It’s Design Week in Portland! The week when all of the makers, the tallest and the smallest, get together to talk about the looks they love, the technology they’re using, and the newest concepts and products they're dreaming up. From streetwear to downtown Portland to sporting goods to candy, everything's on the drawing board.
We started out the festival last week with a live Think Out Loud show at the Redd, an old industrial building in Southeast Portland that's serving as DWP's headquarters. This week, we're packaging some of those interviews together with new reported stories from the rest of the fest.
JavHack: Reimagining Sports Ergonomics - 5:48
You might not think the javelin needs innovation. It worked for four-hundred thousand years of human history, right? But track and field athletes are always pushing the limits. We spoke with record-breaking javelin thrower Tom Petronoff about the need for a new design vision and the time he almost speared Alberto Salazar. You can see videos of some high-class javelin chucking and a vintage clip of Tom Petranoff narrated by Caitlin Jenner here. 
Cutting Edge Pixels with the Annual Animation Challenge - 10:04
Jamal Qutub has been in love with animation since he was a kid. For work, he creates animations for clients like Adidas and Intel, but in his spare time, Qutub runs AEPDX, a meetup group for local animators. For the past three years, Qutub has been putting together an animation challenge during Design Week. Local animators submit short films to be viewed and voted on by an audience of their peers and interested DWP spectators.
Portland's Highline? A Proposed Park that Wants to Change How You See the City - 18:04
Last year, Design Week featured a challenge to design a 6-mile linear park circling downtown Portland called the Green Loop. Now the winners, Untitled Studio, are taking the conceptual idea one step further with an interactive exhibit as part of this year’s festival. They stop in to tell us about their big dreams and why Portland needs the Green Loop.
QUIN Candy's Magical Confections - 30:42
What could be better at the end of Design Week Portland than dessert? Jami Curl told a sweet story on Friday about how she built two successful companies, QUIN Candy and Saint Cupcake, that stand out in the forest of Portland food brands. We visited her at her QUIN Candy production room this week and heard all about her candy-design.
Design in the Forest: Maya Lin's Bird Blind - 37:33
So many design stories originate on desktops and drafting tables, but we found one that must be experienced with hiking boots on. While Design Week took out a busload of explorers, we headed out to explore the Sandy River Delta with biologist Bill Weiler, Confluence Project member Colin Fogarty and designer Dylan Woock. 
In 2004, the Confluence Project kicked off with the goal of connecting people with places in the Columbia Basin. Confluence’s renowned artist and designer Maya Lin took on this challenge, and created an elliptical immersive sculpture out of wood and metal that blends effortlessly into the terrain. 
Portland At-Risk Youth Create Streetwear Label – 43:45
“Don’t just rise, take flight” is the tagline of streetwear label dfrntpigeon, which is a collaboration between the non-profit New Avenues for Youth and branding gurus AKQA. Run by marginalized and homeless youth, the agency designs and sells shirts and apparel that are expressive, political, sometimes humorous, and sometimes dark. They’ve just released their newest line of tees, The Identity Collection, with screen printed shirts like “Humanity,” which shows four forearms holding a cigarette, a grenade, an hourglass, and a digital clock, surrounded by a ring of flowers.