Ja Tack. (That’s Swedish for I f#@$%^ love meatballs!)
The much anticipated mecca of all things swedish, a regular swedish mitzvah if you will, has finally arrived. Bringing happiness and good design with affordable pricetags to Portland. We’re almost a real city now.

Studio’s resident product designers Nicole Andren, Christin Spagnoli and Fritz Messenbrink were at the grand opening of IKEA at 5am this morning. They were not alone. A couple thousand other folks were there to welcome one of the most iconic brands of our time.

The first two people in line. God knows how long they must have been there. First in line gets $2500 of Swedish.

Here is the skinny from Nicole:
• Pure happiness
• 5:55 am we got there
• Opened at 9.
• Gift cards at the door for the first how ever many people, Fritz got a $100 one and I got a $10 and Christin got one for a free frozen yogurt if she buys one.
• Fly bys by the commercial airplanes over the store (by the airport)
• Swedish people passing out fun things like fans, water bottles, flower seeds, cell phone chairs, frisbees, IKEA thunder sticks
• Mayor Katz and Tom Potter were there and said something. Potter took the MAX to get there.
• Pulled right up and parked no problem
• Every news van in the city was there
• Everyone was so happy and polite
• The store has rooms set up for small spaces. Like what can you do with 550square feet. So cool.

www.pica.org

You won’t find this in anyone’s backyard in the Rose City. This statute now resides in the backyard of the WK Shanghai. A collaborative art piece by the good folks in the Shanghai office and the artist Perk. Guaranteed to scare the holy bejezzus out of any fence jumpers who happen into the backyard.

Today marks the first anniversary of this blog. It started with the idea of doing something fun and giving people an insight into Wieden+Kennedy. In that time we’ve said goodbye to old friends and hello to new ones. Showed a bunch of work and how to look like your busy while doing nothing. Music, parties, events, special guests and openings around town. 269 posts over the past year with 352 comments and we only managed to piss off a few people doing it. Thanks for reading this silly thing, all 130,113 of you. Not bad for a site without porno. Here are a few choice posts from the past year.

Doing Some Coke
Football is Everything
Turned Out
Who Works Late
12 Body Report
Founder’s Day XXV
Rikers

With a year under our belts it’s time to look to the future.
Goal for next year: try to use spell check.

Summer is in full swing. Time to call in sick on Fridays, figure out where the beach house is, stay out late on Mondays, wear everything in the closet, have a beer at lunch and give a high five to the kids in the hall.

Now that we have our priorities straight, welcome our 13, Summer of 07, All-Star Interns.

They’re a stunning, kind, confused, funny, inspired, humble, wise bunch.

top to bottom, left to right ::

Jay – six months cavity free
Aaron – enjoys simple pleasures that turn into complicated passions
Nataliya – a certified, imported Ukrainian Princess
Robert – “turntabling the bauhaus soul”
Tim – had a pinto bean lodged in his ear as a child. had to have it surgically removed. life hasn’t been the same since
Sarah – despite her smile, she’s quite serious due to her 5th wisdom tooth
Gina – can’t cook. says Cat can’t either
Danielle – just because she rocks doesn’t mean she’s made of stone
Davin – wishes he was batman
Mison – got his name from his father who’d had 3 daughters until he arrived
Cat – can cook. but only grits – with salt and pepper, cheese and butter, shrimp and sausage
Kristin – has an identical twin
Craig – already on vacation