Portfolio Center students are enjoying a two-day workshop with Abercrombie & Fitch—yesterday and today. They’re learning that designing and marketing for the apparel industry requires as much strategy as creativity. It’s another way to stretch them, get them to think differently, and expose them to the enormous variety of opportunities that await them when they finish school.

Many thanks to Eric Puestow, the recruiter for graphic design, who flew in from Los Angeles, and to PC alumni David Tann and Jeff Ma, who came here from the Hollister Dudes team in Columbus, Ohio.

Last week, while I was in downtown Manhattan for the One Club Education Summit, I got to visit the recently completed New York Times Headquarters Building an architectural masterpiece by Renzo Piano. Hailed by some to be the most significant corporate skyscraper built in NY since 1965, it certainly is awe-inspiring, and Annie Liebowitz’s photo documentary, “Building the Times,” is worth the trip all by itself.

So there I was, right in the heart of the hullabaloo, at the very pinnacle of world events, in the mecca of the communications business—the city itself, the Times… and it struck …more

A BIG thank you to Portfolio Center students who spent all day Saturday hanging the new show, which looks fantastic! It is a great testament to your hard work and dedication last quarter. Your time and energies are much appreciated, but it is your positive spirit and enthusiastic teamwork that really sets you apart. It was a tough job, but you guys made it look like fun.

I’d also like to thank everyone who helped with the judging, especially Eddie Snyder and his crew from Fitzgerald & Co., and Jennifer Leahy, who rounded up the folks from Match.

The student show is …more

Check out recent Portfolio Center graduate Catie Griffin’s illustration on the cover of this month’s Skirt Magazine, which reaches about 100,000 readers in the Southeast.

Catie, who combined her superlative illustration skills with the study of design, was one of those super-smart students who take advantage of every opportunity at Portfolio Center; she didn’t confine herself to studying one discipline but kept an open mind. As a result, she is a true Thinker, and judging by how busy she’s been lately between freelancing and interviewing in New York, she’ll be going far.

Yes, I’m always saying, “Often we look but we don’t see…” I say it because I’ve learned it; I’ve learned how important it is in this life to really look, really see. It’s important personally, and it’s imperative if your life’s calling involves the communication arts. For everything you take in can be manifested in your work, and if you don’t truly take things in—make them a part of you—then your work will be shallow, shortsighted, superficial.

I try to see everything—from the small fissures in the road I’m riding my bike on to the anxiety in the eyes of …more