When I first heard of Omaha Creative Week a couple months ago, I marked my calendar. I'm generally a pretty busy guy these days, but I really wanted to visit at least one of the many creative local events planned for this week. (In the event that you've never heard of Omaha Creative Week- you really need to be following siliconprairienews.com much more often. In fact, just get into a habit of checking them out on a regular basis. You can never over-do it.)
As "the week" approached, I began to look at the planned events. One really caught my eye:
Omaha Creative Week's CREATIVE SPACEWALK
For those of you that didn't click the above link like you were supposed to, allow me to explain. The "Spacewalk" is a free event sponsored by some of the biggest graphic design firms in Omaha. A bus picks participants up from the westroads mall and then proceeds to transport them throughout the city, making stops at a number of the most influential design firms in Omaha. At each stop, the designers give the "spacewalkers" a tour of their facilities and explain their creative processes.
This sounded awesome.
So I put in a vacation request to work, and I signed my wife and I up for the ride.
SPACE #1: PHENOMBLUE
Phenomblue is the premier web design firm of Omaha. Seriously. They don't mess around. Their clients include such names as Frito-Lay, McDonalds and Coca-Cola. Yes, you read that correctly- Coca-frickin'-Cola. Their office is pretty legit too. They had some awesome motivational slogans on the walls (I wish I had some). Meg and I got distracted from the rest of the group because we got chatting with their friendly studio manager "Lisa".
Also, their coffee wasn't too bad and their muffins were delicious.
SPACE #2: OXIDE DESIGN
I've known about Oxide design for years. When I was in the graphic design program at MCC years ago, everyone was talking about them. One of their designers even came to my portfolio review and looked at some of my stuff (can't remember if he liked any of it). I even pass their glowing neon sign in front of their 39th and Farnam office all the time. I've often dreamed of one day being able to play with the legos displayed in their storefront window and use the old telephone booth in the corner of their lobby. Today my dreams came true.
Not only do they have a cool space filled with tons of vintage toys and posters, but I really was inspired by some of their design ideas, and the collaboration of their designers. For example, when Oxide begins a design project, they start out by putting a large sheet of paper on a little table. Then they all sit at the table together and just start sketching out all their ideas. One of their designers, Adam Torpin, showed me one of the papers they used to design the new Metro logo. It was awesome. They had a lot of sweet sketchies.
Also, they gave us cool stickers, animal magnets, and excellent donuts. Unfortunately their coffee sucked.
SPACE #3: REBEL INTERACTIVE
Rebel Interactive is a local design firm that I have passed by many times without realizing it was a local design firm. (Located on south 13th Street, Rebel is just a block away from CORE Community Church's Offices.) Their space is, admittedly, very cool. Their conference room contains both an actual motorcycle and a full drumset. How much more rebellious can you get? We were greeted at the door by their crazy-haired CFO, Caroline Wilson, and given a brief history of their company. I could've used a little more info about what they actually do, and what kind of clients they have, but at least they gave us awesome ball point pens with their logo on the side.
SPACE #4: WHAT CHEER
Next up, we took a trip to the Mastercraft building on N 13th St in the heart of downtown Omaha. The first space we visited in the building was the "What Cheer" design headquarters, and we were immediately greeted by the bright, young face of renown Omaha designer John Henry Müller. Mr. Müller was funny and inviting, and was quick to explain the odd name of the design firm that he co-owns. Apparently "What Cheer" is the name of a small town in Iowa that he and his wife used to drive by years ago. They jokingly said that if they ever formed a rock band, they would name themselves after that small Iowa town. However, since neither of them are musical in any way, they ended up naming their innovative design firm "What Cheer" instead.
Mr. Müller decided to take the few minutes we had in his workspace to take us all over to a big screen on the wall and show us some of the sweet websites that his firm had recently developed. This was pure awesome. Here's some of the awesome sites he showed us:
SPACE #5: SECRET PENGUIN
Next door to What Cheer, is a little design company called Secret Penguin. Now, I've known about Secret Penguin for a long time. (It's hard to forget a name like that.) I know they specialize in youth branding. I know that all their designers are into skateboarding. I also know a lot of people who know Secret Penguin's Creative Director, Dave Nelson. They all say he's "the nicest guy in the world." (And he must be nice- since he accepted my facebook friend request months ago without knowing me from Adam.)
On our spacewalk, Dave lived up to his good reputation. He came across as a very humble, friendly, gracious, creative individual willing to answer anybody's questions. But, unfortunately, I still didn't get a chance to shake his hand. My wife and I got talking to Penguin's web guy "Jason". Thankfully he was pretty cool too.
SPACE #6: MINORWHITE STUDIOS
Still in the Mastercraft building, and just down the hall from Secret Penguin, is the home of Minorwhite Studios- a photography outfit. Being the premier Omaha photography studio that they are, I had seen a lot of their work around town. And yes, as you guessed, their stuff is pretty good. However, my wife and I got talking to a fellow Spacewalker named Andy Stoll, who just got back from Europe working on a very interesting project. It was also hard to pay attention to Minorwhite's Scott Drickey since the small, vibrant Megan Hunt from CAMP Coworking next door, kept fidgeting around on a little scooter right next to him...
SPACE #7: CAMP COWORKING
Also housed in the spacious Omaha Masterworks building, CAMP is the brainchild of the entrepreneurial Megan Hunt. Megan has been running a fancy blog toting her hand-made bridal wares for a number of years, and she recently launched the CAMP workspace as a place for creative types to collaborate and work near each other. For a low monthly fee, some local designers have set up their design studios in this creative environment, while others choose to come for occasional inspiration with a day pass. My wife and I attended CAMP's grand opening a couple months before, so some of the faces there were familiar.
Inside CAMP, Miss Hunt had traded her scooter in for a stroller, where her adorable baby "Alice" tried not disrupt the group. My wife and I immediately recognized Micheal and Kristen DeKay of Image Made Design, and so we went over and chatted for a little while. We also finally got to meet the outgoing Steve Gordon Jr. (of RDQLUS Design) that has been showing up at every coffee house my wife and I have visited recently. It was nice to know that he wasn't trying to stalk us, and that he's a super cool guy.
After saying good bye to Steve, Meg and I climbed back on the Spacewalk bus headed to the Westroads Mall for lunch. After lunch there would be a second stage of the tour, but unfortunately we had to get going...
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In all, the Spacewalk was a fun way to put faces and spaces with some of Omaha's most innovative and creative design firms. It was refreshing to see so many bright, young designers that were making good designs, enjoying it, and also making a living at it. Omaha is a cool, creative place to live. Don't let nobody tell you otherwise.
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