present her first solo runway show, where her newest collection will be on display, with past collections set up as an exhibit.
Industry, an independent global agency hosted an illuminating conversation during Design Week Portland with four boundary-breaking artists: Alan V. Favero, Mariana Garcia, Alonso Murillo, and Ricardo Gonzalez.
Celebrating the scooter community and mod-inspired fashion, A Nod to Mod was a fast hit during Design Week Portland 2019.
Run by father-son team, Melvin and Nick, Studio Signs Co. is tethered to Portland’s history. Founded in 1963 by Dean G. Stanley and taken over by Melvin in 1984, the shop has experienced waves of the industry’s changes throughout the decades, yet has always managed to stick to its artistic promise: made by hand.
Abibat Durosimi is the President and Creative Director of Tabiba Styles, an agency in Portland specializing in makeup, hair extensions, and natural hairstyling. Her newest venture, BLOOM Beauty Collective, is lifting up fellow creatives while giving back to the community. We learn more about Abibat’s process and her plans for BLOOM’s big runway show at Design Week Portland this April.
