Portland has long been recognized as a place where people pay attention to design. From cutting-edge Craftsman-style houses in the early 1900s to today's sustainable condo buildings, the city's architects have attracted international attention.

But as the popular Design Week Portland enthusiastically showcases each year, award-winning creations are generated across arenas, from ethically produced fashion to beer labels. The same drive to expand a young city's boundaries with functional bridges and streetcars more than a century ago can be seen in today's approaches to the look, function and changing need of personal vehicles and a spot to park them.

Want to know more? Jump into more than 275 open studios and other events during Design Week Portland, which runs April 14 to 21 (register at designweekportland.com). There's no excuse, since many of the events are free or low-cost, and they include talks to hands-on workshops as well as entree into usually closed work spaces in all corners of the city and beyond.

Walk or ride your bike to get inside creative studios like adidas MakerLab. Check out a gallery showcase or enroll in an experience, like a cat-inspired macrame workshop, sensory encounter with a chef, bartender, painter and installation artist, or a discussion about bots and the future of artificial intelligence.

Several gatherings will explain how teams assembled from different disciplines can reinvent a product and how everyone benefits from better design.

Interested in the old or the new? Tour old Portland neighborhoods, see twists on midcentury art and cheer on innovators pitching a breakthrough concept or product in a "Shark Tank"-style competition or those entering an on-the-spot logo contest.

If you need inspiration for a home remodel or new construction, you'll benefit from exploring aspirational houses, smart remodels and small accessory dwellings during the 2018 AIA Portland Homes Tour on Saturday, April 21.

There are also events focused on interior design, especially using reclaimed, antique and found objects offered by Aurora Mills Architectural Salvage.

Bo Hagood, founder-owner of MADE studio, and Cia Mooney of Oregon College of Art and Craft's industrial design program as well as three other furniture practitioners will talk about their work at MADE's Belmont Street showroom. For budding architects and decorators, check out the kid-friendly art show organized by Made You Look, a store that sells well-designed toys.

The clothing and accessories designer-owned businesses at the 811 E Burnside building will convert their spaces into a fashion installation that can be seen for free from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, April 20.

Don't miss the Letterpress Printers Fair, a study of animation and attend at least one party.

But enroll fast. There are no more seats for Jaguar Land Rover Oregon Software Technology Center's free mini conference on the future of the automotive industry. Also sold out is a display of rare plants growing in artist-made pots and a talk with 3D artist Dan Katcher, also known as the Master of Monsters and the Father of Dragons, who has worked on HBO's "Game of Thrones," and DC Comics productions.

To launch the jam-packed festival, there will be an opening party on Saturday, April 14, at Custom Blocks, a renovated building in Portland's Central Eastside Industrial District.

Party goers will be introduced to the Plastic Sunshine design studio, a mini-parking installation competition supported by the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and a preview of replaced Portland International Airport chromcraft benches reimagined by artists and designers that will be auctioned later by PDXoriginals.

The full festival schedule for 2018 is available online. Information is also available in The Journal. Don't know where to start? Consider one of 24 itineraries compiled by designers who live and work here.

-- Janet Eastman



jeastman@oregonian.com

503-799-8739

@janeteastman



