By Design.

Scenes From Gallery Day in the Design District on Saturday.

On the west side of I-35, there are over 370 shops and showrooms. And on Saturday, this 50-year-old neighborhood, known as the Dallas Design District, hosted its inaugural summer Gallery Day to highlight this much.

And even though Dallas was roasting in high temperatures, plenty of visitors were out early to see what the District had to offer. In return, these patrons were gifted nine-plus hours of gallery hopping, chit-chatting, T-shirt snagging, food truck noshing, complimentary boozing and, OK, a little brow sweat-wiping, too.

Our first stop? Anywhere there might have be a Lunch Buddies T-shirt still up for grabs. The ever-morphing outfit of Lunch Buddies produced a limited run of 300 shirts for the first 25 patrons to visit each participating gallery.

But there were more than just T-shirts on display, and, really, the art work was so enticing that
it became like crack. I soon forgot about the heat and was set on visiting every gallery on the list — and more.

Hey, the District's plan to pull me out of my wonderfully air-conditioned home had worked.

From the amusingly and seemingly interactive work by Erwin Wurm at the Dallas Contemporary (was I suppose to drink that scotch?) to the psychedelic abstract works by Rex Ray at Conduit Gallery, the showcased artists across the map were all top-notch.

The entire day felt clean, minimal and perhaps at times a bit self-important. But the sweaty asses and humble food trucks helped to bring the vibe back down to a more modest level.

Take a look here at Gallery Day in short.