Our Stay at the Double Dutch
San Francisco is has much more in store than I had ever realized. There is so much going on in that city that it's almost a bit overwhelming. My good friend and fellow designer Joanne Ong kindly showed us around her neighborhood and a few sweet spots in the city. Among them was the Haight/Ashbury street festival, which just happened to be going on the first day of our visit.
Haight/Ashbury exceeded all of my expectations for awesome weirdness. The character in this neighborhood is lively and unyeilding.
Our first interview in the city brought us to Method, Inc., a rather large design firm in downtown SF. Joanne introduced us to Pete McClelland and Nicole Yeo, and along with some fascinating insights into the local design scene, they provided us with wonderful hospitality and a tour of their studio.
From left: Ryan, Joanne, Me, Pete, Nicole, and Jon
After our visit at Method we had some time to kill, so we rode the cable car up to Chinatown (And I mean UP. How people walk up and down those hills everyday is beyond my comprehension). Ate some fantastic hole-in-the-wall Chinese and stopped in at the Chinatown branch of the SF library.
The Chinatown branch of the SF Library is the mecca of Manga readers.
We then headed over to our next interview with Lisa Engler of Hatch, another SF design firm. We met over drinks at the Cafe Zoetrope.
The Cafe Zoetrope, where Francis Ford Coppola wrote The Godfather.
Not only is Lisa a talented designer, she's just plain fun to hang out with!
As we learned during our stay, San Francisco is a haven for start-ups, so we decided to experience a SF start-up, Lyft. Using the Lyft app on your phone, you can grab a ride with a local driver to anywhere in the city and not have to worry about calling a cab. Our Lyft driver was a fantastic guy—friendly and opinionated, both qualities that I value! I liked the informality of Lyft versus a traditional cab—it was comfortable, relaxed, and fun.
That evening we had the incredible opportunity of meeting up with Josh Higgins, previous design director of the Obama campaign and current design director of Facebook. He's an incredible guy with some amazing stories to share and tons of great experience to learn from.
I'll definitely be posting details from our conversations later—all of our SF meetups were exciting, enlightening, and wonderful experiences.