Beer! Games! Garden! Independence! Philadelphia Dribbblers are meeting up next month at the Independence Beer Garden. In anticipation of the event, and for those of you who’ve never been to the City of Brotherly Love, illustrator and meetup organizer James Olstein takes a moment to fill us in on the Philly scene.
Tell us what you love about Philadelphia.
Philly is a pretty easy town to get around. With everything almost being a grid it makes riding your bike and public transit very accessible and easy. I never feel cut off from other neighborhoods. In the last three years the city has really started revitalizing its outdoor spaces which is awesome. I also love the number of new restaurants that keep popping up without replacing the older ones.
Tell us where you work, in relation to downtown.
I work right downtown at an advertising agency called the Brownstein Group. We have a bright red door that you can’t miss. Downtown is a great place to work, there lots of other cool design shops in the area. (Photo courtesy Brownstein Group.)
Tell us about the Philadelphia design scene.
I think Philly has a lot of great design talent and a lot of great different places to work at. It’s also a more affordable city so a career freelancing is totally doable. We now have a great site for designers, PHL Design, created by the very talented Anthony Nguyen that has the latest on what’s going on in town. There is also a great Slack channel for designers to talk. I’m very excited for this next meetup as there are lots of new faces registered.
Choose three shots from Philadelphia designers you admire, and tell us what you like about each one.
Greg Christman, Artcade, above left.
I love Greg’s work. Whether it’s illustration or design it always carries his style and sense of humor. He also makes his own amazing Christmas card every year.
Melissa McFeeters, Sardines, above center.
Melissa is a great “designerator & illustrationist” that has recently started doing these rad paper cuts for her 100 day project. Every one is so clever I check her Instagram everyday to see what’s new.
Scotty Reifsnyder, Summer Vacation w/ the kids, above right.
I’m a huge fan of Scotty’s work and had trouble picking just one shot, so I just went with the most recent one. His illustrations feel really clever and detailed.
Find James at the Philadelphia Dribbble Meetup, at Dribbble, on Twitter and at jamesolstein.com.
For more armchair travel adventures, read Pep Rally: Paris and Pep Rally: New Orleans.
Find more Meetups stories on our blog Courtside. Have a suggestion? Contact stories@dribbble.com.
