A Visit to the City of Roses

It’s always fun to visit Portland, for work (installing displays at a new Polygon Northwest Sales Center) or play (eating my way through the city).

Despite the downturn in the housing market our long-term client Polygon Northwest has been selling strong. (Yeah!) Their communities offer great value and quality to savvy homebuyers. Their newest offering, The Overlook, features amazingly livable home plans including flats and townhomes. AND they are priced from the $160’s. Seriously, I may move to Portland and buy two. Such a deal!

The Overlook is located in the master-planned community of Timberland, which has grown by leaps and bounds since the last time I visited. Where once there were just a few buildings and a small sales center, there are now strolling neighbors, charming parks, apartments, town houses, condominium suites and more.

For the new sales center, we were asked to help with the design of the sales path and all of the displays. We needed to meld the previous rustic look of Timberland with a bit more urban flavor. These are a few pictures of the install in progress.

Besides making sure the install went smoothly, I took an extra day to play, eat and shop. (Tax free – whoo-hoo!) It was exciting to try some of Portland’s well-know street food vendors. My favorite bite came from a vendor at the Saturday Market. They were making hand dipped corn dogs. All organic and local sourcing of course, and it was fabulous! And, no trip would be complete without a Voodoo Donut. They were out of maple bars with bacon, so I settled for a simple chocolate glazed treat. Not as exciting, but still delicious.

If you’re planning a trip to Portland, I highly recommend the deLuxe Hotel. This is my second stay with them, and it’s been lovely both times. The hotel is located just outside of downtown, but is walking distance to all the attractions, and the Pearl and Nob Hill neighborhoods. Their staff is always extremely professional and helpful, but never stuffy. And the renovated historic building takes you back to a time when elegance was the rule, not the exception.

Marriage Between Digital Media & the Traditional Print Ad

Clipped from wired.com.

"In the latest example of finding media innovation where you’d least expect it, CBS is embedding a video player in a print ad in Entertainment Weekly that will serve up a buffet of its fall TV lineup.

The CBS foray into a print-digital alliance plays full-motion video at a crisp resolution. The ad, dubbed by CBS and partner Pepsi Max “the first-ever VIP (video-in-print) promotion,” works like one of those audio greeting cards. Opening the page activates the player, which is a quarter-inch–thick screen seen through a cutaway between two pages concealing the larger circuit board underneath."

Read the full article...

Supporting Plymouth Housing Group

It was back in 2007 that I ran into my friend, Marianne Painter, on the street in front of the office. Marianne was a former client from my pre-Effective Design Studio days. The chance meeting was rather serendipitous -- Marianne had recently taken a position at Plymouth Housing Group and needed graphic design help.

I was excited to introduce Marianne to the team at Effective Design. We had a meet-and-greet where Caroline and Joy explained our qualifications and Marianne introduced us to Plymouth’s mission in-depth. The meeting was successful and it looked as if Marianne would use e! for several projects. (Score one for me -- right?)

Not long after Marianne left our offices, Caroline and Joy came to my desk. They were hovering with "Cheshire Cat" grins on their faces. (Was I in trouble?!) Caroline proceeded to tell me, “We just wanted to let you know... (oh no, here it comes!) ...we have decided to take on Plymouth Housing Group as a pro-bono client.”

That was BEYOND what I was expecting that day. And a real “win” for all involved. Caroline had been impressed by Plymouth’s commitment to ending homelessness -- providing not only low-cost housing, but also essential services to its residents.

I'm proud to say, e!’s relationship with Plymouth continues today. We just finished their 2008 Annual Report, we are currently working on materials for Plymouth’s annual benefit luncheon (featuring Maya Angelou), and designing materials for their 2010 fundraiser “Seattle Dances”.

We hope you’ll join us in supporting this amazing organization. http://www.plymouthhousing.org

More Updates to Our Website

We've been redeveloping our website over the last year and the full site is finally finished. Phew! It's true what they say about doing work for yourself -- it's always much harder, but worth the reward. Check out our new website and let us know what you think.