Diesel fuel, tobacco, damp dirt and pine tree perfume from Portland, OR…

Perfumer Heather Sielaff hand-blends idiosyncratic, mostly masculine scents for her label OLO Fragrance in her apartment in north Portland. “I’m not really girly,” she admits, and her perfumes

Likeminded artisans gather in a collaborative workspace in Portland…

For some people, the constant rattling of trains outside their window might be irritating. But for Beam & Anchor co-founders Robert and Jocelyn Rahm, it sounded just right. “I grew up

Effective organic deodorant cream for sensitive skin…

The issue of aluminum-based, fragrance-added deodorant poses a problem for those with allergies or sensitivity, or anyone averse to the chemicals required to fight sweat and odor. If we still lived in a

A Portland collector’s antique imagery and artifacts add new depth to a Swedish workwear label’s NYC shop …

The seemingly surprising collaboration between Portland’s Ampersand Gallery and Swedish workwear company Dunderdon came about in a wholly organic fashion. Les Szabo, a

A new catalog spotlights Portland artisans in their natural habitats…

In an effort to become more than just a shopping destination, Core’s flagship store, Hand-Eye Supply in downtown Portland, Oregon has taken the standard catalog to an artful new level.

Watercolor illustrations combine Wes Anderson style with wildlife and folklore…

Brooke Weeber’s delicate, darkly humorous watercolor-and-ink illustrations are one
part Wes Anderson, one part Edward Gorey. Fantastical wolves and deer roam freely
through pastel-tinted clouds and trees, sharing space with

A Portland designer applies sculptural origami to women’s clothing…

A first look at Liza Rietz designs does not immediately confirm if they’re clothes or sculptures. Even on the hanger, layers of silk, wool and linen flow out in broad planes,

A young graphic designer’s first monograph is full of color and motion…

A lot of artists might think twice about issuing a retrospective before they
reach 30. But the young Canadian graphic designer Julien Vall

Portland’s micro-chocolatiers with a knack for DIY innovation…

A few years ago in the DIY paradise of Portland, Oregon, Jessica and Charley Wheelock began cultivating an idea. If home brewers and coffee roasters were dotting the national food scene with

Photographer Skye Parrot’s path from political science to indie magazine publisher…

As the daughter of an art photographer, it never occurred to Skye Parrott to take up
photography as a career herself. Though she grew up around cameras, Parrott thought

A people-driven architect rebuilding communities one project at a time…

New York-based architect Andrew Burdick may not produce work with the flashy curves of a Gehry or distinguish himself with an iconic style like Meier’s glassy minimalism. Instead, Burdick lets

From Madonna to Al Gore, how one publisher reimagines books for the digital age…

Charlie Melcher is, in his own words, a man of eclectic tastes. With a hand in some of pop culture’s most influential phenomena, from “South Park:

A musician-programmer translates data into melodies…

Equal parts programmer and musician, Tristan Perich graduated from Columbia University in 2004 and went on to earn a masters at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ Interactive Telecommunications program in 2007. While the

A young Canadian designer marries painstaking handcrafts with digital finesse…

The work of Qu

A young minimalist takes on the challenge of designing for everyday life
…

A kind of Shaker simplicity marks the work of Leon Ransmeier, a beauty that results when an object is exactly what it’s meant to be and nothing more.

Take your armchair outside with this clever riff on lawn furniture…

Italian furniture designer Alessandra Baldereschi’s work, while often surreal and usually ironic, is always completely functional. A moss chair lends a modernist form to an earthy material; a glass

Artist Ellen Lesperance weaves new meaning into knitwear with an exhibit honoring women activists…

Fair Isle fans have long fetishized the winter staple, but Ellen Lesperance’s upcoming exhibit at Seattle’s Ambach & Rice Gallery explores the sweater as more than

GPS-enabled experiments visualize daily jog data in 3-D …

Potential Prefontaines aside, most who run would be hard-pressed to find any grace or beauty in our daily jogs. And yet that’s exactly what Nike+’s latest collaboration with interactive design firm YesYesNo

Casual leather sandals that aren’t your grandma’s comfort shoes…

Bi-continental shoe company Nom&Ada is named after its two founders: The “nomadic” Rie Sawai in Tokyo and the “adaptable” Kimy Andrade in Portland, OR. The two met while studying design at