Swirling with Inspiration
In classic San Francisco style, the start of 2011 has not been short on great things going on. The opportunity to see and do the things I love (including the work I do) in this town is mind blowing.
Compostmodern
An annual 2 day conference presented by AIGA San Francisco, Compostmodern is an interdisciplinary design conference dedicated to transforming products, industries and lives through sustainable design choices. Day 1 is your traditional line up of speakers, and Day 2 is structured as an un-conference as a chance to brainstorm in self directed groups. Highlights included Debera Johnson, Founder of the Pratt Design Incubator; Kate Daughdril, Founder of SOUP; Dan Phillips, Founder of The Phoenix Commotion; and Lisa Gansky, Author of the Mesh. Check out some of the videos here.
New Bohemian Signs
I realized that I’ve been subconsciously noticing various signs and sidewalk sandwich boards around town that have a great hand painted aesthetic, yet didn’t quite put the pieced together until I saw the postcard for an art opening featuring New Bohemian Signs. Turns out that all these lovely merchant signs were hand painted by this crew. The opening show was jam packed.
San Francisco City Planning Commission Meeting
I attended my first City Hall public planning hearing. SFUAA is heading up a proposal for San Francisco to re-zone the city so residents can sell the produce they grow in their yards. Pretty huge for the local food movement, urban homesteaders, and the future of food security. We had a huge turn out of support and no opposition. The Planning Commission was pretty excited about this effort, and expressed how great it was to have an authentic green initiative come across their desk. They voted unanimously to support the urban agriculture zoning proposal as it was introduced without any additional restrictions.
SF EcoTuesday
Sort of a shameless self promo plug here, but a lot of my time lately is dedicated to organizing a monthly networking and lecture series. EcoTuesday was founded 4 years ago by Nikki Pava and has grown to multiple cities. The focus is on bringing business leaders from the very broad field of sustainability to connect with each other. What’s unique about this event is that it includes some casual happy hour networking time, plus a talk presented by an industry thought leader, plus some structured introductions of all the attendees to facilitate making connects with like minded people. I’m pretty proud to be part of this great community.
Business Model Gameference
This one day work shop was pretty fantastic. Based on the book, Business Model Generation, with the author present to guide us through. Met some interesting people, exercised my brain in new ways, and felt both exhausted and energized by the end.
SonicLiving
Last but not least, SonicLiving is one of my current fabulous clients. I’m providing art direction and design for some behind the scenes developments they’ve got up their sleeve. It’s all a top secret startup stuff so I can’t really go into any detail. The nature of the work that I do is typically hush-hush, until it launches. I’ve got 1 other client in the same situation, and a couple more in the queue.
Events Coming Up
Farm Together Now, book reading at Mission Pie
Permaculture Guild, design class
SXSW
SF EcoTuesday March
EG: Fifth Anniversay
Tales of the City, at ACT