About Us
A Brief History in Portland
Plywerk began in the dark, damp recesses of Kim Nguyen's and Kjell van Zoen's basement in Northwest Portland. Kim, a photographer, needing to mount a photo, grabbed a piece of discarded plywood from the aforementioned dark, cold--really just plain dreary--basement and glued a photo to it. A light bulb beamed from atop the self-professed frugal entrepreneur Kjell's head, temporarily blinding his wife Kim. But from that one piece of disposable wood, a sustainable Ma and Pa business was formed.
They began selling their modern and eco-conscious wares at local art walks, moving up to the big time of the Portland Saturday Market. There they met like-minded artists, fellow entrepreneurs, loyal customers, a wizard named Paul and began morphing Plywerk into what you see today.
Plywerk is a company built by eco-conscious artists. Art & photography, promoting environmental stewardship, and treating people how we like to be treated are the fundamental concerns that impact everything we do as a company.
Art & Photography
We are dedicated to supporting the art and photography community and built our business model to cater to professional photographers and artists who are looking to use an eco-conscious substrate. We regularly donate to art and photography programs and can always be found connecting with artists and photographers trying to put together master plans to make sure the arts are not forgotten. We work with artists and photographers of all types and love them all equally. The Plywerk newsletter and blog are centered around showcasing the artists and photographers who we work with by spreading the word about new work and art openings. If you have a Plywerk show coming up, please tell us and 10 friends about it immediately.
Environment
We are eco-freaks. So much so that we made a special section on our site for it. If you want to check it out head over to the More Than Just Green page. Just a warning, there are no pictures of us rescuing seals or planting trees. We recognize that is atypical for a corporate environmental section of a website and are ready for the complaint emails to start piling up.
People
The vast majority of today's economy revolves around fast, cheap, mechanical manufacturing and production. As a consequence the human element is pushed to the side and regularly forgotten. Every piece of Plywerk is handmade by real humans in Portland Oregon and our materials are sourced from local suppliers with similar business ethos when possible. We try to involve people rather than machines in our manufacturing process as much as possible.
The Plywerkers
Plywerk has an extremely tight knit team of dedicated employees. We attend each other's art shows, music events, plays, dental appointments and eat lunch together, family style, every day. 98.6% of the time we eat softboiled egg sandwiches with hummus and veggies. Occasionally the local tamale vendor plays her trump card. By tamale vendor, I mean the person who drives around in her car with a cooler on the passenger seat and yells "tamales" until you buy something.
Kjell van Zoen
Person in Charge, Co-FounderBorn in the Netherlands to a Dutch father and English mother, Kjell grew up in both countries, confused about what he liked better: coffee or tea. He dreamed of following in his father's footsteps and becoming a pilot, but with less than perfect vision-and a horrible fear of flying-this dream was silenced at the tender age of 17. Kjell is taller than you might think and has the 2nd best accent at Plywerk.
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Department Egg cooking ability Favorite hummus Last watched Golden Girls on Interweb Link |
Garrett Bishop
Marketing DirectorGarrett is a Colorado native and has a tattoo to prove it. He has a BA in Marketing but generally doesn't follow any rules he may have learned in academia. Garrett is responsible for all the time-wasting nonsense you see on Plywerk.com and our other marketing materials. Please send all complaints directly to garrett [at] plywerk.com. That part about the tattoo is not true but he does have an earring.
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Department Egg cooking ability Favorite hummus Last watched Golden Girls on Interweb Link |
Johnny Zeigler
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Department Egg cooking ability Favorite hummus Last watched Golden Girls on Interweb Link |
Nichole Alhadeff
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Department Egg cooking ability Favorite hummus Last watched Golden Girls on Interweb Link |
Evan Parker
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Department Egg cooking ability Favorite hummus Last watched Golden Girls on Interweb Link |
Kim Oanh Nguyen-van Zoen
Person Really in Charge, Co-Founder, MuseKim is an award-winning photojournalist & art photographer. Born in Laos, Kim emmigrated to the U.S. in 1980. Picking up her first camera, a Olympus OM-2, at the age of 13, Kim spent much of her teen years learning, experimenting, and honing her photography skills with her 80-year-old grandmother as her subject. Kim is an amazing vegetable chopper and will put fish sauce in almost anything.
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Department Egg cooking ability Favorite hummus Last watched Golden Girls on Interweb Link |
JJ Birky
Operations DirectorJJ has the heart of a Colorado native but a birth certificate with the state of Iowa seal on it. JJ's got a Bachelors of Art in Theatre and is ready to throw down with any AV nerd or set builder out there. JJ is awesome at transitioning between his desk, woodshop, studio and lunchtime cleanup responsibilities and to top it all off, he can tear virtually any type of paper in a straight line.
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Department Egg cooking ability Favorite hummus Last watched Golden Girls on Interweb Link |
Cyndy Chan
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Department Egg cooking ability Favorite hummus Last watched Golden Girls on Interweb Link |
Sunny Bleckinger
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Department Egg cooking ability Favorite hummus Last watched Golden Girls on Interweb Link |
Traci LaClaire
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Department Egg cooking ability Favorite hummus Last watched Golden Girls on Interweb Link |
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