Design Week Portland
Design Week Portland (DWP) is great!
“Design Week Portland is a week-long, city-wide series of programs exploring the process, craft, and practice of design across all disciplines.”
Portland’s creative community has held this event for the last five years. An impressive variety of talks, workshops, exhibitions, studio tours and more are presented. Although I’ve only attended a few of these sessions so far, I’m impressed with the quality of the work presented, the knowledge being shared and the welcoming, collaborative “feel” of the local design community.
The mission of DWP “is to increase appreciation and awareness about design and its far-reaching effects on matters of cultural and social relevance, including community development, education systems, and the economy.”
Design Week Portland runs through Saturday, April 29th. Learn more about this event.
Portland WordPress Meetup Group
Last night I attended my first Portland WordPress Meetup. I joined the Seattle WordPress Meetup in 2010 and then later, the UW WordPress User Group. Over the years, both of these groups have helped me learn the best practices for designing and developing WordPress sites. These groups are welcoming to users, designers and developers of all levels of experience. I’ve made a lot of good friends through these groups, collaborated on projects and problem-solving site issues with other members.
I’m looking forward to becoming more involved with the Portland WordPress group and am volunteering to help plan the upcoming Portland WordCamp.
Portland WordPress Meetup usually meets twice a month and you can visit their website or calendar to see meetings.
Portland
After living in Seattle for over 25 years, I’ve moved to Portland.
While in Seattle, I worked with some great organizations including the Pacific Science Center, the Seattle Art Museum, YMCA, American Diabetes Association, several local design and marketing firms, and the University of Washington’s Haring Center. I’ve enjoyed working for all of these organizations and found my projects to be interesting, creative and meaningful. My co-workers were dedicated and talented people — many who have become lifelong friends.
Seattle has some great professional organizations that I was fortunate to be part of. One of the first ones I joined when I first moved to Seattle was the Society of Professional Graphic Artists (SPGA), which later merged with the Graphic Artists Guild. Later, I joined the AIGA, IxDA Seattle, UW’s Accessible Web Group, the UW WordPress User’s Group and the Seattle WordPress Meetup Group. Each of these organizations and their members were very helpful, informative and encouraging as I further developed my professional graphic design, web design and development skills.
My husband and I have been visiting Portland over the last few years and finally decided to move here. Every day we explore Portland more and are loving our new, “weird”, friendly city.
I will continue to work with some of my existing freelance clients and to work remotely for UW’s Haring Center. I am looking forward to learning more about Portland’s Graphic and Web Design communities.
Contact me