The Design Issue
Design Week Is Back. Here's Your Game Plan.
How to Design Week
An Illustrated Introduction to Design Week Portland
Portland(s) of Tomorrow in Futurelandia
What Will the City Look Like in 50, 100, 200 Years?
Equity and Aesthetics Should Mix
Historian Reiko Hillyer Talks Density, Affordable Housing, and Equal Access to Public Space
Kevin Cavenaugh's Art of Risk
The Guerrilla Development Owner on Bringing Thoughtfulness, Creativity, and Risk into Portland Development
Design Week Portland: A User's Guide
Our Picks for Every Day of the Festival
Feeling the Overview Effect
Composer Tylor Neist Replicates an Astronaut's Return to Earth
The Central Eastside's Vanishing Borders
Diving into the Future of One of Portland's Most Rapidly Changing Areas
AKQA + New Avenues for Youth = A Very Different Pigeon
At-Risk Youth Partner with Digital Design Firm to Create New Fashion Brand
Crystal Beasley's Data-Driven Antidote to Fast Fashion
Her Portland-Based Company Is Finally Making a Goddamn Pair of Pants That Fits
Local Champion Cartoonists on Best Practices in Beer Bottle Design
Plus, How to Design a Brewery!
A Master Class in Wedding Calligraphy and Hand-Lettered Logos
Precious Bugarin and Bryn Chernoff Will Help You Make Your Own Font!
Essential Real Talk for Creative Freelancers
The Overshare: PDX Podcast Covers the Design Life—No Unicorns or Butterflies Allowed
Chelsea Peil's Ways of Looking at a Leaf
The Design Consultant on Visualizing the Shift Toward a Waste-Free Economy
IF THE BEST ART is created from hard times, then dfrntpigeon is a fashion brand to keep your eye on. Pronounced "different pigeon," the clothing design startup is a partnership between Portland's New Avenues for Youth—serving homeless and at-risk young people—and digital design firm AKQA (who've worked with such heavy-hitters as Nike and Warner Bros. Interactive).
The idea is deceptively simple: Homeless youth are mentored by AKQA professionals, and are paid to design and market a clothing line that springs from their own lives and experiences. However, after this training, the philosophy switches to more of a hands-off approach.
"We bring the industry experience, and New Avenues brings the talent," says AKQA Group Creative Director Ginny Golden. "They're involved in every decision, every step of the way. The way we see it: It's their business, not ours."
The idea was born as a one-shot mentoring project—but when those at AKQA saw the potential of these young people, they knew it could be more.
"We saw a bigger opportunity to create a sustainable business that would create self-sufficiency," Golden says. "Through workshops, we teach them what goes into a design—the process of taking an idea from a thought to a tangible product. The goal is to create a self-sustaining business model and training program that involves more youth over time."
The reaction from the youth involved has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Golden, and those at AKQA have been extremely impressed with the group's dedication and talent.
Design Week will mark the launch of the brand with a "dfrntpigeon Tee Party," in which these young designers will show off their fashionable and impressive line of T-shirts (which will also be available at dfrntpigeon.com). But the idea behind dfrntpigeon shouldn't stop there. Hopefully this partnership will inspire other companies to share their experiences and knowledge with the youth who need it most.
"For us, applying design thinking to the problem of at-risk youth was something that made sense," Golden says. "Technology is democratizing everything from fashion to entrepreneurship to the cities that we live in—and dfrntpigeon brings those things together."
dfrntpigeon Tee Party
The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel, 403 SW 10th, Thurs April 21, 4-9 pm, free
