The Hills Have Eyes

Tonight the AIGA of Seattle held a fun little shindig down at the Evo Gallery called "The Hills Have Eyes." They got a pretty good panel of designers from in and around the snowboarding industry to show a little bit of what they do and give a run down of what they think of the industry. Dave Barton (Metajive), Stephan Hofmann (Spacecraft), Ryan Schmeis (K2), Mike Styskal (Dept. of Energy) and most of all, one of my favorite design personalities, Aaron Draplin (Draplin Design Co.) were all there.

Aaron Draplin was by far the best part of the evening. I have sort of gotten to know him through his blog on his website over the past year and some and it was good to see he holds true to exactly the way he comes off in his writing. He even wrote about the event on his blog the next day and posted the picture he took as he got up front.

I'm the dorky kid in the back with the green jacket and dumb smirk on his face.

After the lecture, Andre and I went up to meet Mr. Draplin and he was even cooler. We were met with a hardy handshake and a friendly smile. Also he started handing us free swag instantly. First he gave us each a free DDC key chain, and after telling him I was a fan of his Gocco expertise (which he claims to have a black-belt in) he gave me an official "DDC-007 Plectrum Set" just because he used his Gocco to print the card they're on. All and all he was as nice and friendly and anyone could ask for. So nice in fact I had to buy a t-shirt from him too (I've had my eye on it for a while).