BEND DESIGN 2017 is being presented by ScaleHouse in Bend, Oregon, October 26+27, as a two-day event for creative thinkers, designers and disrupters who seek to explore the processes and practices that enable design thinking to alter our approach to the challenges and opportunities in our lives.
BEND DESIGN features talks with innovators of every discipline, interactive workshops, and hands-on exhibits—designed to energize and embolden all of us to improve the quality of life in our communities through creative thinking and action.
Anyone whose contributions to their work and the world would benefit from a creative approach to problem solving: Yes, designers, but also architects, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, trades professionals, educators, students, researchers, executives, musicians, writers, civic leaders, city planners, citizens.”
There are no tracks dividing the disciplines this year. Attendees can expect to further the ideas they came with, make connections with new mentors and co-conspirators, and emerge ready to design the future.
Register at BendDesign.org
BEND DESIGN 2017 Headline Speakers include:
ANGELA LUNDA | Founder and CEO | ADIFF
Angela Luna is the Founder and CEO of ADIFF, a humanitarian clothing startup that uses design intervention to assist globally displaced persons. A graduate of Parsons the New School for Design with a BFA in fashion design, she is redesigning the fashion industry to be more inclusive and proactive. Angela is a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2017, winner of Parsons’ 2016 Designer of the Year Award, and winner of the Eyes on Talents Innovation Award. Based in New York, she is a solution-based designer who is committed to creating products and services that better the world.
REBECA MENDEZ | Artist, Designer, Professor | UCLA, Design Media Arts
Méndez is an artist, designer, and professor at UCLA, Design Media Arts, where she is director of the CounterForce Lab, a research and fieldwork studio dedicated to using art and design to develop creative collaborations, research, and projects around the social and ecological impacts of anthropocene climate change. Her research and practice investigates design and media art in public space, critical approaches to public identities and landscape, and artistic projects based on field investigation methods. Méndez’s art is driven by her interest in perception and embodied experience. Her diverse works—photography, 16mm film, book arts, and architectural scale sound and video installations—have been exhibited widely at significant institutions and biennials worldwide. Méndez’s work is represented in numerous public and private collections, including at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Nevada Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Oaxaca, El Paso Museum of Art, and the National Design Museum. Permanent public art commissions include, two murals for Metro Art Crenshaw/LAX project, 2016; the January 8 Memorial design for the January 8 Memorial Foundation, Tucson, Arizona, 2015. Selected awards include, the AIGA Medal, 2017; the National Design Award in Communication Design, bestowed by the White House and the Smithsonian Institution, 2012; and the California Community Foundation Mid Career Fellowship for Visual Artist, 2010.
BRYAN LEE | Founder/Director | Colloqate Design
Bryan Lee is a Designer and Design Justice Advocate. He is the founder/Director of Colloqate Design, a nonprofit multidisciplinary design practice dedicated to expanding community access to design and creating spaces of racial, social and cultural equity. Lee most recently served as the Place + Civic Design Director for the Arts Council of New Orleans and prior to that at the 2014 AIA National Firm of the Year, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple (Architecture) in New Orleans.
And, Bryan is the founding organizer of the Design Justice Platform and organized the Design As Protest National day of Action. Additionally, he has led two award winning architecture + design programs for high school students through the Arts Council (local) and the National Organization of Minority Architects (national), respectively. He serves on several boards; most notably as the Design Education Chair National NOMA board and on the National AIA Equity + the Future of Architecture Committee. He was selected as the 2014 NOMA member of the year, 2015 Next City Vanguard Fellow, 2015 International British American Project Fellow. In 2016, Bryan was selected to give a TED Talk and to Keynote at SXSW Eco on Design Justice.
LYNDA DECKER | President and Creative Director | Decker Design
Lynda Decker is President, and Creative Director of Decker Design, a New York City-based design consultancy. Decker is currently co-chair with Heather Stern of the AIGA Women Lead Initiative. She is a former Vice-President of the AIGA/NY chapter.
She began her career at Lubalin Peckolick Associates working as an assistant on the publication, U&lc. Later the firm merged with Pushpin Studios and she worked under the tutelage of both Alan Peckolick and Seymour Chwast. Her career then led her to spend a decade in the world of big advertising where she joined McCaffrey & McCall, Backer Spielvogel Bates and Wells Rich Green. Her work won a Clio and awards from both the One Show and the Art Director’s Club for clients such as Falcon Jet, Mercedes Benz and IBM.
Believing that there was a way to combine the wit of advertising and the discipline of design, she established Decker Design in 1996. Beginning in the living room of her apartment, she grew the firm steadily with clients such as Chase, IBM, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Her team has won recognition from Communication Arts, AIGA and numerous other shows.
KAWANDEEP VIRDEE
Kawandeep Virdee uses technology and art to explore ways we can create meaning and joy collectively. He co-founded New American Public Art to build interactive art that makes public spaces more communal and welcoming. Similarly, his internet art strives to encourage collaboration, play, and creativity. His works have shown in venues including the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, Boston Convention Center, Sculpture Visions in Chapel Hill, SFMOMA, Detroit Design Festival, Art & Sol in Saginaw, Suffolk University, Transmediale in Berlin, the MIT Media Lab, and EYEO/Northern Spark. Mural commissions include the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Facebook Artist in Residence program. Talks and workshops include MIT, Google Creative Lab, Facebook, Society of News Design, EYEO, FITC, INST-INT, International Conference on Complex Systems, Connected Communities Symposium in Newcastle, Art Institute of Boston, Tech@State, Betascape at MICA, A Better World By Design at Brown/RISD, Robotsconf, IstanbulHS, Makerland in Warsaw, and JSConf. His works have been covered in publications including the Atlantic, Science, Vice, NewScientist, Make, Core77, the New York Times, the Globe, and Art Digital Magazine. He is on the product team at Medium.
BEND DESIGN 2017
Bend Design 2017 is a celebration of design thinking and design doing. We will stoke curiosity, spark innovation, empower collaboration, and make things happen. Drawing inspiration from multidisciplinary design thinkers in Bend and across the country, BEND DESIGN 2016 will feature workshops, lectures, tours, and hands-on design opportunities, inviting community members, designers, trade professionals, students, entrepreneurs, city officials and citizen-experts, to participate in a conversation around the shape of our shared future. You can find out more by visiting www.benddesign.org.
ScaleHouse
ScaleHouse is a community hub for creative thinkers and the driving force behind the ongoing campaign to develop a Contemporary Creative Center in Bend, Oregon. ScaleHouse seeks to strengthen the local creative community via engaging educational events as well as collective opportunities for creative congregation, collaboration, and cross-pollination. Go to www.Scalehouse.org for more information or to become a member.
JOHN CARY | Architect, Author
An architect by training, John Cary has devoted his career to expanding the practice of design for the public good. He is the author of Design for Good: A New Era of Architecture for Everyone and his writing on design, philanthropy, and fatherhood has appeared in the New York Times, on CNN.com, and in numerous other publications. John works as a philanthropic advisor to an array of foundations and nonprofits around the world, and he frequently curates and hosts events for TED, the Aspen Institute, and other entities. For seven years, John served as executive director of the nonprofit Public Architecture, building the largest pro bono design program in the world, pledging tens of millions of dollars in donated services annually. John is a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a resident of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, and a three-time commencement speaker, among other honors.
TANNER WOODFORD | Founder, Executive Director, and Bartender | Chicago Design Museum
Tanner Woodford is founder, executive director, and bartender of the Chicago Design Museum, maker of Iterative Work and faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Throughout his career, Tanner has worked as a product designer, community organizer, interaction designer and developer. He has taught and lectured on design issues, history and rapid ideation in professional and academic settings. He is irrepressibly optimistic, and believes design has the capacity to fundamentally improve the human condition.
“This year’s presenters are aligned with the innovative and collaborative spirit that distinguishes Bend as a hub of entrepreneurialism. ScaleHouse has masterminded BEND DESIGN 2017 as a way engage our forward-thinking, talented community in a meaningful conversation about the role of design in our daily experience and how thoughtful design invigorates and inspires us,” says ScaleHouse co-founder and BEND DESIGN Visionary Rene Mitchell.
Those interested in attending BEND DESIGN 2017, or sponsoring, can find out more information and purchase tickets at BendDesign.com. Tickets for the two-day event are: $175, ($75 students) or $150 for ScaleHouse members. Group ticket discounts are available for businesses and organizations, as well. The event will be held at the Tower Theatre, the Oxford Hotel and other iconic Bend locations.
Sponsors of BEND DESIGN 2017: include the Bend Cultural Tourism Commission, The Starview Foundation, Bend Furniture Design, Roundhouse Foundation, Astir Agency, Hand in Hand Productions, Bend Fashion Quarterly, The Source Weekly, 1859, Crahmanti., Old Mill District, The Roundhouse Foundation, Brooks Resources, Buzztag, Wild Alchemy, The Capitol, News Channel 21, The Oxford Hotel, Central Oregon Daily, OPB, Captain Possible, Oregon State University, BendBroadband, BBT Architects, Bigfoot Beverage, The Old Stone Performing Arts Center, The Bulletin, DEI and Press Pros.
Register at BendDesign.org
