We’re fortunate to have a national AIGA Design Conference is in Tennessee for the first time in years. The Make Think Conference is October 8–11 in Memphis. It’s a great opportunity to rub shoulders with great designers from across the country, to learn tons, and to check out the new “design reality competition” called Command/X. I’m not able to make this one, but our AIGA pres. Angie Hardison is looking for folks to go.
The Flux design competition is sponsored by AIGA Blue Ridge, and is a great way to get your design work noticed. With 5 categories and just a $5 entry fee, everyone should enter something. The deadline is Friday, September 25.
My typography students are out prowling the city with their cameras, collecting and identifying interesting letter forms and typefaces. They’ll upload their photos to Flickr and identify as many as they can by typeface using identifont.com and other resources. Students will post links to their Flickr sets here, so stay tuned and watch the comments.
The AIGA Think Tank regional conference is coming up this Saturday in Nashville. It’s a great opportunity for design students to meet up and learn more about their profession. Any students may go, though it’s cheaper to join AIGA first. If you’re already a member the cost is only $25 for the conference. Register online to go, and e-mail me or AIGA President Angie Hardison to carpool down for the day.
Things become obsolete. Adobe CS3, floppy disks, pleated pants, grunge type… so it goes. We’re upgrading our Adobe software at Pellissippi this semester to Creative Suite 4, so students might want to use video tutorials to get up to speed on the new features. I like these video tutorials, since I can watch them for free from any computer with an internet connection. I’ve been using CS4 over the summer, but I still learned a few things about Object Styles from Jeff Witchell’s InDesign tutorial. Layers Magazine focuses on technical skills for designers, and their web site is easy to navigate and find the most useful tutorials for you. (Photo by Sundesign on Stockxchng.)
East Tennessee Public Television (ETPtv), Knoxville’s local PBS affiliate, is offering an internship position for the Fall 2009 semester. The position will work with members of the Outreach Department to help ensure strategic plans and goals are met. Read More…
Recently I found these amazing design hero t-shirts by Ohio State design prof Paul Nini. There are 42 designs, all tributes to significant designers from the 20th century. Chances are your hero is included.
My design history students learned about Oxenar’s expressive banknote designs in our study abroad program this summer, and saw examples at the Graphic Design Museum in Breda. Several Dutch people still mourn the replacement of the guilder with the Euro, and beautiful designs like this are one reason why. Here’s a video interview with the designer of the perhaps the most beautiful banknotes in Europe.
I know all my students are out quaffing cold one and celebrating the end of another semester. What they might not know is… so am I. Once grades are filed, faculty members lock up their offices to return to the serious business of summer creative projects. In my case that means doing some book design, letterpress printing, and leading a study abroad program.
As most of my readers know by now, I’m going to spend the month of June in the Netherlands teaching History of Graphic Design and galavanting around. In between galavanting I’ll be posting on yet another blog. Imagine. I hope you’ll all follow the Going Dutch Blog and post lots of comments.
I’ll be back with more graphic design resources, musings, and semi-witty banter later this summer. (Photo by Alejandro Cantarero.)
This Thursday is our annual Showcase event—a one-night-only exhibit of graduate design portfolios. Design professionals drop by to pick up resumes, and families get to see what all the fuss has been about. As usual, David Gilbert has arranged for food and live music. The new AIGA student group is also assembling some very cool gift bags and door prizes. The beautiful poster this year was designed by Franny Priestly.
4-8 pm Thursday, April 23, 2009
Bagwell Center for Art and Media
Pellissippi State Technical Community College
