I thought though, that I would share the tale of my panda fascination. My pandamonium, if you will.

It all starts back in 1983…

My mother was a curious half-fish, half-human who lived under the over-protective rule of her father, who was the king of the sea! While traveling with her fish and lobster friend, she came upon a cursed half-man half-michaeljfoxfromteenwolf who eventually brought her back to his house of talking candlesticks and clocks. Wait..no. That’s Mermaid & The Beast.

Okay, seriously though. My family wasn’t rolling in it when I was younger. We had limited funds. So when christmas time came, presents weren’t always possible. But, my mom made sure my little brother and I each got at least one thing, every year. My brother got a Koala, and I got a Panda. Not sure why she picked them for us, but it stuck.

I have at least 26 stuffed pandas and a bunch of other random little things, including a lamp my grandmother made herself. It’s turned into a pseudonym, a ninja-panda for Dojo and getting 15 pictures of a panda someone drew at gangplank, or any time someone sees a panda really. I’m okay with it. I love pandas. I will eventually own a miniaturized one in the future.

So, that’s where my love and obsession with pandas comes from. I love pandas because I love my mom and my brother and they remind me of everything good about my upbringing.

The end.

This is a picture of the first panda I ever got and the (now broken several times, and no longer a lamp) ceramic panda my grandmother made me: They are both over 20 years old.

I’m not bringing my laptop, I’m going to send it off to get a fix thats been pending for almost 8 months.

Even though I’m going to be forwarding all my calls and texts to some hidden place where I won’t find them….dont call. or text. Leave me be! Seriously.

I’m not going to check twitter. I might tweet, but I’m not going to read a damn thing on that.

I am going to detach myself from all the crazy for just a few days.

So, GET OFF MY LAWN! Don’t bug me. Starting Friday night. kthnx.

SeeSaw Designs took home the award, and I’m insanely glad they did.

Let me explain:

Phoenix Design Week, Phoenix Design Community, Design Culture Coalition, Phoenix Layers, etc etc: All of these things I started or am involved in are not about me doing design, they are about helping create avenues and paths along which the talent in Phoenix can be recognized for being great. I am an okay designer (I’ll concede that point just so people will shut up about it), but I am more excited about the big ideas of making this city better. Most of my passion, what gets me up in the morning, is not in creating pieces of design. It is in creating ways that design can be valued more, especially Phoenix design.

I’ve known the 3 women at SeeSaw for almost 4 years. I’ve had a crush on them all at one point or another. I’ve always thought their work was great. I remember when they told me they were starting their own studio right out of school. I still have their first business card. We have their calendar at Dojo. We love showing their work at galleries, and I’m trying to get them to move their letterpress & sell their work in the future Phoenix Design Museum (they don’t know this part yet). They are among the very best that Phoenix has to offer, and are a key example of why I’m so driven to work hard at the things I am: They need the recognition.

So, when they won last night, I was relieved! It felt like a little piece of all that we’re doing was making progress in Phoenix: great designers being recognized for their great work! They deserve it! If there was an “Awesome event” category, I’d have been pissed, but this was Design. Phoenix Design Week happened because of them and people like them.

So anyway, long story short: I still have a huge crush on SeeSaw. And I hope that they, and many more #phxdc designers, keep getting the credit they deserve.

We put a man on the moon because of a nationwide interest to do so, because of a need to be better than our ‘enemies’ and to improve our scientific and technological capabilities as a nation. (At least, this is what the history books tell me.)

This argument is just used for what some people think are common-sense needs, but don’t have the knowledge or energy to change themselves.

Yes, we, a united and driven country, can accomplish a lot. But no, ‘we’ don’t care enough about a better car engine, the worlds most giant pumpkin or a wind resistant umbrella (this was inspired by the uninspired Wall Street Journal article) to actually change those things.

Try this instead:

“It took a cold war to put a man on the moon, but I can ______________ just by working a little harder than everyone else.”

Now, while SeeSaw was nominated for their amazing work, I am fairly certain that I was nominated for starting Phoenix Design Week, among other things. To those of you who may have nominated me, thanks so much, I really appreciate it.

I was asked to provide some of my work to the New Times. Since, like I said, I wasn’t really nominated for my design (my website hasn’t been updated in 4 years, though I’m trying to finish something today) I thought it’d be better to take this opportunity to show off #phxdc and my design friends here in town. In addition to showing the PHXLayers Season 1 final panels, and some work from the Sprawl projects, I was really hoping some of you might send me your favorite work so that I can display it at the event. It’s better to show off #phxdc, I say.

So, shoot me an email to post@markdudlik.com, or tweet at me, or something. I want to get a piece from some of our great Phoenix designers and let everyone know how great this community is.

To view the notes/dialogue said during each slide, hit the “show menu” button, the notes are displayed below the slide.

If you prefer Slideshare, here is a link. Be sure to select the ‘Notes’ tab below the video:

http://www.slideshare.net/markdudlik/the-burgeoning-phoenix-design-community-3888384

So, tomorrow I am presenting at Ignite ASU. Its part of their community connect dialogues series. I’m presenting with Andrew Coppola about PHXDC. I suggested it, I went through the process of writing the submission w/ Andrew. I said yes, several times, once they said they’d like us to present, I went through and we made the presentation and practiced it and I pretty much have it memorized. All thats left is the stupid fucking part of getting on stage in front of people and doing it. I don’t want to. I’m fucking scared like a little kid after a scary movie. There are monsters under the stage.

I’m not really averse to public speaking, so much as public. I am panicking and have been off and on for the two weeks since I found out we were doing this.

I should (and wish I had) avoid this kind of thing. I mean…what good does it do? “Pushing boundries” is stupid. My social anxiety isn’t a muscle that if i keep stretching it will get stronger and I’ll be able to handle more. No! Its stupid.

So, why am I doing this then? Without trying to sound pompous: Because I owe it to the things I’m part of. Stupid Phoenix Design Week  and stupidface AIGA and stupid Dojo Collective and stupid friends who help on stuff and stupid twitter friends and stupid face everyone. I am doing it because I want to spread the word about all the great things I’m involved in that have great people working on them.

Stupid people. I should just go hermit on everyone’s ass.

Today though, I thought about what it really means to have a portfolio.

It’s a measure of my skills, my experience, my creativity right? So I should have work spanning my growth, my progress as a designer and my best pieces since I’ve started in the field.

But…

What if I were only measured by what I’ve done recently. What if I’m only as good as my last project. What if I only put up work that accomplished something significant. What if you could only see one piece of work I’d done, and have to judge me based on that?

Isn’t that what happens in everyday interactions, at least on some level? Sure, people form opinions based on history, but memories are fleeting and so is creative energy.

What if Im only as good as what I’ve done today. How would that change the way I approach my work?

How would it change yours?