photo:Eric Rose
Larry Olmstead has been incorporating evironmentally sound ideas and concepts into his designs since his final year project for his Master’s degree in Performance Sportswear Design from the University of Derby. At Karrimor in the UK, a major European backpack manufacturer, Olmstead was introduced to the applied concept of lifetime use products. Since 2003, he works exclusively with Karrimor Japan. And now he juggles that design load with launching Entermodal, whose first collection of sustainably designed and produced (and elegantly simple) Italian leather bags was introduced this year. Olmstead is a member of Portland’s Sustainable Design Group.
Qualities you most admire in design:
creativity, originality, integrity, open-mindedness, dedication towards really understanding the implications of what is being designed (environmentally and socially), full circle thought
Qualities you most despise in design:
closed-mindedness in all forms (even when necessary), design that is rushed or altered for the sake of profit
Reading:
Just finishing plan B (Lester Brown), in the middle of Journal of an Ambassador (Galbraith), just starting again (cause it�s fantastic): Sewer, Gas, and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy (Matt Ruff)
Listening to:
Les Savy Fav, Modern Scholar: Cold War, Small Sails, Broken Social Scene (thanks to Kari), Samuele Bersani, the Swords, lots of other stuff.
Dream project:
A while ago I was wandering through an airport and came upon a display of water transport and storage containers that had been designed for India�s rural population. The simplicity of the solutions and the use of localised materials really had an impact on me.
Since then, I�ve started dreaming about design philanthropy, and specifically some type of project where designers would come together in the interest of making useful things for persons who usually wouldn�t benefit from design. I imagine this group working together identifying the resources, needs, and issues for persons less fortunate around the world; and then setting to forming solutions which would be easily obtained and executed by those people. Sort of self-empowered design without any monetary implications.
design: Entermodal
Favorite virtue:
integrity
Favorite vice:
obsession
Tragic flaw:
non-linear thought patterns that tend to frustrate people around me.
Secret superhero power:
speed reading and information digestion
That which keeps your afterburners firing:
pinball, panamarenko, bucky fuller, my wife holly, my son riley, observing different cultures (especially Japanese)
What you’d like to be when you grow up:
I don�t ever want to grow up.
Portland’s best kept secret:
Ground Kontrol
Portland heroes (sung or un-):
Portland is made up of heroes. Looking around I am so pleased to be in their presences. I think PDX does have some super-heroes, and in my opinion just a few of them are Regina Hauser and the work she does with the Natural Step, Ildefonso Resuello who is a creative super-star, Dayna Pinkham who has one of the most fantastic 3-D minds, Kari Merkl who always impresses me with her versatility and quiet creativity, and Adam Arnold who basically floors me with his skills.
Interesting on the horizon (PDX):
I�m looking forward to watching the growth of the Sustainable Design Group, especially now that we are lucky enough to have Duke Castle facilitating.
I�m also really interested in observing (and hopefully participating in) Portland�s up-and-coming fashion sector. It is great to see so much talent at work.
WHAT TO DO NOW?