Thursday, October 30, 2008

new york, new york!

Just back in PDX from a sweet, week long trip to NYC, where it's more obvious than ever that the economy is suffering, but still there is shopping to be done and people on the streets doing what they do best. Thought I'd start out with this teaser so that I'm committed to the rest of the details sooner rather than later.

It's no secret that the late 70's and mid-late 80's are a key influence for trends out there right now, but I don't think it has reached it's peak just yet. In Saks there was just one rack of neon bright jeans, but lots of other influences that are so 80's!

Another thing that reminded me of this was this neighborhood showing of ghostbusters in a park in the Hell's Kitchen area of the city that I went to with my friend who lives in the city.

While watching this for the first time in it's entirety, I was reminded of how much time has gone by since this was filmed, the fact that both of the other times I went to see it were at drive-in theaters, and the classic gentleman's look that is often seen on Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray in this film are another one of the key trends out there in the market right now.

One of my client's is Filson, and I can't tell you how many times I saw their bags in some of the hippest boutiques, a guy at Jean Shop in Soho told me that were excited about a new collection from Filson that includes wool bags too.

Stay tuned over the next few days for news from Paragon, the Burton Store, Williamsburg, and the streets of Soho. Happy Halloween!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

the Designers Accord



As a designer and creator of "stuff" I have become acutely aware of the "things" that I am creating and what they exponentially become long after leaving my desk as a crude pencil sketch. In the last year I find myself asking how I can make a difference as a designer to help affect change for my clients. For every project that take I try to make at least one suggestion to help reduce, recycle, reuse, or suggest a material that might have less impact. I was excited when I recently read an article in Fast Company magazine about the Designers Accord

The Designers Accord is a global coalition of designers, educators, researchers, engineers, and corporate leaders, working together to create positive environmental and social impact.
The Designers Accord is made up of over 100,000 members of the creative community, representing 100 countries, and each design discipline.

the Designers Accord was created by Valerie Casey, of Ideo, she originally dubbed it the "Kyoto treaty" of design. If you'd like to learn more about Valerie and the Designers Accord, read the article from Fast Company, and in the meantime think about ways that you too can make a change to benefit the future of design.

Below is one of mine, the Retread Doggy for a client in the pet industry. Dog toys are most literally throw away items, their life span often isn't all that long, so I came up with Retread toys, they utilize recycled poly fleece, recycled stuffing, and excess leftover overstock prints from the open market or local factories that would likely eventually be discarded. Every dog has his own unique sweater no two are alike. I also suggested using a PLA(corn fiber) squeaker inside instead of the traditional plastic ones, and each toy comes complete with the retread toys label.


Change comes little by little and if we all pledge to be part of the solution the end result will be huge.