Southern Creativity
One of the most interesting aspects of this conference was its format. The goal was to increase the interaction among the attendees, and to facilitate discussions with the speakers. After making it through the grueling Saturday schedule, I have...

The Take-Away
Summarizing a designers' conference is a little like describing political leanings in Ohio: for every generalization you make, there's a counter-example or a diametrically opposed opinion. This is what makes the panel discussions such good fun. You get well formulated...

Designers Must Make the World a Better Place
"Be afraid to die before you've won some victory for humanity" - Horace Mann That is a favorite quote of Tucker Viemeister's mom. He says it is our responsibility as designers to make a better world. He says "If...

What Nostalgia!? Dan Formosa Resurrects Nostalgia from the Dead
Karim Rashid kills nostalgia on Friday. Dan Formosa brings back nostalgia on Saturday, 1700 B to the C stylee. His brief history lesson on Zero included how it was invented by the Babylonians in 1700 BC but was never fully...

Midwest style, no love for the coasts.
Ladies and gentleman-- your humble midwest bloggers, in the mirror on the ceiling of the limo. Don't ask why there was a mirror on the ceiling. I don't want to know....

Designers and Crayons Part 1
Stick a sheet of paper on a dinner table, throw some Crayolas down with it and this is what you get at the end of the night:...

Dinner time? Hammer time.
Some photos from the awards dinner: A lot of people loaded into the Round Barn Center. Watching the student presenters kick out the jams. Fellow BlogSquadder Don Lehman is getting crunked. Bust a move? The floor punch? The robot? Those...

Bassmonsters & Nachos
Friday night: Really! Gross! Nachos! And! Beer! Champaign street life. Bassmonsters ID house party. The crazy-ass design of the Historic Lincoln Hotel. (By the way-- it's haunted. In 1930 a lady hung herself on the 4th floor-- no joke.)...

Cat Chow Redux
Ko covered Cat Chow, the Chicago-based conceptual fashion designer, earlier but i thought I would add a couple more pics and thoughts: - Cat Chow's fashion work seems to focus on repetition of elements, meticulous details, and purity of concept,...

UIUC Design Gallery Opening
The Impact Conference Gallery Opening! Along with a slide display of midwest student work, the UIUC Art/Design department announced the official opening of their product design gallery. The initial exhibition of products were all donated by companies and designers around...

Toshi-Kun To-Temo Sugoi!
Toshi Fujimura from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, was voted by a panel of judges to represent the Midwest at the National Conference. The Sexy Judges. Just sssssexy....

MP3 - The Bold Look of Kohler
Design conferences are magnets for craziness. This year's regional events brought us Richard Simmons in the South, the National Association of Black Cowboys in the Northeast, and now the good folks of Kohler being forced out of their hotel...

Awards Dinner at Bubby's
A few more snapshots from the Awards Dinner: What a long line of hungry designers looks like, with the Manhattan skyline in the background. Moments after the Student Merit Award winner is announced, smiles and congratulations all around. A fierce...

MP3 - Tucker Viemeister
So, Tucker Viemeister comes up to me and is like, "Hey, you want to go see the oldest corn patch in America?" "Um, yes." Click here to listen to Tucker Viemeister, an industrial design icon: co-founder of Smart Design!...

Bloggin' It
core77 blogsquadder Stephanie Munson doin' her thang for design enthusiasts worldwide....

Wylant on Futurism and Design
Barry Wylant, professor at University of Calgary, gave an insightful look not into enduring design as objects, but instead enduring design theory. His talk focused on the early 20th century work of Italian Futurism. He focused on the "ruthless...

Bennett on Zeisel on Design
Katherine Bennett, IDSA VP of Education and Art Center faculty member, began her provocative talk with a photo of a toilet brush with disposable heads. She reminded us of the fact that this is the majority of the industrial...

Conference Attendees
Some people chatting during a session at the western conference....

Karim, "the cultural shaper"
In the early afternoon we all pile into the auditorium for a Karim webcast via the Midwest Conference in Urbana-Champaign. This is already blogged by Ko, but since it is Mr. Rashid speaking I can't help but add in my...

Panel Discussion
The afternoon begins with a panel debate on the driving influences of design with respect to practice vs academia --- Who is leading the design profession? The postitions are as follows: Representing Practice (Matthew Woodruff, Adrian Van Wijk, Tony Gellion)...

2005 Northeast IDSA Student Merit Winner
The finalists are seen here receiving a refund on their conference registration fees as a sponsored token of esteem, but there can only be one winner. And this year it's Evan Gant of Virginia Tech. Evan will represent the Northeast...

Day and Night
Views of the Manhattan bridge from Bubby's, the venue for the student award banquet. The southern comfort food was swell and the atmosphere lively, maybe because there weren't enough chairs. I had a great talk with Angela Yeh, chair...