OMFGCo.

Don't worry, Mom, I haven't started acronymically swearing. I haven't started swearing at all, as a matter of fact. OMFGCo. is simply the short version of The Official Manufacturing Company, the design studio made up of an accomplished trio that spoke at AIGA's Designspeaks this evening.

After sharing studio space for a week, Mathew, Fritz and Jeremy, the before-mentioned trio, realized that the fact that their hands were calloused from high-fiving so much probably meant something so they joined forces to create OMFGCo. Tonight they treated a packed house (literally - think 180 sweaty sardines) to an evening of good work, sincere stories and a real glimpse into their design-filled lives. The presentation was structured around "The 7 Steps to Making it Official", as seen above. (Little did we know, there was a hidden message woven through the list. And we thought designers were all pure of heart. Ha.) Here they are:

Step 1) Don't lie down on the job. Basically, just work hard.
Step 2) Steal inspiration for everything. Open your eyes. Go to the beach and antique stores. Keep an Eye Candy folder on your desktop.
Step 3) Don't cheat yourself by faking it. When you can't find it, make it. These guys are DIY crafters to the maxxxxx. Admittedly, it's never very cost-effective, but it's always more fun.
Step 4) Kill your ego and fear of failure. It's really about listening and collaboration.
Step 5) F*** haters. This is the statement they've taken on as a mantra. Despite all the opposition, logic, and a little thing called the bad economy, they started their own company. And look! It worked. The underlying theme? "Trust your gut."
Step 6) Say yes and drink the potion. Saying "Yes!" leads you to unexpected places. Like art exhibits you create with Jelly Helm and 14.2 miles of string. Seriously.
Step 7) Accolades are smoke and mirrors. Don't let it go to your head. The work comes first.

There were a lot of inspirational tidbits lodged in those seven steps, but I think what I was most struck by is how, collectively, they are really really really not afraid of anything. They're not afraid of power tools, electrical wiring (AKA probable death), low budgets, new clients, uncharted design territory or not having much money to show for any of it. Their lack of fear, or rather zest for killing that fear, has made them into three very talented tradeshow-booth-crate-building, hand-letterform-painting, sign-making, typeface-designing, company-starting, bar-opening, t-shirt-selling, commercial-producing and high-caliber-event-speaking creatives. It's official.

To learn more about Designspeaks, go here. If you want to join in on the fun next time, keep your eye on the AIGAPortland Event Calendar. You can see it here.

Squishy Stuff. Story. Delight.

Last night I joined the creative masses heading downtown to Ace Hotel's venue space, The Cleaners, for another installment of AIGA's Designspeaks series. This time with Frank Chimero.

Instead of telling us his story, in his presentation called The Shape of Design, Frank told us about the idea of story, squishy stuff and delight. Here are just a few thought nuggets from these three categories. (He talked about other things, too, but these were my favorite.)

Let's start with the squishy stuff:

• Design is not logical. Design is illogical. Because people are illogical. We are "emotional and squishy".
• People are imitating the wrong stuff. Everything is homogenous. "It's all so damn slick."  You can't even tell that a person made it. "Squishy > (is greater than) Slick."

Moving on to story:

• We say we're visual communicators, right!? Story is the oldest instance of how we communicate. It's in our bones. So shouldn't we visual communicators know how to tell a story?
• Story bonds us. Story helps us understand each other.

And finally, delight:

• Success in design can equal three things: Persuade, Inform, Delight.
• Delight is the teeny tip of the Design Nobility Pyramid - it's success in design in it's highest form, according to Frank.
• Where surprise and clarity convene, you find delight.
• Delight is a designer's super power. We can make someone feel.
• And when we think of it that way, our mindset changes from thinking of ourselves as communicators to believing that we are gift-givers.

"Be skillful. Be vulnerable. Be thoughtful. Be HUMAN." 
- Frank Chimero

You can view some of the slides from this evening here. Read about previous Designspeaks events here and here.

Tall Tales from a Large Man.

"I love Futura Bold. It's the workin' man's font." - Mr. Draplin

Another stellar AIGA event goes down in the books. Tonight I headed back downtown to The Cleaners at Ace Hotel for 'Tall Tales from a Large Man'. The large man was Aaron James Draplin of Draplin Design Company. (He also created Field Notes - so we all got a complimentary Field Notes Memo Book. Score.)

This large designer's work is larger than life, but he is endearing. Humble. Honest. Like a kid I might have gone to summer camp with back in the Midwest. I guess that makes sense since he grew up in the Midwest, too. Michigan, to be exact. He told us about all of it. All the way back to his childhood in the mitten-shaped state. Including childhood photos. No one with an ounce of ego would do something like that. This lack of ego is what made the entire evening so enjoyable, I think.

He shared a story about how 'Farmer John' in Iowa contacted him about doing a logo for his family farm. Since Aaron isn't too good for any sort of job, he took it on. Through the process he discovered that 'Farmer John' wasn't just any Farmer John. He was Farmer John Hughes. Yes, John Hughes. The prolific writer, director and producer of so many movies that constituted so much of our quality entertainment in the 80's and 90's. Even once this discovery was made Aaron continued business as usual. Not charging a penny more and working even harder as it was such an honor to work for this particular 'Farmer John'.

Just as the Midwest oozes from Aaron, so does his fierce loyalty to solid design, serious work ethic and a commitment to be an entrepreneur who actually makes a difference in the world. He likes to design stuff that "looks like you might have found it in a junk drawer at your parents' house".  He has an obsession with Futura Bold. He hates Kid Rock, sandals at weddings, bad signage, Toby Keith, loud cell phone people, Guy Fieri, and pineapple. Among other things.

Thank you AIGA and thank you Aaron. I heart my memo book, I heart all of the tall tales and I, too, hate sandals at weddings.

See Aaron's post about the surreal evening here. Watch for other AIGA Designspeaks events in 2010.

Jelly Helm the Storyist.

Shocking. Jelly Helm does not have his own page on Wikipedia. Shocking because he is a creative giant. And shocking because Wikipedia is one of his clients. Yes, one of his clients. He went on a sabbatical from his position as creative director at Wieden+Kennedy in Amsterdam and now has about four clients he's managing on his own. Creativity never rests!

Being on sabbatical has afforded Helm lots of time to think. He says what he shared with all 100 or so of us at The Cleaners, Ace Hotel is the result of 'thinking for a while'. There were lots of fantastic and/or interesting things about what he shared, but I have to say, the format in which he shared them was striking. In what he coins a David Kennedy-ism, Helm rips sheets of paper in quarters and carries them around for note-taking. His presentation this evening was a series of quarter-size sheets he imprinted with information using a typewriter and then scanned to share with us. How beautifully undesigned and unexpected.

Helm considers himself a storyist. Stories are how we make sense of the world. He says a brand is 'a story that expands our self-story'. But here's the catch: This isn't just any brand. In order to be an emergent, story-telling brand, it has to be about purpose, not profit. He vaguely referenced a W+K client as a good example of who this isn't. He says of their brown, carbonated beverage product, "If you drink it, you die. They're selling poison." (Here's a hint: they plaster polar bears all over their cans at Christmastime. Yes, them.) According to Helm, if a company extracts more than it gives, it will never work. Hmm. As he spoke on all of this, you could all but hear the electricity buzzing and rushing into the lightbulb that is Helm's brain.

"What is your story?"

"Where do you create value?"

"Where is your abundance?"

"Where is your joy?"

"Value vs. Profit"

"Abundance vs. Scarcity"

Thank you, AIGA, for hosting another great creative event. Pretty sure Jelly Helm will have a Wikipedia page in a matter of moments....and I hope this quote, my favorite from the evening, makes it in there somewhere: "There's something incredibly joyful about spilling out into the world." Thanks for spilling on us tonight, Jelly Helm.

Typophile Film Festival

Last night AIGA hosted an event at Portland's Art Institute. It was a "rare and unequaled selection of short typographic films...from Portugal, the Netherlands, Argentina, Bulgaria and the US" and it was awesome. Punchcut, a user interface design company out of San Francisco sponsored it. They are also awesome.

What we saw was pretty mind-blowing. For instance: type made from bacon and potato frying in a pan, jello letters bouncing around the screen, a Baskerville documentary, letters being used to communicate without them to making words. (I know, you're saying, "Huh?". I'll explain. It's like how Sesame Street shows little videos and there are letters jumping around, but they're personified....the 'O' is a large rolly-polly man, the 'S' is a slithering snake-like creature, the 'X' is a little being that seems way to excited about something...and they all interact and act out some story line. It's fun.) We saw the lives behind design, super refined letterforms, super degraded writing and....what I was most impressed with: When driving becoming writing.What do you get when you combine a software developer, 4 large colored dots, a smart car with a 'font driver' and two european font designers named Pierre and Damien? Oh my gosh. You can view it here (and you don't even have to pay $10 like I did). I try not to 'should' on people, but really. You should.

Type. Innovation. Inspiration. I love it. Let's celebrate it.

If you're up for a little typographic party, join me here:

A Typographic Dating Game

Crimes Against Typography

Do I look fat in this Paragraph?

Font Family Crimes

*All by Ellen Lupton because I love her.