2020 Vision is a neat documentary series exploring the future of television. Episode 1 features Mark Holden in “A Media Perspective”. Imagine not only Netflix knows your preferences but your whole TV knows exactly who your are and can channel specific content to you via voice recognition. Wild? Not in 2015.

Dan Wieden’s episode “A Creative Perspective” is out and not to miss. Catch the whole series on Think TV’s 2020 Vision channel.

Creative Mornings, a monthly breakfast lecture series, is quite delightful and features some real amazing speakers. Aaron James Draplin packed the house hard. For obvious reasons. Chris Guillebeau, traveler, fighter of the status quo and author of “The $100 Start Up” is going to inspire Portland on May 4th. See you there!

As an ode to Internet Advertising’s 18th birthday Google has designed an experiment, Project Re:Brief to re-imagine what advertising can be an push the boundaries of how creative ideas and today’s technology can work hand in hand. Check out these re:briefs

Coca-Cola “Hilltop” - Volvo “Drive It Like You Hate It” - Alka-Seltzer “I Can’t Believe I Ate The Whole Thing” - Avis “We Try Harder”

Does make us think about Iain Tait leaving Wieden + Kennedy to join Google. Coincidence?

Enjoy and happy First Friday!

Google Glass

Game/Space: An Interview with Daniel Dociu

The Colors of Holi 2012

Uli Beutter Cohen and Jesus Cameron were invited to speak in Eugene at the University of Oregon advertising program last month on the topic of storytelling. It was a great opportunity to share how we  create, curate, and what we believe in. The students added tremendously to our talk with thoughtful questions and unexpected insights.

Last week this rad gift arrived in the mail. Big thanks to the U of O for having us, and to the students for creating an inspiring exchange of creative thought.

#EastSideFriday arrived once again as Sandymontana was host to the hauntingly beautiful photography of Mikola Accuardi’s Femme Fatale exhibit.  Witness to this transformation were plenty of familiar faces, as well as many new and welcome guests from our east side community.

The guys at Marmoset Music gave of us access to a killer set from D.J’s, Josh and Andrew of Beacon Sound with DJvsNature. Their 60’s-styled soundtrack threw a psychedelic mirage of music through our space and brought the Femme Fatales alive. We’d like to thank everyone who showed up to help make this another successful #EastSideFriday, as well as Mikola for collaborating with Sandymontana and showcasing her wonderful photography.

Check out our Facebook page to see our photos from the night.

5 Questions and 5 Answers with Mikola Accuardi.

1. Two truths and a lie about you please.
-I speak German.
-My first word was begonia.
-I have a crush on Bob Dylan

2. Tell us about your First Friday show, who are the subjects? What was your inspiration behind the show?
I find that I get inspired by femininity and shooting the subjects, they are all my muses. Femme Fatale is a collection of work I’ve made over the past few months, drawn from multiple shoots, that has really been inspired by the girls that I shoot.

It’s named after the Velvet Underground song, “Femme Fatale.” Besides the fact that it’s one of my favorite songs, the subjects are all total badasses that encapsulate the idea of being a powerful woman. There’s a line in the song “It’s not hard to realize, just look into her false colored eyes.” That resonated with me because fashion photography is often viewed as something artificial, but I find it to be so creative and fun to make up a world of beauty. There are negative connotations with idea of a femme fatale as well, but I wanted to concentrate on the positive aspects like the confidence in the way they pose, and the way they move their bodies which is so effortless and graceful.

3. What do you want people to take away from your work?

A spark of inspiration.

4. Who is a femme fatale that you admire?
Isis, the ancient Egyptian Goddess who was worshipped for her magic and being the ideal feminine. I have her tattooed on me.

5. You are only allowed to have one cheese forever, what kind would it be?
Such a hard question! I want to choose smoked gouda, but I have to choose cheddar because it goes with so much.

Last year, we collaborated with Prabal Gurung on his Resort 2011 Collection. Since then we have been fortunate to witness and support the evolution of the designer and his growing empire.

This year, we joined the PG team during fashion week to lead his social media campaign and create content around his Fall 2012 Collection.

His Fall 2012 Runway Show and the Behind-The-Scenes Film are a special treat and just about to hit your screens.

With the stakes raised – #PrabalLive2012 trended in both the US and Canada during the live stream of his show – we can’t wait to see where Prabal Gurung is taking us next.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you’ve probably heard of the amazing story of artist David Choe, who in 2005 painted the start-up offices of Facebook and opted for stock as payment (stock which is now estimated to worth $200 million). Now as a result of this decision (and not his art), he has been the object of desire for every news organization under the sun from ABC to Al-Jazeera.

Now whether you area fan of Choe’s work, or not, is not the issue here. The issue we are wrestling with is that it seems that the artist’s ability to make money is as significant (if not more significant) as their ability to make art, to our perception of them (and is that anything new?). This very Warholian notion has us trying to dissect this whole art-and-commerce thing in a way that makes sense to us.

Here is the question; does the monetary value attached to an artist make them more interesting? Does the monetary value of the work directly correlate to the impact that artist has on the world around them (Damien Hirst debate anyone?)? Why are we fascinated with an artist (an extremely talented artist to boot) that has made $200 million on Facebook stock anyways? Does this decision to take stock in 2005 make his art in 2012 any better (it has sure made it more valuable)? Is the artist’s persona their greatest work of art? All questions we are far from having the answers to, but serve as food for thought regardless…

Watch David Choe’s mostly uninformative interview with Barbara Walters here.
Or listen to his hilariously lewd interview with Howard Stern here.

For First Friday we packed our halls with cheerful Oddservers eager to check out the otherworldly art of Bryce Pedersen. While Bryce’s artwork took us on a transdimensional tour, the wicked music from our friends at Marmoset Music and Beacon Sound lit up our souls.

We’d love to give a hearty thank you to our friends at the Portland Mercury and Portland Egotist for helping us promote the #eastsidefriday hashtag and making this event such a success. After the great time we had this weekend we’re eagerly preparing for next month, and glad to be part of the First Friday community.

Check out more pictures on our Facebook Page.