ScaleHouse, a group of creative believers (such as Sandy Anderson, Pat Clark, Cristy Lanfri, René Mitchell, Martha Murray and Cassondra Schindler) giving shape to bringing a Contemporary Creative Center to Bend, will bring us the first Bend Design Conference October 14-15 slated to be one of the leading events for designers throughout the Pacific Northwest. by Pamela Hulse Andrews

From tiny house design to web user experience design and design thinking to the product design process, the conference promises to be one of the hottest tickets in town.
Bend Design 2015 will feature two days of interactive workshops, conversations, tours and hands-on design opportunities. Whether you’re a designer, trade professional, entrepreneur, city official, student or a passionate and curious citizen, you are invited to join in the conversation about our shared future. (Sign up at www.benddesign.org)
When asked to be sponsor our first thought was to have Cascade AE help present the conference because the magazine draws inspiration from numerous artists, musicians, filmmakers and theatrical members utilizing the creative community to perfect their skills.

However, we are about to launch another creative endeavor, Bend Fashion Quarterly (BFQ), that sets the stage for yet another imaginative opportunity. From the ordinary to the sublime, Bend Fashion Quarterly explores fashion, style, trends and inspiration — four times a year, celebrating the beauty of the changing seasons.

My inspiration for this unusual publication in a small town environment came from my dearest friend, Joanne Sunnarborg owner of Desperado in the Old Mill District, who is in the process of opening a shoe store, Shoes &… During our conversation I laughingly said I would have to create a fashion magazine to go with it. Two weeks later we had the name, the design and the plan in place.

You put a couple of inventive people in a room together with some good red wine and who knows what will be divinely inspired! Our love of fashion and our desire to serve the women (and men) of Central Oregon with something especially creative and certainly atypical was the result.

Highlighting new and established boutiques, fashion stores, home furnishings, owners views and fashion trends the BFQ will feature clothing, accessories, shoes, boots & sportswear, beauty/aging treatments, spas, fitness & sports, nutrition, weight control and attitudes & play. Maeve Perle will be heading up an imaginative segment about happiness.

Our region is unique in its fashion sense whether you’re riding a horse, skiing down a slope, running a river, what you wear will make a statement and keep you in motion for your chosen activity. What might inspire me the most of about Central Oregon’s fashion sense is our desire and ability to put together all kinds of shoes, boots, pants, coats etc….it may not make sense, but we feel good about using the high desert landscape for our own personal look.

It occurred to me that what this is really about and why Bend Fashion Quarterly is sponsoring the event, is how Renee Mitchell, vice president of tbd agency and the visionary behind Bend Design 2015, defines the conference: “With the increase of entrepreneurs moving to Bend, along with the rise of the creative class, we believe Bend is well poised to bring designers together locally and from afar to celebrate design as a promising cultural and economic resource.”

I love thinking of something new! Twenty-one years ago we brought the community a business newspaper that has proved to be the source for business news in the region both online and in print, then we created Oregon’s only arts magazine honoring our creative community and now fashion honing once again on our creative side and those who inspire and arouse our curiosity. Very fun!

Hope to see you this month at the Bend Design Conference.

Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great design is making something memorable and meaningful. ~ Dieter Rams (German product designer who believes that good design can only come from an understanding of people and designers should take more responsibility for the state of the world around them.)