The Mercury just dropped a huge guide to Design Week Portland, a truly expansive event that's got one foot in arts and one in industry. It gave us the opportunity to talk about people, organizations, and events that tend to otherwise fall through the cracks of our arts coverage—likewise the schedule of events gives one tons of points of entry (most of which are free) to find out what is going on in the offices and studios scattered across the city.

We focused on a few of our favorites—when's the last time we got to talk about retail, tech, manufacturing, and videogames in the same editorial breath?—but consider it a starting point. Whether you're a professional within the design world looking for a useful perspectives and networking opportunities or a curious person who likes fun and creative endeavors (or, ideally, both), DWP has something (actually many things) for you to latch onto.

In the center spread of this week's issue you'll find a handy listing of all the events, but DWP also features a slew of open houses running Tues-Fri of next week, and the only place to get a comprehensive directory, complete with maps, is on the open house section of their web site. Start planning now, cuz it's gonna be a hell of a busy week.