#DWPDX: Hotshot Designer Tina Snow Le's Design Week Picks
About halfway through a conversation with the energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate Tina Snow Le, she asks me, “Oh, can you hear me OK? The tee-pee session just started.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
"Every once and a while we have a performer come in and do a set in the tee-pee that's in the center of our office space. It’s open to the public, people come and bring their lunch, and they sit and watch the free show.”
The moment captures the enthusiasm the designer for Instrument, a fast-growing local creative firm, brings to both her work and the city’s design and cultural scene in general. “I fell in love with design because in enabled me to solve problems and have fun,” she says. “Design Week Portland is very close to me. All aspects of design are very well represented in this one week. I love how amazing and overwhelming it can be, with how involved people are. It’s something special you don’t see anywhere else. And I feel really special that Portland is able to host an event like this.”
Tina’s picks for DWP:
Daily Tours Les Jours: Together and In Public
Montreal's Daily tours les jours creates collaborative projects that re-shape the ways people tell stories. The group's projects commonly take place on public land, engaging with pedestrians to connect people to others and their surroundings. (For example, Daily tours once set up a musical swing set in a small town.)
“I really align with their values of using the power of participation,” Tina says. “I want to learn about their work because I feel my own personal work is very participatory and works with the public as well.”
The event is a discussion and a sharing of their process with the public.
When: Monday, October 6, 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
Party Panel: The Joys of Collaboration
“I love how it’s based around the idea of how working with your friends on personal projects can lead to amazing things,” Tina says of this discussion featuring the likes of Will Bryant, Nicolle Clemetson, Adam Garcia, Chris Hornbecker, Kristin Lane, Justin Morris, and Nick Stokes. "A lot of my favorite projects were collaboration projects that started with friends, all because we just wanted to have fun.” The event during will be an open and moderated discussion about personal projects and collaborating with like-minded people.
When: Wednesday, October 8, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Where: District Collective: 1825 NE 43rd Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97213
Copic is a company that focuses on creating high quality markers—the best in the world—and this is a workshop about how to use them. Copic is proud of what it does: supplying creative people with the best coloring tools known to man.
“I’m attracted to this workshop because I admire his (Ken O'Connell’s) abstract creations," Tina says. “It’s an opportunity to learn more about his craft, and play around with sketching, too.”
When: Wednesday, October 8, 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM
Where: University of Oregon Event Room, 70 NW Couch, Portland, Oregon, 97209
Ellen McFadden: A Life In Design
McFadden, a life long artist, has been in design for most of her life. This event is a celebration of a life in design as well as a chance to view her work.
Tina’s voice rings of regard for the 85-year-old. “She’s been painting her entire life,” she notes. “Some of her paintings are very structured, but there is playfulness and whimsical elements among her colors.”
When: Wednesday, October 8, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Where: Ampersand Gallery & Fine Books, 2916 NE Alberta Street, B, Portland, Oregon, 97211
“I’ve always been intrigued by the Textile Hive collection,” Tina says. “I mean this woman (Andrea Aranow) has 40,000 different textiles that she has been collecting since she was young.” This exhibit highlights Andrea’s textiles, as well as the new online launch of the database by Textile Hive.
“They’ve digitalized the collections,” Tina says, “So you can compare all of these textiles throughout the world.”
When: Thursday, October 9, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Where:The Steven Goldman Gallery at The Art Institute of Portland, 1122 NW David St., Portland, Oregon, 97209
