Loading ...Portland Design Lab 4 December 2008
Graphic Design and Interactive Experience Design Agency
Portland Design Lab is a boutique graphic and website design and marketing company. Formed in 2005, it markets to brand-conscious companies who can’t afford their own full-time art department. PDL can manage a company’s brand through all media and provide consulting services to best adapt their message to the ever-changing marketing landscape.
Most recently, PDL was asked to develop a unique Facebook application. This project was a cross-promotion for MTV International, Swatch, and the new film James Bond Quantum of Solace. Swatch had unveiled a new line of watches designed after the villains of the Bond films. PDL developed an application for Facebook that quizzed users, “Which Villain Are You?” They also designed a Facebook application for the European MTV Music Awards in which the social network’s users voted on their favorite artists.
What are you up to?
We just finished a few projects for MTV and have a few more queued up for internal MSN orgs. While most of our clients are small and mid sized, we have a few larger, higher-profile orgs to work with too. We’ve worked with Orange County Choppers, Godaddy, MSN, Microsoft, MTV, Fender Musical Instruments and a handful of others and we’re always looking for more.
We’re currently working on landing a total design project for a reality show/poker tournament. Its an all inclusive gig– branding, website portal, print products, marketing materials, apparel, and multimedia experiences. It’s a very exciting project being brought to life from one of the best poker players in the world. Diving into this culture can be very interesting–how they think about money, their insane betting habits, and their lifestyles are very colorful.
We’ve been pushing the Microsoft Silverlight platform too–mostly internally for Microsoft, but hopefully we’ll be picking up some more work from their partner agencies in the near future. Silverlight’s ability to stream high-def video online while dynamically adjusting to available bandwidth is a very cool feature that has a lot of potential.
What do you do best?
Our ability to shine a flattering light upon our client’s brand through creative visual ideas is what we do best. Essentially, we sell credibility. By applying a creative, strategic theme to a company’s message, it adds a palpable value that wasn’t there before.
What excites you the most about the new technology coming online?
We’re excited by all the new toys we get to play with. Twitter, Social Networks, SAS, Silverlight, Facebook Apps…it’s great fun pairing up our clients’ brands with new ways to display information and create engaging experiences. iPhone apps, Google’s online apps, some of the products Adobe is bringing online are really exciting. It’s amazing to see applications move from the desktop to the cloud. We run our spreadsheets, word processing, billings, presentations, project asset management, and CRM all online.
What is it about design that you love the most?
2 favorite moments in design–the first is when the clouds seem to part to reveal the ideal solution to the problem you’re working on. It’s the “aha” moment where the solution seems so clear and obvious. Where you recognize the solution in much the same way as you would a friend you hadn’t seen in awhile.
The second is the moment when the client latches on and gets as excited as you about the idea. That transference is very powerful and addictive. Of course, the evil counterpart to this moment is when the client finds it “too creative” and insists on dumbing down an idea so that all subtlety and elegance is lost in favor of over-description.
What is the worst part about design?
The effect the stress has had on my hairline.
- Troy Stange (Creative Director)
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