Last night I attended the Minneapolis Community and Technical College Portfolio Show. I was quite impressed by the portfolios—these students are showing some great work! The show is up through the end of day today (from 10 am to 7 pm, address listed below). If you can’t make it to the show, check out the show’s website featuring the portfolios of the students: http://gra2010.com

After perusing the show, I experienced an amazing sunset. Here are a couple of my favorite photos. I took these from the top level of the MCTC parking ramp.

MCTC Portfolio Show | 1501 Hennepin Ave | Minneapolis | Wheelock Whitney Hall (they have signs directing you to the show)

So you may have noticed that I have not written about the last two lectures of the Insights Lecture Series.

Reason: I got writers block after Irma Boom spoke.

Let me explain why. Irma is clearly a great book designer. But she is not a public speaker. Simply, she didn’t take the time to prepare for her lecture. She began by reading through a written biography—at lightening speed (it was the only quick part of the lecture). Then she sat down at a table with a stack of her books. She flipped through the books and spoke about whatever came to mind. She had no notes or clear direction as to where she would take the lecture. The lecture started at 7:00. At 9:00 she wasn’t done speaking. And I hadn’t the chance to eat dinner ahead of time. I’m not the type of person who usually does this, but I got up and left the lecture. What can I say, my blood-sugar level demanded that I leave!

I got writers block because I didn’t know what to say about the lecture. But here it goes, nice or not, this is my only take-away: if I’m ever presented with a public speaking opportunity, I am going to prepare, prepare, then prepare some more. And I’m not going over my allotted time limit.

Now that I have that off my chest, I can tell you about Stefan Bucher of 344 Design. Now he was an amazing speaker. Fun to listen to and truly inspiring. You just have to log on to the Walker Channel and watch Stefan’s lecture. And if you saw it in person, why not watch it again? Click here to jump to the video.

Make sure you check out Stefan’s blog the daily monster and his company 344 Design.

Peter Buchanan Smith was this week’s speaker at AIGA Minnesota and Walker Art Center’s Insights Lecture Series. Peter was real, unmasked and honest. He shared much from his life in the past few years because these life events helped lead to the creation of his company, Best Made.

Divorce caused Peter to move his company (and whole life) out of his home, a house he had not planned on moving out of for a very long time. He split his possessions 50/50 and moved to a tiny apartment in Manhattan. He wore a red cashmere hat for much of this hard time, which was a comfort to him, much like a security blanket.

To celebrate a friend’s birthday Peter bought $100 steaks. Of course the only way to cook expensive meat is over a wood burning fire. One problem: he had no axe to chop the wood. To Home Depot they ventured and purchased a yellow, plastic-handled axe, which was poorly designed and painful to use. Peter asked for a real axe for Christmas. And he received a yellow handled axe from the Home Depot. This started an obsession—Peter started buying every well-made axe he could find on eBay.

When asked to contribute to Partners in Spade (a gallery featuring one-off art and design pieces), he began painting the handles of axes with graphic marks. When the axes received accolades at the show, Peter painted more axes. Thus the beginning of Best Made Company. The desire to make axes stems from Peter’s need to create a simple and quality product, build the product in an inspiring place and create a community of people with which to share the products.

If I could have any axe in the world, it would be this one. I love the polka dots AND it features my two of my FAVORITE colors!!!

The newest product in Best Made’s catalog is a red hat, called the red cap of courage, inspired by the red cashmere cap Peter wore while rebuilding his life after divorce.

Peter spends his design career making CD packaging for musicians, doing magazine design, book jackets; he art directed the OP-Ed page of the New York times, does branding work for fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi and more.

My favorite design object that Peter showed was a self promotion piece in which he took a bunch of one-inch square pieces of paper, drew various patterns of polka dots on the paper, then bent and folded each piece in interesting ways. He scanned the tiny pieces of paper and made a self promo poster out of it. I just love the graceful curves of the sheets of paper contrasted by the eye-popping graphic pattern.

And it so happens that out of the dots, the painted patterns on the axes came to be. Applied to the right object in the right way, Peter thought the language of polka dots or stripes could speak volumes and be really powerful.

Check out Peter’s design website here (make sure to check out the Isaac Mizrahi design work). And Best Made Company here.

If you missed the lecture, you can watch it online at the Walker Channel by clicking here.

Eddie Opara was this week’s speaker at AIGA Minnesota and Walker Art Center’s Insights Lecture Series. Eddie is a designer with a very interesting background which influences his way of thinking and way of working. British-born Eddie was introduced to the Labor Party at a young age and has always thought things should be shared. There are two big themes I gleaned from his talk:

1. Collaboration
2. Transformation

Eddie believes that nobody really owns anything. We all just share everything. This is a really interesting thought that I had never applied to design before. When we come into this world, we have nothing. And when we leave the earth, we can take nothing with us. Therefore, we really don’t OWN anything.

Collaborating comes easily to Eddie. Many designers hold on to control over their projects and wouldn’t want to pass a half finished project to another designer. It’s a trust issue. Eddie feels the opposite. He thrives on collaborating with others. At his agency Map, everybody does everything. Eddie is excited about how another designer might interpret his original idea.

While working on the Prada account at 2×4 Studio, Eddie had to leave on vacation. He had started the project but was unable to complete it. So he passed off his work to another designer he worked with—trusting that the designer would further his original idea. The completed work was stunning.

Eddie did some branding work for Brooklyn Museum while working at 2×4 Studio. He wanted the logo to be transformative over time. He created a letter B shape outline which is always surrounded by a solid colored graphic. The B shape always stays the same, but the surrounding graphic is able to transform and change (see image below). The result is a really interesting and strong brand for the Museum. Check out the Brooklyn Museum’s website to see the logo in action by clicking here.

Eddie also introduced the audience to his new content management system, the MiG. This CMS is easy on the eyes AND easy to use. To learn more about the MiG, click here.

Eddie summarized his lecture by saying, “Always changing, never staying the same, always getting better.”

If you missed Eddie’s lecture at the Walker, watch it online on the Walker Channel.

The holidays are in full swing and I’ve been busy designing holiday cards for Jesse’s photography studio. He has a great promotion coming up on Saturday, December 12. I’ve spent a great deal of time designing 5×8 inch card templates for this promotion. Here they are:

The promotion is a super good deal, here are the details:

Saturday December 12 • $25 for a one-hour session (FREE session when you order 50 or more holiday cards) • Review photos on the spot and select your favorite • Choose from several card designs to go with your photo (see designs above). For more information, visit jessevalley.com. To book your session, call Jesse Valley Photography at 612.382.2867.

I put so much love into designing these holiday card templates, so I hope the day fills up with sessions! If you have friends or family who would be interested in this promotion, pass it on—Jesse Valley Photography gives rewards for referrals!

The first time I saw the Trident Layers TV ad, I commented on how stupid/silly it was. The second time I saw it I decided it was genius.

For the first time, in a long time, a TV ad compelled me to purchase a product (most of the time, I think ads subconsciously affect me). So I made a conscious decision to by the Trident Layers next time I went to the store.

In the Target check out aisle, I remembered to buy some. My check-out aisle was out of the gum. I had to check five more registers before I found a pack of gum! The ad is definitely working!

I opened the gum right after the checker scanned it. My first impressions of the gum were good. After unwrapping the cellophane outer wrapper, the scent of strawberry wafted through the air. I was impressed by the packaging, which features embossing and roll out effect with pouches for the sticks of foil wrapped gum.

And now for the taste test. For the first thirty seconds of chewing, the flavor of strawberry is powerful and almost overwhelming! The flavor dulls down to a fresh, yet fruity flavor which lasts much longer than I’m even willing to chew the gum.

Trident gets an “A” for advertising, an “A” for packaging and an “A” for product. Well done.

This is a follow-up on my original Up and Up post.

Target recently sent out the direct mailer (pictured below) to consumers, focused solely on their new generic brand, Up and Up. I knew it was only about Up and Up when I saw the arrow logo repeated on the piece at nauseam. I guess the marketers at Target really wanted to burn that logo into my brain.

I like Target’s Market Pantry and Archer Farms lines, but my feelings are haven’t changed about Up and Up—I would rather pay full price for name brands just so I don’t have to look at that awful packaging.

I love paper. There are so many wonderful options to print upon! And now there’s one more! Neehan Paper has introduced a new member to the linen family: pearl! It’s fabulous. It’s everything you want in a pearl paper plus more with the linen texture.

And now you can try before you buy. I went to DoYouLoveLinen.com and uploaded my own image (or you can choose their provided sample photo). On the site, you can play around with the different swatches of colored paper (both regular and pearl linen papers) to see how the paper color will affect image output. Then you can choose three papers to try. I tried white pearl, natural white pearl and gold pearl (because I LOVE pearl paper!) I sent it to checkout and about a week later I had a surprise in my mailbox! (Did I mention that I love getting mail?) Voila. My beautiful blooming flower printed on three lovely substrates!

Here is some great artwork created by Bakula Nayak, inspired by our time spent at Design Camp!

Bakula is an amazing designer, who specializes in packaging and branding. She works freelance and can be contacted via email for inquiries: bakulanayak@graphic-designer.com.

Thanks to Bakula for sharing her design on lisavalley.com!

Awesome Design Camp materials created by Little & Co.

I just returned home from an amazing weekend—Design Camp at picturesque Grand View Lodge. I learned a lot and I slept very little. There is nothing like the camaraderie that exists among designers. The weekend was most excellent. Here are the highlights:

Aaron Draplin—Aaron is a designer based in Portland and owns his own studio called Draplin Design Company (DDC). Words to describe Aaron: down-to-earth, teddy bear, clever. Aaron started out his presentation by passing out free pens and “Field Notes” notebooks to the audience (smart). Aaron connected to the audience on a few levels:

1. The Nice Guy Level—for giving away free stuff
2. The Intellectual Level—for having interesting things to show and tell
3. The Emotional Level—by showing his softer side by sharing his love for his dog, girlfriend and parents.
4. Again with the Nice Guy—for showing design work he did for free (or little pay) because he was so passionate about the company/people/cause AND design.

Since Aaron did such a great job connecting with the audience, selling posters and self-branded tchotchke was not difficult. The audience became Aaron’s raving fans and wanted to support him! I even bought a $15 poster from him. I have no clue where I’m going to display it, it was an impulse buy. (You, too, can buy Aaron’s merch by visiting his site.)

I found his presentation of work interesting but my take-away is about sales—not design. As designers, being sales people is an important part of our jobs. Everything we create is made for a reason, and we have to be able to explain it to get buy-in from our account team and clients.

The Draplin Poster: Pretty much everything up to May 27, 2009

From Left: Myself, Aaron Draplin, Sarah Hoehn

DJ Stout—DJ works as a partner for Pentagram’s Austin, TX office. Pentagram has a very interesting set-up. The company is made up of 16 partners in offices around the world. All 16 partners are equal and there is no top dog. Pentagram doesn’t have account people. The partners take care of all aspects of the business, from pitches to concepts, the partners do it all. DJ’s office employs designers, interns and an office manager. Pentagram isn’t just a graphic design company. They offer design services in graphics, identity, architecture, interiors and products.

In his presentation, DJ shared magazine designs and logos. Through these projects he showed that the client doesn’t always know what they want (even if they think they know). We as designers need to take the time to tell our clients what is possible.

From Left: Myself, Sarah Hoehn, DJ Stout, Bakula Nayak

Ellen Lupton—Ellen works as a designer, educator, curator and writer. Her presentation was based on her book Design Your Life. (Click here to read my review of the book!) Ellen is adorable, witty and hilarious! Getting the content of her presentation is easier than you think—buy her book!!! Click here to buy on amazon.

From Left: Sarah Hoehn, Ellen Lupton, Myself, Bakula Nayak

Hush—David Schwarz and Erik Karasyk co-founded Hush, which creates design, animation and interactive content. Their presentation was a kind of “would you rather…” for the design world. But instead of, “Would you rather become ill with the swine flu or eat a live, fury, six-legged tarantula,” their presentation was about design:

1. Should you position a brand where it wants to be OR always be truthful to the brand?
2. Less is more versus more is always more.
3. Production constraints shouldn’t stifle creativity VS. don’t design what you can’t produce.
4. Should you do whatever the client wants OR challenge your clients?
5. Is it nothing without great execution or is it all about compelling ideas?
6. Is the process more important than the final product?
7. Find your own style VS. style is fleeting, design respects the brand.
8. God is in the details OR don’t sweat the small stuff?
9. Promise everything. OR Pick two: fast, cheap or good.
10. If you want to do it right, do it yourself versus two minds are better than one.
11. Take the time to prep OR just do it?
12. There’s creative opportunity in every project OR you’re defined by the projects you don’t take as much as the by the projects you do take.
13. Would you rather make it beautiful OR make it meaningful?

Detail shot of the beauty surrounding Grand View Lodge

Geek Girls—Nancy and Meghan did a workshop about social media. My biggest take-away? Don’t jump into a social media strategy unless you are ready to:

1. Continuously work on it (biggest mistake is to stop or be inconsistent)
2. Listen
3. Respond
4. Be real, genuine, authentic.

Visit Nancy and Meghan’s awesome blog called the Geek Girls Guide.

Lichens growing on a stick.

Jason Lindke—Jason is a designer for Aveda and did a workshop about sustainability. Here are his 12 Questions to ask before buying or designing:

1. Do I need it?
2. Can I do without it?
3. Can I borrow, rent or buy used?
4. Is it designed to minimize waste?
5. Can it be smaller, lighter or made from fewer materials?
6. Is it durable or multi-functional?
7. Does it use renewable resources?
8. Is it’s reuse practical or encouraged?
9. Is the product and/or packaging refillable, recyclable or repairable?
10. Is it made with post consumer recycled content?
11. Does it use toxic materials? If so, can it be used with less toxic materials?
12. Is it available from a socially and environmentally responsible company?

Chris Sheehan—Chris is a commercial photographer who gave a workshop on collaborating with photographers. The most important things to know when having a photo shoot are: get perfection in the camera instead of wasting time on post-production, communicate clearly with the photographer and set expectations (no one is a mind-reader), have pre-production meetings and art directors need to be on set.

Keith Gilbert—Keith is an Adobe Certified Instructor. He presented the top ten things every designer needs to know. My favorite tip is a collaboration feature that allows you to share your screen with up to two other people (similar to Go To Meeting except that it’s free!) To share your screen visit acrobat.com and use your Adobe ID to sign in (if you don’t have one, don’t worry—Adobe Ids are free, so sign up!). Click on the “Meet” button. Keith teaches seminars in the Twin Cities area all the time, so check out his site and sign-up for the next one.

Going to AIGA’s Design Camp was totally awesome. If you’re a designer who lives in the midwest, don’t miss it next year!

Pantone Bingo. Very important note: When playing Pantone Bingo, a winner may not simply yell "Bingo" but that winner must instead call out "Pantone Bingo" or the win is null and void.