Last Sunday a few of us braved the sub freezing temperatures to check out the China Design Now exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. The exhibition gave a captivating view into how the massive economic and cultural changes of the past 20 years have created an environment ready and moving to create world-class design.

China has been a country known for producing inexpensive goods, sometimes based on borrowed — or stolen, depending upon how you see it — design. The very notion of ownership was contrary to the communist ethos, so how could one own a design? The concept of intellectual property was foreign. Artists, graphic designers, and architects worked for the state until very recently.

The emergence of a powerful economy brings with it many things, in particular, the luxurious opportunity for citizens to choose what they buy — and thus the demand grows for more varied and considered products as people begin to live the lifestyle of their choosing. But this transition is about more than just economics. The transition from a collective mentality under communism to a individualistic one where personal freedoms and expression are allowed presents an environment ready for rich growth.

In the fashion and lifestyle area of the exhibition, a pair of red satin Nikes with gold swooshes exemplified a noticeable theme: a new aesthetic that reinterprets traditional Chinese design in the context of global youth culture. A series of ‘toy’ panda sculptures look like overgrown vinyl toys. The adorable old panda now has an attitude.

The exhibition was at once humbling and overwhelming. With its complex class system, sheer scale, and fast-paced growth, is it possible that left unchecked “design sprawl” could occur? As the government in Beijing clamors for the latest starchitect monuments, each more fantastic and novel than the last, are these buildings trophies of the new world? or a considered, integrated approach that solves 21st century needs of of people living in one of the world’s largest cities?

The ebb and flow of culture in our global economy is continuous and ever churning. In the near future it’s likely that we will be consuming Chinese culture as well as tuning our design for their palettes rather than vice versa. Be prepared for the powerhouse to come from China. It’s on it’s way, and it will be massive.

The work we do here at Cinco is, and will always be, deeply inspired by the complexities of our global design clients, the people they make things for, and for all of the new and amazing opportunities for inspiration in our work. Thank you PAM for the opportunity to see more.

China Design Now at the Portland Art Museum

Poster by David Nakamoto

Some real good music is happening here in PDX over the next couple weeks. We wanted to give a shout out to some friends - Nudge coming up from Los Angeles. Go check them out at the Holocene on Wednesday the 19th!!!

Nudge

Italian poet Dante Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy, an epic three-part poem (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso) about the quest to find lost love and journey of personal redemption in the 14th century. The poem is famous for an imaginative description of sin and the afterlife, taking readers where they have never been or dare to go.

Electronic Arts and Visceral Games interpret this medieval poem to create a brilliantly disturbing game. The player battles through the nine circles of hell (Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery) to the heart of hell in order to save his true love, Beatrice. Each circle of hell has a different director to create an intense and powerful representation of Dante’s poem.

EA collaborated with Cinco to craft the visual identity system for this game of lost souls and suffering damnation. The journey has been eye opening to say the least for us at Cinco. This has been an opportunity for us to create some of the most incredible imagery imaginable. The images to the left are just a small part of the overall system we’ve been developing. Stay tuned for more posters of the 9 levels of hell, and be sure to check out all the latest at the official Dante Website.

EA Dante’s Inferno
Dante’s Twitter

San Francisco based band “Or, the Whale” will playing on August 15 at Portland’s Mississippi Studios. With elaborate story telling and sweet tunes about jimson weed, black rabbits and love, this country rock band should put on a great show.

Besides bringing their tasty musical chops to Portland – “Or, the Whale” bassist Justin Fantl is one seriously talented photographer. Following his work, we are impressed with his skills and perspective. His imagery sparks of truth, intrigue and a certain timelessness. Check out his website for more great imagery and hopefully we will see you at Mississippi Studios for the show!

Or, The Whale
Justin Fantl
Apostrophe

Today’s world of digital everything, facebooks and twitters find some of us spending large amounts of work and personal time “plugged-in” — to balance all this technology overload, a group of creative spirits at Cinco are taking it back old school with felting hand crafts.

We started running across incredible examples of felt craft as we did research for project specific material stories. One great web site is the Fashion Felting website from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The site goes in depth with some modern artist that use felt as their medium. Examples are diverse, rich and inspiring.

The back-story of felting is a craft practiced and found in the some the oldest cultures on earth. The technique involves the compression of fibers together to create an endless variety shapes and forms. Felting is an enduring craft representing creativity at its best.

So, a crew of motivated Cinco folks and friends got together to take pleasure in the craft — called the Owl Society it is a party where the main ingredient is felt. What resulted is a collection of felt objects ranging from owls, slippers to monsters. Fabricating something with ones own hands, the process from beginning to end becomes about the act of creating and expression of a personal art form.

The images on this page are creation from Cinco’s Jessica Davis, Ben Munson and the Owl Society. Check the following links for more information about the felting world!

The Owl Society
Fashioning Felt
Craftzine blog