my open door.net

One of my Design II students (Ben? Farmer?) turned me onto What the font, this great free site that identifies type using a screen shot or graphic you upload. I tested it with Anivers, a great-looking font by Jo Boivenga that’s kind of obscure. I made a screen shot of the font at 72 points, in black with a white background. What the Font identified it within seconds, at the top of a list of 15 options. The next time you’re trying to figure out a font, check this out.

Our new AIGA student group will have its first meeting Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 2:45 in room BA203. With two conferences and a local film premeire on the agenda, the student group will really need to hit the ground running!

Get down to the Knoxville Museum of Art to see the Knoxville premier of this film about an important American designer and illustrator. Also, I’ll be giving away a copy of one of Glaser’s books.

• Wednesday, Sept. 23rd, 7:00 – 9:00 pm, KMA Auditorium
• Student AIGA Members: $3
• Professional AIGA Members: $6
• Non-AIGA Members: $10

Artfully directed by first time filmmaker Wendy Keys, the film glances into everyday moments of Glaser’s personal life and capture his immense warmth, humanity and the boundless depth of his intelligence and creativity.

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.