Organic Culture

We were thrilled to participate in National Take Your Daughters and Sons To Work Day. Haven Brice, an 8th Grader at Sunnyside Environmental School in Portland, joined our marketing department for the day, and we invited her to write a blog about experience. Here's how she summed it up:

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When you first walk into Hartmann&Forbes you are welcomed with many smiles and everyone treats you like you’re an old friend. This was the first time that I have ever been to my parents work for a day, and the experience was outstanding! I felt like I could come here everyday.

I was given tasks that I could complete throughout the day. My favorite task was making a Project Green poster; I made a poster that showed the simple things that can help change the world. I didn’t know where to start because this was a whole new environment, but with some help I got started in no time. I decided that I was going to do a collage; I started to look through magazines to find components to put on the poster. The final poster included correctly recycling paper, glass, and metal also turning off your light/computer before you leave work for the day.

Coming into a workspace and being given a task made me feel like an adult. It was exciting to see how much I could complete during a day and that I could work on a deadline.

I really enjoyed making the poster because I had something to do and it made me feel like I was a graphic design artist. Which was really interesting because I got to see what it would like having a career in graphic design. Overall, my Bring Your Daughter to Work Day was exceptional! I got to see what it is like going to work and what a work environment is like.

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We'd like to thank Haven for her hard work yesterday. It was a pleasure having her on our team for a day.

Designers have asked us for years why we choose to finish our shades in the USA instead of overseas. Once they understand it allows us greater quality control with a smaller carbon footprint and provides them greater customization flexibility at shorter lead times, they then ask "Why Portland? Why not New York, Los Angeles or even San Francisco?"

Simply put, we chose Portland because we share common principles, values and interests with the community. A community that is as dedicated to preserving the great outdoors as it is about enjoying it. A community that is passionate about organic foods, artisan craftsmanship and cultural diversity. A community that is both nostalgic and progressive, creative and disciplined, luxurious and casual.  And ultimately, as much as we have loved the places we've traveled all around the world, we sincerely agree that there is no place like home.

Our friends at Travel Portland summed it up beautifully in their latest video.

That's why Portland, Oregon.

The creative process at Hartmann&Forbes is rarely a linear thing. We have a general direction and know where we want to end up, but the journey often takes us to the ends of the earth…sometimes literally. So it was with the 2009 Reference Guide Kit, which we launched on August 1st.

As with the thousand year-old tradition of christening yachts when launched, we see this first entry as a christening of sorts to launch Woven Threads. We say “of sorts” because our team was too busy working long hours at Floyd’s Coffee Shop to get the website launched in time to buy the champagne. But enough about our server problems, we want to address the million-dollar question: Why Woven Threads?