Sourced Experience 2019 Reflections
Wow, even though a couple weeks have passed, I am still energized by the Sourced show put on by Krowdsourced. I spent an action packed day at Castaway in Portland’s Pearl district meeting an amazing collection of architects, interior designers and makers of all sorts. Portland’s A&D community is full of amazing folks doing really interesting things.
A bit of background. Krowdsourced is a materials library with both physical and digital collections available to specifiers for commercial projects. They have an innovative business model and an absolutely stellar team of dedicated folks. Zena has been an enthusiastic partner with Krowdsourced from their early days. You can find samples of our flooring, wall paneling and countertops in their downtown Portland library. This valhalla of design by the way, is an incredible space in its own right. On the 7th floor of the Pittock building, it has a whole wall of huge windows, lighting up rows upon rows of all material samples you can imagine and then some.
Every year Krowdsourced puts on a show for their designer and architect subscribers, featuring 60 amazing manufacturers. Zena was honored to be part of this highly curated and exclusive show this year. In preparation for this, we completely revamped our show booth, and updated it with a bunch of new products.
The big day was so much fun. I showed up early in order to get our rather involved booth set up before the space got too crowded. One of the benefits of getting set up early is I got to wander and mingle with the other vendors and lend a helping hand here and there. It also gave me a chance to view a wide range of innovative and interesting materials on display. Amazing chairs from Portland’s own Merkled Studio, recycled wall cladding from Sankofa Lumber to name a couple products that stood out.
Once the show started, I had a steady stream of interesting conversations with interior designers, architects and makers. One of the primary takeaways from me is that products from Zena are often a really good option for a feature area in a large commercial building. Lobby design was the hot topic of the day for me. I have spent most of 2019 working hard to get to know the A&D community here in Portland, and I am constantly surprised at how big and diverse this community is. I will leave it here, and let the pictures speak for themselves.
