Day three of our whirlwind portfolio adventure, Ben and I woke up to a cloudy Portland. We had a very busy schedule packed to the max with four exciting meetings.
Our first stop of the day was a morning review at Leopold Ketel & Partners. Well, actually, our first stop of the day was at Voodoo Doughnut, an apparently world-famous doughnut shop in downtown Portland. They have doughnuts covered in crazy things like bacon and cereal. I ordered Portland’s official doughnut, the Portland Crème, while Ben decided to be boring and ordered a glazed.
After our sugar rush we headed to Leopold Ketel. This was a small gathering with a few creatives and about 17 books. Leopold Ketel is a marketing, strategy, design, branding, and PR firm. They had asked for books mostly focused on lifestyle or product photography, so we put together what we felt was a good mix of portfolios for their needs. Some of their clients include Cockspur Rum, Planned Parenthood, and Friedrich Air Conditioning Co.
Some photographers singled out by the creatives at Leopold Ketel included Bruce Peterson (they were impressed with the printing of his book and sharpness of his photos), Anthony Georgis and his Levi’s Go Forth campaign, and Paul Dyer for his interior shots. They were also interested in Erik Johnson’s mini leave behind book of interiors.
After things came to an end at Leopold we packed our bags and headed for the car. After nearly getting hit by a train (they come down the street, by the way!), we made our way to the legendary office of Wieden + Kennedy.
Wieden + Kennedy is an iconic, full-service creative advertising agency. Their home base is Portland, but they have offices around the world. They became well known in the 80s with their Nike tagline “Just Do It.” They’re known for their work with Nike, Coca-Cola, Converse, Jeep, Old Spice, and more. Needless to say, as a former art direction major, I was just about giddy to step through the W+K doors.
Ben and I were impressed with W+K’s creative interior. Polished concrete and light wood were the main elements of the building, but design elements such as a giant red “GIRL WANTED” sign and an enormous bird’s nest made for a unique feel. The middle of the building had a stadium feel, with wooden steps/seats leading down to a floor with a ping-pong table. The office also had a basketball court and giant projectors.
We spread the books out on a long table right under the “GIRL WANTED” sign with some veggies and cheeses on a side table. The review went well, with about 20 friendly creatives browsing our photographers’ work. An assistant art buyer enjoyed Laura Flippen’s lifestyle work, commenting that it fit Portland’s laid back style. We also showed Anthony Georgis’s book, which was called in by popular demand! One creative asked for it specifically; when we brought it in, several people excitedly looked through his Levi’s work. As she looked through Anthony’s book, one art buyer called particular attention to his great Star Wars shots. Nick Hall and Andy Reynolds were also two W+K favorites, with Nick’s processing and Andy’s quirkiness highly appreciated.
Ben and I left Wieden + Kennedy with some new connections and moved on to our next meeting at Nike. The Nike Campus was big, and it took us awhile to find our way to the Jerry Rice Building (just past Mia Hamm) where we had our most intimate meeting on the trip. Only two Nike creatives were able to stop by to look at the books, but this gave us the chance for individualized attention. Bill Cramer’s book caught the eye of an art producer. He took Bill’s leave behind book to share with his colleagues. In the end, we left our new Nike contacts with newfound Wonderful Machine knowledge and some WM tees.
Bill Cramer’s book.
Our final Portland meeting was at Cinco Design Office, a design firm whose work includes strategy, design and advertising for clients such as Microsoft, Nixon, Finish Line, and many more.
The Cinco group was one of the most enthusiastic groups we had. They seemed excited to look through the books and were happy to see Justin Gollmer’s portfolio since they had worked with him the past; one designer mentioned that Justin’s still life work was very intriguing. Comments on books at Cinco included words like “sick” and “dope,” both of which were used to describe Thomas Barwick’s book. Dean Van Dis’s book was called “bold” and “clean,” and Claire Benoist got a shout out as well for her still life photography. After giving away some more Wonderful Machine t-shirts and seeing the promos disappear from the table, we packed up and headed out to Leisure Public House to meet up with two of Portland photographers.
Photographers Daniel Root and Christian Columbres met up with us for some drinks. Dan discussed his new branding and some of his upcoming projects. Christian was interested in discussing a new book design after seeing Sean’s work on Dana Hoff’s portfolio. After saying our goodbyes, Ben and I ordered some sandwiches to go and hit the road for Seattle. Stay tuned for Part III of our portfolio journey!
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