Creative Mornings is a free monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types that was created by Tina Roth Eisenberg. Since it’s inception in 2009, Creative Mornings has grown from it’s hometown of New York to include cities all over the world, including the likes of San Francisco, Chicago, London, Berlin—and now, Portland.

The inaugural Portland event was kicked off by none other than our friend, Kate Bingaman Burt. Her talk was an inspiring way to begin a Friday and a fitting beginning to Portland Creative Mornings. I’m still buzzing off it.

Kate’s a tough act to follow, but I’m happy to announce that Ian Coyle and I will be speaking at Creative Mornings on Friday, November 18th. You can RSVP here on November 14. Hope to see you there!

Although our pal Frank Chimero is relatively new to Portland, he’s already making his presence known. Join AIGA Portland and 52 Ltd. at Designspeaks to learn what’s on Frank’s mind.

I don’t know about you, but I listen closely to anything Frank has to say. He’s sure to delight and inform. Go get ‘em Frank!

The Cleaners at Ace Hotel
403 SW 10th Avenue
Portland, Oregon, 97205
May 13, 2010
7 – 10:00pm

We are beyond pleased to announce that our friend and ally, Frank Chimero, has been named as one of Print Magazine’s New Visual Artists. Each year, Print takes nominations from art directors and designers all over the world and then invites each of the nominees to submit their portfolio. At that point, a team of judges makes their final selections who are then featured within the pages of the magazine. This year Print invited four former winners—Saiman Chow (2002), Rob Giampietro (2004), Joshua Darden (2006), and Julia Hoffmann to help narrow down the nominees. Congratulations Frank. We already knew that you were the best. Now everyone else does too!

Photo courtesy of Robert Vidaure.

Our friend and ally Antonio Carusone was recently interviewed by Grafik Magazine about his fantastic site, AisleOne. Of course, Antonio is also known for The Grid System, the ultimate resource for grid systems. Read and enjoy.

Craig Oldham is one of those people that you are happy to have stumble into your life. Craig is a talented guy whose honesty and passion for his craft are a daily inspiration. I first learned of his work when I posted about 12 in 12 on Thinking for a Living and have since had the pleasure of forming a friendship with him.

Craig is a graduate of University College Falmouth where he continues to lecture today. He went on to be recognized as part of the D&AD New Blood exhibition which led him to his first job as a designer at The Chase. In 2009 he decided to work with the talented crew at Manchester-based Design By Music who designed the cover of the August issue of Creative Review. In his spare time, Craig lectures and writes about design for publications such as Creative Review, Eye and Grafik magazine. His work has been recognized by the D&AD, The Roses Design Awards, The Type Directors Club, and the New York Festival.

We’re excited to say that Craig is joining forces with Thinking for a Living and when possible, will contribute to our labor of love. Stay tuned.

“Everything is going to be OK.” Doesn’t that feel better? Finally, a projection about the future that doesn’t suck all the oxygen out of the room. Despite all of the doom and gloom, the silver lining for designers is that everything they need for success and happiness in this field is well within their own control. Learn more about The Practice Sessions here.

Folkert Gorter and Josh Pangell have graciously donated a lifetime account for each of the 10 practitioners at their newly developed personal publishing platform, Cargo. Cargo evolved out of the system that runs the SpaceCollective community. The goal of Cargo is to dramatically increase the accessibility and exposure of creative individuals on the internet, while aspiring to build a networked context that will contribute to the culture as a whole.

Andre Andreev and G. Dan Covert have also donated copies of their eye-opening book, Never Sleep for each of the 10 practitioners. There is a major disconnect between the life of a design student and the transition to being a design professional. To demystify the transition, Andre and Dan share their failures, successes, and surprises during their years in college and progression into the field: the creative process, monetary problems, internships, interviews, mistakes, and personal relationships.

Thinking for a Living is proud to announce The Practice Sessions, a workshop and panel discussion by Antonio Carusone, Frank Chimero, Duane King and Matt Owens taking place at the National Student Show & Conference in Dallas, Texas. The Practice Sessions is part of our continued efforts as an ever-growing platform dedicated to the concept of open source design education.

I can’t wait! These guys are all some of my favorite partners in crime. Dallas, here we come!

Today is a day of thanks here in the States and as of such, it’s only appropriate to thank everyone who has made Thinking for a Living™ possible. We’ve only been around for a little over four months and already this project has grown beyond our expectations thanks to the support of our friends, family, and most importantly, you, our reader. Happy Thanksgiving!

Excuse the absence of posts over this past weekend but we do try to experience more than just design and blogging in our lives. We’re back, safe and sound and more inspired than ever. Don’t forget to unplug yourself from the computer every once in a while. If you can’t see the forest for the trees, go visit a forest!

We’re happy to announce the release of the Thinking for a Living™ Resources Widget. Now you can stay on top of our resources feed via the Mac OS X Dashboard. Enjoy.

Frank Chimero says, “Eternal happiness lies within this widget.”

More than likely, you already know Frank Chimero via his ongoing projects such as The States or his Inspirational Design Posters but get ready to know him better. I had the good fortune to meet Frank in person when I was reviewing portfolios at the 1st Annual Dallas Society of Visual Communications Student Show & Conference a few years ago. His aesthetic and attitude were instantly captivating and you could tell that his portfolio was just a hint of what was to come. It was clear that Frank was a thinker and a craftsman – and our friendship was sealed at that moment.

As self-described on his site: Frank is a designer, illustrator and tinkerer from Missouri. Inspired by the mid-century aesthetic, Frank tries to recapture the sense of optimism, playfulness, heart and charm that’s characteristic of the period. He can usually be found surrounded by many tiny slips of paper with fragments of ideas scrawled on them. He believes in simplicity, honesty, humor, enthusiasm, keeping busy and air guitar solos. And he also believes in lots of little things over one big thing.

Frank is also beginning to teach design at Missouri State University to a group of lucky students. These reasons and more are why Frank is now a part of Thinking for a Living™. Give him a warm welcome and keep an eye out for his posts on the blog. They are guaranteed to be thought-provoking, entertaining or inspiring – and perhaps all of these at once.