Matthew is a designer and Creative Circle candidate with 1+ years of experience working in Portland. Matthew is highly involved in the creative process and can have his hands in creating a branding identity for a brand. He designs mobile apps, teaming with a developer on functionality and user ease derived from UX research, and is experienced in designing web apps and responsive websites. He has designed print ads and packaging as well, while having the ability to art direct video ads.

After providing us an inside look of Portland for Design Week Portland, we caught up with Matthew again to hear more about how he lives creative.

Finding Creative Inspiration in Portland

One of the main ways that I’m continually reminded of Portland’s uniqueness is when I’m out and about; either headed to the studio or meeting a client. In each of the neighborhoods I encounter on a daily basis, either for work or play, there are residing some of the city’s unique makers and spaces that are guaranteed to inspire creativity or foster creative relationships. I do much of my creative dealings on Portland’s Eastside, due to its more relaxed pace. The Eastside was traditionally the more affordable, residential part of town, but with the exponentially increasing rate of Portland’s expansion, is has become a hub of industry in its own right.

Good Coffee in Buckman is where I love to start things off. They’re an independent group of shops serving the Eastside with a rotating repertoire of coffee and tea offerings. The impeccably minimal interior and walkway-side seating have provided countless beautiful backdrops for meetings with friends and clients.

Local to these Eastside neighborhoods are two open studios of local creatives, which are a great refresher and point of inspiration. The establishments allow space for both appreciation of their own wares, as well as interaction with other patrons and designers who may be visiting.

Joey Roth specializes in household utilities designed to meet specific needs.

Joey Roth specializes in household utilities designed to meet specific needs, and Laura Hosgard specializes in lifestyle items. Both creatives have influenced me in incredible ways and are always willing to lend an ear to your current experiences and thoughts. — Laura Hosgard specializes in lifestyle items. Both creatives have influenced me in incredible ways and are always willing to lend an ear to your current experiences and thoughts.

If I’m ever looking to shop for myself or simply get inspired by the latest in men’s lifestyle, I always stop by Machus. They are tirelessly looking to rotate through some of the best names in establishment and independent designers alike. Even if you’re not looking for something new to wear, it’s impossible to leave without witnessing something creative you haven’t seen before.

On the other side of the river, in what is steadily gaining identity as Portland’s “West End” is what may be a familiar sight for many.

Although the lobby of the Ace Hotel and its conjoined Stumptown Coffee and Clyde Common have long been a destination of locals and tourists alike, there is a balcony overlooking the entire spread which isn’t advertised at all. It’s tucked away but still in the path of the Ace’s signature natural light, creating an ideal environment to either get work done or host an individual client for brainstorming or review. With so many good cups of coffee and refreshments nearby, it’s hard not to feel good about the Ace as a choice to spend some time.

A wonderful place to retire the day is at Rontoms on East Burnside with a few friends, or even clients! The entire space was the brainchild of both the owner, who collects and restores midcentury furniture, and a local architect who designed the outdoor experience, including an asymmetrical patio roof for rainy days. A perfectly tasteful balance of work and play.

Rachel is a graphic designer, and Creative Circle candidate, with 5+ years of experience working out of Los Angeles and New York. Rachel works from concept to final production working with development teams and vendors. She has designed the UI for mobile and e-commerce websites, branding, email campaigns, banner ads, social media assets, presentation decks, brochures, infographics and other various print collateral.

In a collaboration with Bunch Magazine, the magazine for daring creatives, Rachel gave us an inside look at her life as a graphic designer. Watch the video below and get tips from Rachel on how to live creative.

A Day in the Life of a Graphic Designer

6 Ways to Live Creative and Still Get Your Work Done

1. Create a routine.

Working from home can at times get a bit disorienting. Days can fly past before you realize you’ve been in PJ’s for weeks. A trick that helps for me is getting dressed, and leaving the house in the morning. I usually grab fruit / coffee at the local grocery store. The accountability / structure of getting up and getting moving helps tons to send your brain those “time to work” signals.

2. Take a break.

Its easy to get in the zone and work for hours straight. Plan a break in your work schedule, whether its to go grab lunch, run an errand, or go to the gym — that mid-day break can work wonders for that mental block that’s keeping you from wrapping up a project.

3. Plan your workweek.

Keep a journal. Try and plan out what you’ll be working on for the week ahead. This way you can space projects out over the span of a few days, let it sit, and come back to it– within your deadlines. You’ll also be able to plan in advance which days will be your light days and which days will be all-nighters.

4. Give yourself enough time.

It’s really easy to over-commit. Predicting working hours is one of the toughest challenges for freelancers. Save yourself the headache and always pad in a bit of extra time in your schedule in case the project doesn’t wrap up as quickly as you anticipated. It’s always better to be early on a project (and make a good impression) than to be late on a delivery.

5. Take notes on your projects.

Sometimes a hectic weekend can wipe out all memory of Friday’s work-in-progress. Leave yourself notes about what you’re working on. When working through feedback, checklists are always great because you can see exactly where to pick back up and what you’ve completed already. A lot of times the client’s feedback will be scattered / coming from multiple stakeholders, so a checklist will help to piece together a cohesive plan.

6. Track your hours.

In the rare case that a client challenges you on your hours, or even just has sticker shock, you’ll want to have detailed notes on what you were working on and for how long. Keeping track of this in your journal makes billing / timesheets a breeze. I like to highlight my daily hours in my journal so I can quickly page through and reference the hours worked.

Food Desert, Idea Jackpot: The Design Week Open Houses of NW Portland

I may have spoken too soon when I declared that there was no need to plan for dinner during Design Week Portland’s series of open houses. In contrast to Tuesday night’s tour of N and NE Portland offices, where giant tamales, Mediterranean BBQ, and pizza abounded, the scene in NW was a relative food desert.

Nevertheless, it was a welcome excuse to check out Citizen, a truly remarkable company that concerns itself primarily with the intersections of design and technology, performing research and analysis of market and culture trends to find new ways for tech advances to integrate into our lives—and they create some seriously elegant flowcharts in the process. They also have one of the coolest office spaces in the city, tucked away on the fringe of where NW starts to become primarily industrial. Upon arrival they had Purple Rain projecting on the wall (respect), a few paces away from a ceiling pendant that had been fashioned out of Apple earbuds.

At this point, we’re so deep in Design Week that you can’t help but start to recognize people who are working the same circuit you are. Such was the case with Luke, an architectural consultant I had also seen at Wednesday night’s party at NORTH. Mutual recognition demanded we introduce ourselves, swapping notes about the other events we had already attended, and those we planned to. It was pleasant enough that I stayed longer than I meant to, but eventually I pulled away, on to the next adventure.

Big Frog Custom T-shirts has been hidden in plain sight on W Burnside for four years, though I’d never heard of them. They’ll digitally print a design of your, or their, making with no minimum, on tees that come in an array of colors and sizes and… that’s pretty much it! But they did have snacks.

The simplicity of Big Frog afforded me more time at Hand-Eye Supply, a shop that specializes in the best versions of tools for all kinds of projects. There’s a global selection of writing instruments, notebooks, tools, axes, and workwear—a curated retail haven for the fetishization of creative supplies. They are the retail arm of Core 77, an influential design site whose job board, Coroflot, is having its new office built within the adjacent Hand-Eye warehouse. It’s actually on wheels, and began as a planned tiny house by Laurence Sarrazin of Los Osos design studio, built with wood milled on the property it was originally slated for. I’ve met Sarrazin once before—she’s brilliant, and I enjoyed sharing a beer and conversation with her, though my stomach was starting to rumble by the time I finished ogling the Italian-made staplers on my way out.

My last open house of the evening was Anthropologie. I’d been curious about how they’d activate the store for the occasion, and thought they might use the opportunity to highlight their collaborations with independent designers. Nope! They were simply open, business humming as usual. It worked out since I needed to price out a duvet cover, but I didn’t dwell long before walking the few blocks to the westside tomboy headquarters of Wildfang.

Presented by Sockeye creative studio, the event at Wildfang was accompanied by—finally, hooray!—freshly cooked up dim sum treats by Boke Bowl, which just about saved my life. It featured Piers Fawkes, founder and editor of PSFK, a site that specializes in future-thinking news, inspiration, and forecasts. The night’s topic was “The Future of Retail”—basically a breakdown of the latest technology tools being used by companies to communicate with customers, maximize the availability of product information, and streamline their overall systems in ways that are both admirably efficient and depressingly capable of eliminating human employment. It was on the dry side for a jovial, dim sum and canned wine kind of crowd, but it got my juices flowing, and I drove home thinking through the inspiration it gave me for my billion-dollar startup idea.

And no, obviously, I’m not telling you what that is.

Marjorie is a former Creative Circle candidate based in Portland who recently accepted a full-time offer for her dream job. She is a writer/editor and stylist/producer with an emphasis in the design world. If you are interested in working with someone like Marjorie, please contact your nearest Creative Circle office.

Still on the fence about attending events or open houses?

Read our blog on why it’s important.

Points NORTH: The Power of a Good Party

The description was vague but intriguing for “Further North,” a Design Week Portland event being hosted by NORTH, an advertising agency known for its work with Columbia Sportswear, Pacific Foods, and Cover Oregon (not their fault!). Would it be a panel, a lecture… ? Turns out, it was mostly just a party—a really good party—albeit with opportunities to make your own poster in the spirit of NORTH’s handmade methods for creating fonts and label designs. There was also a booth (where you could ask a NORTH employee anything), free burritos, beer on tap, and a display of how the creatives at NORTH go from literally doodling with ink and paper to creating some of the most recognizable package design on the shelves of the grocery store.

Full disclosure: I knew there would be some familiar faces in the crowd. One of NORTH’s Creative Directors is an old acquaintance who dates one of my good friends, and an art director I’ve worked with for years produces his outdoor adventure magazine, Stay Wild (to which I also contribute writing and copyediting), under NORTH’s custodianship. Since I was rolling solo, this took the edge off potential awkwardness, but instead of limiting me to interactions with people I already knew, these associations served as a bridge to get to know other, looser contacts.

Standing in the same conversation circle as the aforementioned CD put me in position to strike up a long conversation with the NORTH’s Executive Producer—who I’d technically met previously, but only slightly knew. The arrival of a freelance photographer I knew led to an introduction to a Portland-based wardrobe stylist whose work I’ve been following. I didn’t know that Kelley Roy, founder of the ADX manufacturing hub and Portland Made advocacy center, would be there, but I ended up talking to her for most of the last leg of the evening, and I even met, IRL, the owner of a modeling and talent agency before we realized we’d already corresponded over email months ago.

I was surprised to check my phone and realize that I’d stayed for almost the entirety of the three-hour event, floating from conversation to conversation, and getting an impromptu tour of NORTH employees’ desk collections (including a ticket stub from Dollywood, a sea monkey terrarium, and a preserved baby shark), their hilarious “email treadmill,” and the dark, upholstered booths hidden throughout their offices for private phone calls (though they look like they’re for making out).

In an industry where relationships and personal chemistry are a bedrock, NORTH set the tone by being welcoming and curious about its guests. There may not have been much formality or structure involved, but I left the event feeling fulfilled, connected, and as though the time—though about twice as long as anticipated—had been well spent.

Still on the fence about attending events or open houses?

Read our blog on why it’s important.

Design Week Portland starts this week. We asked designer Matthew T. to share how Portland lives creative through some of the city’s inspirational spaces.

The Good Mod

Nestled in one of West Burnside’s longstanding warehouse loft spaces, The Good Mod boasts a diverse stockpile of refurbished Midcentury furniture and design. Ascend the old-school industrial elevator via the unassuming glass-paned entrance on street-level, and you will be greeted by a pleasant host who will help you navigate the towers of Eames chair frames and nordic coffee tables. A unique quality of The Good Mod is its ability to seem peaceful and minimal while functioning as an active repair shop. The open concept and natural light allows for a moment of peace in the buzz of Portland’s thriving West End neighborhood.

Ace Hotel

Further embedded in Portland’s West End is the flagship location of Ace Hotel, an independent hospitality effort focused on design-driven hosting, with extra care attended to the presence of local designers and an engaged staff. Aside from its bright lobby, which also houses a Stumptown Coffee location, the upstairs common areas host an intimate study area where anyone can go to relax, meet others, or read one of the many publications complimentarily provided.

Clyde Common

A staple of the west side, Clyde Common features a clean, rustic interior which buzzes with activity during happy hours on weekdays. Common plates include poutine, rustic eggs, or a charcuterie plate to share. Pair those with a local draft ale or their “pacific standard” cocktail, and you have an outfit ready to suit your spring evening.

Good Coffee

As the name might imply, this cafe was established with the intent to put a quality cup first. Started by a few industry veterans, the new cafe now boasts two locations on Portland’s east side. When you go, look for a variety of bean offerings as well as the unique drinking vessels you are served.

Olympic National Forest

A drive outside of the city may find you in one of the nearby national forests. One popular destination has been the entryway to the greater Olympic National Forest, which resides near Lake Cushman, Shelton, and other rural communities. Nearby you’ll find trellises, old bridges, and an abundance of nature trails.

Matthew is a Creative Circle candidate and your guide to DWP’s events and open houses.

Still on the fence about attending events or open houses?

Read our blog on why it’s important.

Can’t attend?

Artist and designer Max Springer (@and.max.springer) and his wife Lauren (@lalaplaza) decided to make the move from Los Angeles to New York. We asked them to share their journey and their art on our Instagram (@Creative.Circle). See how they live creative.

Driving from Los Angeles to Boulder, Colorado. Not a lot of time to see the local sites but enjoying the motel and gas station tourism pamphlets.