Ron Linn

It all started one day in May in the Pottery Lab at Fox. I had signed up for Mark Terry's May Term class and was becoming more fascinated with the art of pottery every day. One day Mark sat me down at a dusty canvas covered table and told me of a design opportunity. Mark had just finished his MFA Thesis the year before and in his Senior thesis we heard of tales of Megan Clark (a design alumni from Fox) and how creative her branding solutions were. He was now asking me to do the same for his friend Ron Linn. 

I first met Ron at Douglas High before his morning class. Memories of high school art classes began to flood my head. He showed me into his office tucked in the corner of his lab and we proceeded to talk about what kind of branding solution he needed. The lists of materials required for the end product seemed insane, but I understood after creating a system the rest would fall together. 

He showed me around four different rooms in the art area of the school where his work was stacked in boxes, up-top shelves and even fresh out of the kiln. He started to express his frustration about how he hadn't been able to see his work in one place before. This was something we had to change. 

Not too long after our first meeting we rounded up all of his work for a photo shoot in the Minthorne Gallery at Fox. Piece after piece was unloaded from the trailer in Steven's Parking lot. As they began to fit together Ron's nerves began to turn into excitement. He was finally able to see his work together, out of the context of the dusty kiln shed and on pristine white walls. Five of us set up the show and tore most of it down before we broke for lunch. 

After a fare few design hours, emails, phone calls and trip to the press Ron and I met up at the Bipartisan Cafe in NE Portland to exchange the goods. I gave him a short lesson on the Blog we had set up for him and he was on his way, only his journey had just begun. I think that is one of my favorite things about design. It will go places and do things that are beyond what you can personally be or do. 


Needless to say Ron Linn did incredible presenting and defending his thesis and plans to returns back up to Oregon in the beginning of August. We look forward to working with each other again soon.