full archives

our thinking for July 2008…

  1. July 31st, 2008

    Found in Translation

    This week, Stephen and I had the opportunity to present to a group of young Japanese design professionals at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. The group was here in Portland as part of Teruo Kurosaki’s international design-focused tours, and Substance was asked to come and speak to them about what makes us unique, and what makes Portland so special…

    posted by David Lowe-Rogstad

    thinking about… Inspiration

  2. July 28th, 2008

    Logobama, Week 21

    This week, I found out what Freepers are, people like uploading this photo of McCain in a bib, and Derailed by Darry sent over 260 visitors to Logobama.com. It’s all reflected in the charts. Oh, and $10 towards the goal of $5,000… getting closer! — Visitors per Week / Logobamas Created per Week — Percent of Visitors Creating a Logobama per Week — Total Donations and…

    posted by Stephen Landau

    thinking about… News

  3. July 21st, 2008

    It’s the Soft Stuff that Matters Most

    Sometimes while mowing my lawn I drift off into some crazy internal philosophical discussions. Today’s started out with equal parts nonsense and rationality, but ended up being something significant and share-worthy. Here it is… Every business has “hard” stuff that they need to deal with in order to keep afloat. It’s the quantifiable bits – income, overhead, utilization, profit margins, etc.…

    posted by Todd Moritz

    thinking about… Inspiration, The Way We Work

  4. July 21st, 2008

    Logobama, Week 20

    We’re out of the teens and in to the terrible twenties for Logobama.com. This week we received an email from someone asking why we were approving “very offensive, anti-Obama logos with racist and terrorist overtones.” Great question. One thing we discussed when creating the Logobama.com site was what we would approve and what we would delete. We delete Logobamas that contain…

    posted by Stephen Landau

    thinking about… News

  5. July 16th, 2008

    Coffee with Likemind, July 18

    It’s coffee. With Likeminds. This Friday. July 18th. At Stumptown. (That’s downtown.) At 8am. You going?

    posted by Stephen Landau

    thinking about… Events

  6. July 14th, 2008

    RYZ believes in Substance

    RYZ is a new footwear company that is combining new manufacturing technologies, democratic design practices and online social networking and community. Ryzwear.com provides the opportunity for anyone to be a shoe designer. Yes, even you! We were fortunate enough to be part of the team that built the site. http://ryzwear.com Working with Swift Collective, the Substance team built the site on the…

    posted by Stephen Landau

    thinking about… News

  7. July 14th, 2008

    Logobama, Week 19

    Another quiet week on the Logobama.com site… traffic was up slightly from a variety of referring links. Bring on the stats! — Visitors per Week / Logobamas Created per Week — Percent of Visitors Creating a Logobama per Week — Total Donations and Donations Week by Week

    posted by Stephen Landau

    thinking about… News

  8. July 10th, 2008

    Life at the Summit – A Substance Summit Recap

    Wow. What a great start to this idea. Thank you to everyone who make it, and we hope the rest of you who couldn’t make it this time will be at the next. I know I rely upon the advice the Brothers Chaps had for success, which was, “have no plan and low expectations,” but I will count this as big…

    posted by David Lowe-Rogstad

    thinking about… Events, Inspiration, News

  9. July 8th, 2008

    The Substance Summit, July 9 (#ss)

    Just a quick reminder that the Substance Summit is on Wednesday, July 9th. What is the Substance Summit? In it’s simplest terms, it’s a conversation between creative and technology. It’s discussing how creative and technology can work together to build a stronger community in Portland, and how they can work together to change the world. It’s about sharing more and learning…

    posted by Stephen Landau

    thinking about… Events, News

  10. July 7th, 2008

    Logobama, Week 18. (Word.)

    A quiet week on the Logobama.com site… though we’re seeing with fewer visitors, the percentage of visitors that create a Logobama increased. — Visitors per Week / Logobamas Created per Week — Percent of Visitors Creating a Logobama per Week — Total Donations and Donations Week by Week

    posted by Stephen Landau

    thinking about… News