‘It’s like if four 19-year-old Japanese kids who really like 1980s/1990s American rock n’ roll formed a band.’ This is how a friend of mine described the band Hausu to me. Despite hailing from Portland, Oregon, there is a definite Eastern presence in the quartet’s music.

Combine that with sad tales about missing home and ex-girlfriends, and you get the ethereal tones of Hausu. After two years of EPs and 7”, their first full length Total will be released by Seattle label Hardly Art on June 25. Here’s the promising first single, Leaning Mess.

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Portland, on the United States’ Pacific Northwest coast, is shaping up as the new Seattle/Melbourne, with its passion for indie music, coffee and cycling. Oregon’s low-rise, river-bestriding capital has long taken a creative approach to city planning, ensuring its heritage architecture remains pristine and independent stores, arts spaces, bars and cafés flourish. For a stylish getaway, visit Mr & Mrs Smith’s collection of boutique hotels and holiday houses. Book through Smith for exclusive extras at all stays, including a bottle of prosecco and free parking at Jupiter Hotel. You won’t regret staying in one of these super cool hotels.

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The Deer Lodge to me is Portland, Oregon, in a nutshell. It is a cultish DIY collective as much as one man’s home. That man’s home is your honky-tonk. There’s a recording studio in the basement; I did the first Drunken Prayer record there. They have a covered stage in the backyard for summer shows, and a bar with a couple of taps and a nearly constantly spinning turntable. Though officially a private residence, most all are welcome nearly 24/7. When in PDX find it if you can.

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Portland, on the United States’ Pacific Northwest coast, is shaping up as the new Seattle/Melbourne, with its passion for indie music, coffee and cycling. Oregon’s low-rise, river-bestriding capital has long taken a creative approach to city planning, ensuring its heritage architecture remains pristine and independent stores, arts spaces, bars and cafés flourish.

Nicknamed Stumptown for its lack of skyscrapers, it’s also handy for snowboarding and trekking in the surrounding wilderness or quaffing in the Willamette Valley vineyards. Check out This breezy city is best explored on two wheels, so hire a bike and pedal to the Pearl. Once a decaying warehouse district in downtown, it’s been transformed into a hub of galleries, boutiques, restaurants and performance venues.

For snowboarding at nearby Mount Hood, head for Timberline Lodge ski school or escape for some whale-watching, wine tours or wild times with Eco Tours of Oregon. Buy up Portland’s music scene has spawned hipster bands including The Dandy Warhols, The Gossip and The Decemberists; snap up old-school local vinyl or CDs at 2nd Avenue Records. Find covetable homewares at Canoe (www.canoeonline.net; 1136 SW Alder).

For savvy womenswear, try Una (922 SE Ankeny) or hit Hattie’s Vintage Store at 729 E Burnside Street. 

Dine out Chilled-out Euro-style tavern Clyde Common (1014 SW Stark Street) does a mean brunch (with cocktails!), with hearty peasant food for lunch or dinner, and a late-opening bar. Pop to Kenny & Zukes deli (1038 SW Stark Street) for pastrami on rye. Smart dining beckons at Le Pigeon (738 E Burnside Street) or you can’t beat Ken’s Artisan Pizza (304 SE 28th Avenue). 

Drink up Sample the local beans at Stumptown Coffee Roasters; there’s a branch at 1026 SW Stark Street off the Ace Hotel Portland’s lobby. Microbreweries rule here, so sip on craft beers at boho Lucky Labrador Brew Pub (915 SE Hawthorn Boulevard) or go on a breweries tour care of Distillery Row. For over 50 wines by the glass, try Navarre (10 NE 28th Street). Crash out Book into budget-boutique Jupiter Hotel in Portland,a funky mid-century motel built around one of the city’s best live music venues, with free coffee and WiFi, and guest bikes for rent. Hearty, seasonal meals are served in the Doug Fir Lounge and Cowboy Coffee cocktails in the futuristic-meets-Wild West bar.

Party with the bands after hours at the Lounge’s muso space; no need to worry about stumbling home. For more stylish getaways visit Mr & Mrs Smith’s collection of boutique hotels and holiday houses. Book through Smith for exclusive extras at all stays, including a bottle of prosecco and free parking at Jupiter Hotel.

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If you haven’t already checked out our chats with Holly Wales and GMunk ahead of their appearances at Semi-Permanent Portland then you’ve been missing out.

We caught up with amazing designer and Portland local Shawn Petersen ahead of his appearance at Semi-Permanent to talk the digital age, Rolling Stone, and all things Portland.

LAEM: As a designer living in the digital age, how do you keep things new and interesting?
S: Over the past 5 years or so, the emergence of online inspiration reservoirs like Pinterest, ffffound, Dribble, etc. have helped to democratize and spread design trends faster than ever. As a result, contemporary design culture has been homogenized to a certain degree. In our digital era, is anything really “new”? Does it even matter? As Paul Rand said “Don’t try to be original, just try to be good”.

Style is not as interesting or important to me as it once was, and it’s no longer the main goal that inspires me to work. I’m now driven less by how things look and more by how things work. In order to keep things interesting, I tend to focus on tinkering. For me, it’s about making functional design – tools that can be used for entertainment or utility. The more stuff I can make and send out into the world for people to use the more I learn.

The more I learn how to make useful things, the more skilled I become as a designer. Fundamentally, I want to create experiences that people can interact with. Something that can move them emotionally or something that makes their life easier. If I can do this then I’m always in a state of education, and keeping things new and interesting comes from educating myself – by learning from the people around me and by the experiences I make.

LAEM: What are the key elements (for you) that go into providing someone with the ultimate digital experience?
S: It all starts with innovation. Innovation in weaving together technology, development, and storytelling. This happens by creating an environment where designers and developers can sit side by side and collaborate. The more overlapping that happens between these two disciplines, the more amazing a project can become.

When designers and developers can come together to solve a visual and technical problem, innovative breakthroughs can happen. The more both disciplines are able to overlap, the more we’re able to discover and innovate. My two main goals for any digital project are to make it as simple as possible and to include surprising interactions that feel smart and effortless. These two ingredients underpin any great experience. Most great digital experiences start with a simple story that’s supported through the right features.

It always a disconnect for me to see an amazing digital design that doesn’t have a compelling story or to see behaviors that don’t fit a storyline. Interactive elements should feel like characteristics – essentially, the core personality of an experience.

LAEM: You’ve had some pretty big clients like Rolling Stone. Do you ever get nervous in these situations?
S: I was lucky enough to start out my design career working for large clients. Was I nervous at first? Yes. But, I’ve been working with large clients for so long now that it’s just what I do.

Much like surfing or teaching it’s become second-nature, but it never gets old or boring to me. Working with clients like Rolling Stone, Google or Nike is always a unique challenge and I always learn something new. Sometimes it might be where to start in solving a problem, or simply how to define the problem I’m trying to solve.

A lot of the time it’s about finding simple solutions to problems that appear to be really complex. Over the years, I’ve learned to trust the process involved in working with large clients, as messy as it can be. It’s always worth it and I know that it will always deliver something compelling.

LAEM: As a Portland local, what do you think is great about the Portland design community?
S: I moved to Portland in 2007 from San Francisco, so I’m not sure I consider myself a local yet. But, from the perspective of a non-local, there are two unique characteristics to the Portland design community that set it apart from any other. The first is community. Portland is home to the strongest and most active design community I’ve ever encountered. It’s a community built by individuals and studios that are constantly making, creating, and sharing. The studios support the design students, and the design students are energized and inspired by the studios.

It’s a wonderful reciprocal relationship that is thriving and producing talent in droves. There seems to be no bubble in the growth of the design industry here. Our design community is continually growing and thriving, and there seems to be a place for everyone who wants to be involved. The second is our can-do spirit. This is a city where it rains most of the year, yet we still have one of the highest rates of bicycle commuters in the U.S.

This should tell you a little something about the nature of the people who live here. We are do-ers. We are makers. Nothing stops us. This spirit is what transforms our community into a super active, supercharged group with an unmatched enthusiasm to create. It’s what shapes the authenticity of the work being made here.

Craft is at the core of the Portland design community, digital or physical. It’s about making and doing no matter what, and loving every minute of it.

LAEM: What made you want to get involved in Semi Permanent?
S: I’ve always admired Semi-Permanent’s commitment to creative people, both artists and designers. Plus, I’m a super fan of Design is Kinky: the DK people have been amazing advocates for artists, designers, creativity for a really long time.

To find out more, visit Semi-Permanent. Also, be sure to check out Shawn’s work on the interactive table in the video above.

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First participating in Semi Permanent in Sydney in 2004, Bradley Munkowitz (a.k.a. GMunk) knows his stuff. After a long and illustrious career as everything from an interior designer to a creative lecturer, he’s now speaking at Semi Permanent in Portland. We caught up with GMunk before the event to talk holographs, lectures and everything Semi Permanent.

LAEM: You began your professional career as an Interactive Designer. Can you tell us about that?
G: My first gig out of college was with the super team over at Vir2L Studios, which shipped me off to London to collaborate with some of the top international designers in the world. I was coming from a film background in college, so it was an interesting challenge to fit into the Interactive World. I ended up taking a huge interest in the Flash Technology and made a series of Interactive Films and websites, all taking huge inspiration from my surroundings in the UK. This was all back in the Dot Com boom so there was plenty of interest in pushing the medium and coming out with fresh design and animation. These experiences early in my career were instrumental in the development of my animation and design acumen.

LAEM: What is the best bit about your job?
G: Depends which job! In all seriousness, it’s tough sometimes when timelines and budgets limit the possibilities of a brief, but that’s just the name of the game with client work. I think the secret is to mix these client jobs with capable personnel jobs to help bring the vision to life in a smooth fashion. Another secret is to have a healthy serving of personal work thrown into the mix where you can express your creativity and design sensibilities within your own flavor. But to answer your question, the best bit about the job is to be able to be creative all day while using ever-evolving technologies, all while challenging yourself to improve and evolve by constantly studying the masters and being motivated by your peers.

LAEM: Tell me about the holographic content you were involved in making for the film Tron.
G: What an experience that was! Basically, myself and four other graphic superstars dropped into Digital Domain and rocked out almost 12 minutes of holographic content over a 12 month gig. In all honesty, I learned more in that one year than I had in the previous 10, mostly by watching how Kosinski and VFX Supervisor Eric Barba interacted on a daily basis. In dailies I would study how they refined shot after shot through months of work; it was incredible and a total design boot camp. For our own contributions to the film, we were given a lot of freedom to make it awesome, and I can’t thank Joe and his producers enough for the opportunity.

LAEM: You seem to draw a lot of inspiration from science and space. What else influences you?
G: I have to admit I’m hugely into psychedelics, and yes, space and sci-fi. Taken together, the cerebral psychedelics with futurism and galaxies lends to a perfect aesthetic that is so unbelievably rich with ultra-fresh awesome-ness. I strive to bring that flavor into all of my treatments; sometimes it works, and sometimes not so much. In terms of what else influences me, I’d say graphic design, interior design and architecture, illustration, concept art, photography and optical illusion art are all high on the list. I also love hipsters and fashion as I like to stay tuned into the latest and greatest.

LAEM: You give lectures fairly often. What makes you want to keep doing it?
G: I mean, you can’t complain about free flights and hotels to wonderful cities and conferences to share thoughts about art and design with some of the best heads in the world; it is a wonderful gig. Plus it was at conferences that I’ve received some of my biggest career breaks and opportunities so I feel a sense of duty to continue to give back to the community.

LAEM: What made you want to get involved in Semi Permanent?
G: Funny enough, my first involvement was 9 years ago when I was living in Sydney and I was an alternative presenter for the great Nando Costa. That was my first session with the conference and I just thoroughly enjoyed it, especially working with the two founders Andrew and Murray, who I had been in touch with previously during the Dot Com boom in the late 1990′s; Design is Kinky, oh hell yes… I recently returned to the rotation last year, giving sessions in Sydney and Auckland, again having an amazing time at both conferences. I honestly think Semi Permanent is one of the top conferences on the circuit, mostly for the quality and diversity of presenters they bring in. They also take very good care of you and are just the sweetest people; I mean, most Australians are. This year I’m very very excited to be a part of the Portland Semi Permanent as PDX is my favorite US City and I’m honored and excited to inspire my fellow Oregonian faithful.

Check out Semi Permanent for more information.

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Holly Wales is certainly one of the most talented illustrator’s that I’ve come across. Based in the UK and harbouring a great eye for colourful and playful pieces, we caught up with Holly before her appearance at Semi-Permanent in Portland. LAEM: You talk about your work as controlled chaos. What does this mean to you? H: I am always thinking in terms of processes of one thing spilling into the next and causing surprises to happen on purpose. I then exploit the results.

LAEM: Your work is super colourful. Where do you think you got your eye for colour and what types of things inspire your vivid work?
H:I grew up in the 80s – everything was colourful and I definitely got through my share of Global Hypercolour heat-sensitive t shirts. Seriously though, I don’t know if this has happened as a result of working so much or not, but I break down everything I look at into individual colours, and see the bits separately. Colour helps me to understand a thing I’m looking at. I guess I see different colours in the same way you might read spaces between words, like punctuation of some kind. I also love the process of working, the raw materials, the way you can turn one thing into another – the colours of these raw materials have a real purity about them. There is an idea about endless possibilities attached to this.

LAEM: What got you into drawing, more specifically with felt-tip?
H: Being an illustrator (like many things) and making a living out of it, or doing it full time or whatever comes down a lot to confidence, determination and belief. That confidence has to be in your relationship with your materials as much as it is in you as an individual. But it’s a slow thing; it grows over time. It wasn’t like I woke up one day and knew I was going to be great with pens. I ended up using them because I had no money and there were always hundreds of packets of them in the £1 shops in East London. As I did more and more drawings and started to carve a living, I bought better and better quality pens. I now use double ended brush markers with transparent pens to blend them like watercolours on smooth papers.

LAEM: What made you want to get involved with Semi Permanent and speak at the Portland event?
H: I think I’d just celebrated my 18th birthday when the first Semi Permanent conference opened in Sydney. I was studying for a degree in Graphic Design and I was already really into the web. I’d been making websites for about three years and was following the likes of Joshua Davis, Praystation, Prate, and portals like K10K, Design is Kinky and Pixelsurgeon. Googling these now, I realise how old I must be because some don’t even show up.

LAEM: You encourage ‘thinking through making’. Is this how you think and do you have any other advice for aspiring artists?
H: At some point (probably through advertising, an industry that has hijacked the word ‘creativity’ and divided roles up into ‘people who have the ideas’ and ‘people who do the ideas’), we started believing that ideas were somehow detached from making stuff. It also got us thinking that the ideas had to come first and was somehow superior to practical skill. This is all absolutely wrong and crazy. I learn best when my hands and eyes are operating together and reflecting on what I’m doing as I go. Get messy. Don’t theorise too much in advance: do it after or you’ll kill the vibe. The skill is in having just enough of a plan to get the thing started, then embracing chance and surprise along the way.

For more information on the event check out Semi-Permanent.

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Cirque du Soleil’s touring production OVO is hitting Portland, Oregon this THURSDAY, and friends of Lost At E Minor can receive a special discount off tickets in Levels 2 and 3 on select performances. OVO will be performing for a limited engagement beginning April 5 under the trademark blue-and-yellow Grand Chapiteau (Big Top) at the Portland Expo Center.

OVO is a headlong rush into a colorful ecosystem teeming with life, where insects work, eat, crawl, flutter, play, fight and look for love in a non-stop riot of energy and movement. The insects’ home is a world of biodiversity and beauty filled with noisy action and moments of quiet emotion. Click here to take advantage of this generous offer. No additional promo code needed.

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To promote the Northwest Film Center’s 38th Northwest Film Festival in Portland, Oregon, the folks at Mutt Design decided to equate the jurying of a film festival with the judging of babies and made this trailer. As an artist in any genre the act of presenting the fruits of your creativity to an often unsympathetic audience can feel like holding your ‘baby’ up to ridicule. Hilarious.

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Portland-based Carli Davidson is an award-winning photographer and an experienced animal trainer and care worker. She captures the innate personalities of her subjects using her professional understanding of animal behavior. She spends much of her photo shoots rolling on the ground with whatever animal she is working with, and encouraging them to open up to the camera.

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I always think of Nick Jaina as the modern bard, traveling from town to town with his rag-tag, ever-revolving, band of musicians in tow, sweetly singing his funny, thought-provoking and deliciously sad stories. Though a seminal figure in the music scene in Portland, Oregon, Jaina tours regularly, from one end of the continent to the other.

On his way through, he usually stays at our place, Fisch Haus (in Wichita, KS), and has treated us to countless memorable performances, and always to a packed haus of die-hard fans. The beautifully written A Bird In The Opera House, his latest album, features an amazing ensemble of Portland’s most talented musicians, and is my personal favorite among a vast repertoire of excellent projects.

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I don’t live in Portland, but after watching the first episode of Portlandia, all I want to do is pack my bags and move there! The depiction of Portland and the Indie scene in general is hysterical. From femenist book store owners, putting birds on things, to flannel shirts and bikes, it’s got it all. You can watch the show on IFC, but if you don’t get that channel, there are clips on Hulu.

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It’s no secret that Portland, Oregon is food nerd heaven. Innovative restaurants, giant farmer’s markets, trendsetting chefs, and an engaged and voraciously hungry public all make this Pacific Northwest town sizzling hot. As you might imagine, speciality stores must be nothing short of spectacular to keep the attention of their particular clientele. And Cacao, a shop in the heart of Portland, exceeds chocolate lovers expectations.

The serious chocolate hound will be floored by the variety and sheer amount of chocolate. It offers premium chocolate from 35+ producers from all over the world in the shape of bars, handmade confections, and even a line of signature drinking chocolate. The hushed atmosphere, perfectly curated displays, well informed staff, and brisk temperature (the store’s thermostat is set to cool to keep the chocolate happy) reminds us of a museum. A delicious museum…Just go and thank us later!

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A lot of creative types often take corporate jobs with the hope that they will one day work their way up to breaking off and doing their own thing. Matthew Foster, Fritz Mesenbrink, and Jeremy Pelley did just that, leaving their big ad agency positions to form the Portland-based Official Manufacturing Company, which is the very definition of hip and stylish, designing coffee packaging (they did Stumptown’s distinctive look), album covers, websites, print ads, t-shirts, and whatever else strikes their fancy. They also have one of the most memorable URLs out there.

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The rainy weather and breathtaking scenery of the Pacific Northwest has been inspiring a lot of amazing metal bands in the past several years — Velvet Cacoon, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Agalloch all emerged from the region. Another great band coming out of Portland is Atriarch, a blackened, sludgy, doom-inspired outfit whose frontman Lenny Smith (aka Behalf) also shreds his vocal chords for the possibly defunct Trees. Hail the New Wave of Pacific Northwest Black Metal.

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My band, Bloody Panda, toured recently with an amazing Portland-based band called Trees. If you like Burning Witch, Khanate, and other such slow-as-hell, crusty doom, check these guys out.

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Everyone who knows about coffee in Portland knows Stumptown, but I want to plug one of the new guys in town (relatively speaking), Cellar Door Coffee.

Andrea Pastor and Jeremy Adams, the duo behind the shop and wholesale operation located on SE 11th Ave, met at a sustainable farming and gardening program at UC Santa Cruz and bonded over their love of coffee, and now they’re roasting and brewing up some pretty great cups of joe — so great that my roommate in Brooklyn and I regularly ordered from them despite the glut of coffee options in NYC. People rave about their scones too, but alas, I can’t do gluten.

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Portland-based Million Brazillians dole out some dark but groovy psych punk rife with rockabilly and free-jazz flourishes and tribal rhythms.
[audio:http://www.motorcityrocks.com/uploaded_images/2009/03/hammer-hammer-carrot.mp3]

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Landed in Portland, OR, after a record 48-hour non-stop drive from Baltimore. Got to relax, take a shower, and talk to our booking agent’s roommate, Sam Ford, a 23-year-old fellow who has a brutally bright future ahead of him.

Honing his skills as an apprentice to comic book legend Paul Chadwick, Ford currently does amazing album covers, posters, and flyers for bands such as Thrones, Black Elk, Baroness, and many other metal-oriented acts. His impossibly detailed and expressive work lends itself perfectly to the music of the bands he works with.

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Josh Millard — self-proclaimed computer geek, creative type, and Metafilter admin — has been posting useless fliers around Portland, printed with silly one-liners that play with the interactivity of the format.

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