Thanks to many hands in the agency, W+K Portland turned into an interactive winter wonderland for the holidays. Interactive toy soliders, on demand snow fall, and the smell of pinecones and trees. The wonderland continued into the atrium, with huge ‘W’ and ‘K’s made of string, a small forest, and an oversized fireplace. So many hours went into the design and execution, so we’ve compiled a list of names for a shout-out. Thanks to everyone!

Credit where credit is due: Design- Karen Koch & Tram Pham ; Producer Extraordinaire- Denise Hanggi

Holiday Master Crafters: Tram Pham, Karen Koch, Ademar Matinian, Chelsea Guidry, Kevin Shaw, Rob Off (Made puppets and Strings Tree structures), Sue Cool and Staff of Solar Productions (Install and lighting)

Studio Elves: Lunis Kendi, Katie McHugh, Joseph Limaruo, Rehanah Spence, Helena Chu, Katie West, Makenna Olson, Justin Morris, Andy Prince, Ojai Mitchell, Cathy Ormerod, Julie Dery, Janine Byrne, Curtis Pachunka, Amy Wagenstein, Chris Larson, Ellen Osborne, Nishat Akhtar, Abby Marten, Edgar Morales, David Trujillo, Sarah Hollowood, and Caitlin Alexander.

Knitting Elves: Chelsea Guidry, Sandy Hildreth, Heather Gregg, Lani Reichenbach, and  Lisa Tran

Honorary Elves: Russell Hollenbeck, Eliseo Rios, Mitch Sorenson, Mitch Gassner, Shannon Fenner, Steven Leslie, Arla Wood, Andres Lund, and Jesus Garcia

                          

See the rest of the carnage on Instagram.

                          

The W+K Goodness team was invited to participate in the Print Make Share Challenge at the PDX Letterpress Fair, this last Saturday, which coincided with the conclusion of Design Week Portland. The challenge was a new addition to the Fair this year, which is put on every year by Emspace Book Arts Center. Each team carved a large linocut and printed on site- and the proceeds of the auctioned prints went to support the workshop program at Emspace. It was a great event, and our print sold to a very enthusiastic local designer. Go team W+K Goodness!

                          

We just got the book Current State: Snowboarding for our library which contains 23 individual interviews and images of snowboarding´s past three decades. It’s a whopping 450 pages thick and made up from two interconnected books. It has a fancy slip-cover too.

There are interviews with: Jake Burton, Terje Haakonsen, Richard Woolcott, Shaun Palmer, Travis Rice, JP Walker, Jed Anderson, Mikey Basich, Nicolas Müller, Danny Davis, Jesse Burtner, Marc Frank Montoya, Drew Stevenson, Jeremy Jones, Ken Block, Whitey McConnaughy, Peter Line, Pat Bridges, Blue Montgomery, Scotty Wittlake, and Wolle Nyvelt.

What’s cool is that it’s written, edited and designed by a pro snowboarder David Benedek. He’s a self-taught designer who pretty much put the entire book together from start to finish. After previewing the finished book (debossing, spot colors, weird folding and other bells and whistles) you got to love a guy who does all his own electronic production work.

He also put together a little video showing the process of putting together Current State: Snowboarding.

Current State: Snowboarding MAKING OF from David Benedek on Vimeo.

The book is sold here. We found out that it is only being released in a very limited edition and is not available to dealers or wholesale so step up and buy the book. If you’re a fan of graphic design and snowboarding this is for you.

Otherwise check out some of our stuff and maybe it’ll inspire you. You got to pass that Goodness around.

                          

With an awesome lineup of foodie activities and meals, this will be something to keep everyone talking about the Portland food talent for months.

And some of our own people designed and art directed the logo and design! Bonus!

Check out some press about the event and associated PDX events below:

PDX Eater

Feast Portland

Bon Appetit blog

PDX in NYC

Logo Design: Sarah Hollowood

Art Direction: Chris Thurman

                          

Sarah Hollowood’s “How Many” card has been getting alot of internet love lately!

As Swiss Miss said yesterday, “YES to this birthday card idea, unless the receiver of the card is over 100. Then you need two of them.”

We agree!! Go Sarah and Goodness!

Find the shoutout here.

                          

Q. How did you get here?
Someone told me Portland was great. Another person told me Wieden + Kennedy was great. I was living in LA, hanging out, and thought I’d give it go.

Q. What do you work on here at Wieden+Kennedy?
I currently work on Levi’s®. I started out sitting in a hallway, working on Old Spice.

Q. Easy question, what do you outside of work?
Physically, I run. I also collect hand written notes I find on the street. Sometimes at the same time. Mentally, I formulate design projects (for myself), create them (for myself), snicker (to myself), and repeat. I additionally curate a wide ranging set of unfulfilled urls. E.g. eatingwhilerunning, tightsaspants, and hobotomcruise .com.

 

Q. What’s a random, fun fact that others would love to hear?
I enjoy to bake. Pies and pastries specifically. My father and grandfather are/were master pastry chefs. My father in the United States, my grandfather in Denmark. I’m Danish.

Q. What do you love to do?
Think, create. Can’t ever turn it off.

Q. Why/how did you choose this profession?
It was my last attempt at a college education. I had initially intended to study veterinary medicine. After a year, I realized I would probably be a horrible vet (it also seemed very boring) so I tried my hand at physical therapy. That wasn’t any more exciting and seemed like much more pressure as I would be working with humans. I had decided to quit school all together, but as I was ready to walk away, I looked into the art & design program. I had always drawn as a kid, mostly sports logos, and thought maybe, possibly, I could make a career out of it. I applied. They let me in.

 

Q. How long have you been doing this profession?
Around 14 years.

Q. What other types of jobs have you done, not related to your current profession?
Jobs, in chronological order:
Summer camp arts & crafts director for the city of St. Joseph, in Michigan. My parents ran the summer recreation program for over 10 years when I was a kid.

Sales associate at Foot Locker. While spending time at a community college in Benton Harbor, MI, I sold athletic footwear and apparel.

Information Technology Assistant. I made the internet work.

A very short stint at a nursery/arts and crafts store. I knew nothing about plants. I was fired.

Summer maintenance and repair worker for St. Joseph Township. The best job I’ve had or will ever have. I drove a lawnmower with a 76 in. deck, with my shirt off.

Q. What was your first job that was connected to your current profession?
While I was in college, I was the art/design director of a business publication. I used Quark.

Q. What is it that you like/love most about your work?
Collaboration. Nothing great is made in a vacuum.

Q. What is the secret to your success? In other words, if you could boil it all down to one or two things, what would it be?
I don’t believe there is a secret or a magic bullet. “Success” takes hard fucking work.

Q. What other works have been most influential in your professional development?
The Ten Commandments. As a young Catholic boy, coming up in the Midwest, the set design and artistry of that film blew me away. I was mesmerized.

Q. From where (or what) do you draw your energy / inspiration / etc.?
Friends. When they’re pumping out amazing shit and succeeding, it’s inspiring. Makes me work harder.

Q. Has your profession impacted you as a person? In what way(s)?
It’s helped me gain perspective on what the important bits are. The job isn’t important.

Q.”What’s the best thing that ever happened to you?”
I don’t know. I was born?

Keep a lookout for some of his shirts showing up on the Goodness site.