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 region at the National IDSA conference. He's the one on the left in the light blue shirt (yes, I am photographically-challenged).

Here is a closeup of one of the pieces he showed.

(Update 4/10- photo removed because it wasn't evan's work. my apologies for not having a photo of his work.)

Good luck at the national competition, Evan!

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 of the IDSA New York chapter, on developing a collaborative infrastructure through IDSA to build a closer-knit design community in New York. She pointed out the difficulty of organizing the amazingly diverse New York design community, but this year's conference provides ample proof of the rewards for making that effort.

Alice Ro, who did a great job getting sponsorships for the conference, and Rob Curedale, who led the "Leveraging China" workshop, chatted about introducing more rigorous thinking and design research into the design process, amongst many other topics fueled by Rob's incredibly deep and varied design experience.

I know you'd like to see pictures, but I will plead technical difficulties.

The Pratt juggling club demonstrating a metaphor for the design process.
Les Mandelbaum of Umbra said that having the design idea is only 5% of the process. I guess the rest is juggling engineering, manufacturing, finance, marketing, research, etc.

At least these guys make the juggling part look fun.

...you are taking up too much room."

Native American saying quoted by Mary McBride (Columbia University) in her presentation on ethics and design strategies.

Her talk was on design as a risk management tool, "a way to shape or sabotage the future." Business is risk adverse and doesn't like the uncertainties of dwindling natural resources and changing environments, but they haven't learned better practices.
Designers can use this risk aversion and lead the way to more ecologically and socially sound products and processes. But designers too have to change the practice of design: think more long-term about materials and think about life cycles and process flow.

More socially conscious companies talk about the "triple bottom line": profits, people, planet. Design can encourage this. You could think of it as an obligation to help heal all the damage done by bad design.

Jogi Panghaal, Doors of Perception

Using the context of Indian culture, Jogi Panghaal guided the audience through an inquiry into what it is to make things.

All skills come from food and preparing food, and thus are intimately connected to the senses. Women have traditionally been the preparers of food and have the most intimate knowledge of the body- what they need and what their children need. These food preparation skills transfer to other areas and form the basis of all crafts. For example, working with scrap fabric and embroidery reflects the work women do in the field: planting, sowing rows, repairing the ground.

Jogi said several times that when men perform crafts (and there are 15 million artisans in India) they are discovering the feminine aspect of creation. But he also pointed out that when a craft becomes economically viable, men take it over and push out the women.

This was an interesting counterpoint to Rob Walker's talk about the desire-driven consumption and creation; Jogi asks us to contemplate the more fundamental drives to create: survival and the senses (body identity). In India, where most people live under the demands of survival, nothing is rejected or thrown away.

It also bears consideration in light of Andrew Zolli's revelations about the demographic pressures facing designers of the future.

Lunch on a piece of scuplture at Pratt campus. Did I mention yay for spring?

Ze Frank
(Update 11pm- link fixed!)
Start with the classic original "How to dance properly" and turn up the sound!.

And then be jealous that we got to hear Ze Frank in person about empowering regular people to be creative.

Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap.

Discuss.

(Background: Theodore Sturgeon is a science fiction writer who, when asked why he chose to write science fiction when he was a good writer of other more respectable genres, said "Sure, science fiction is 90% crud. But then, 90% of everything is crud."

In the context of today's talks about consumer excess and commoditization of designed products, it struck me that we have to be careful about design triumphalism. It's too bad that the glorious failures never get asked to give talks at conferences.)

Speaking with a fever and jet lag, and willing to ham it up for the camera.

Rationality, Relevance, Rey the dog

New York Times reporter Rob Walker's dog, Rey.
www.robwalker.net

Reaching design-driven consumers: find products that appeal to individuality and yet create a "tribe" around them, like the iPod. Interesting products are able to create relevance in completely unrelated populations—Red Bull appeals to clubbers, gym members and Wall Street.
Even a vacuum cleaner or a water bottle can develop a fan base and generate irrational enthusiasm that reinterprets the product, breeding subcltures and customizers.

If you achieve this with your product, enjoy the success but be prepared for the inevitable backlash.

Les Mandelbaum, Umbra

Umbra found a market in the segment not served by corporate design, switching from hard-edged, high-tech design in the late 70's to the "sexy" 80's with Karim Rashid. In the US, maybe 20% of the market has a sophisticated appreciation of modern design. Umbra's challenge and mission is in addressing a minority audience- not price-driven but trend-setting.

It took 10 years, but now Umbra is able to survive without Wal-mart. Part of Umbra's strategy is having a dedicated manufacturing facility in China.

Design is not a department; it is Umbra. The fun part is designing product, but it only gets you 5% of the way.

Changes in the last 25 years: the rise of Wal-mart and the rise of China.
Wal-mart is about the lowest common denominator of consumer taste, but is overwhelmingly powerful at driving down prices even as materials and labor prices increase here and in China. Walmart and general consolidation in US businesses forces companies to go high-end or low-end, shrinking the middle.

Umbra's strategies to buck this trend and survive without Wal-mart: seek conscientious distribution outlets, develop an internet channel to reach consumers without the retail filter.

The morning panel of celebrity design objects was a huge success.
Eclectic. Comfy. But when do I get to try them out?
Thanks Knoll!

Yay Spring in Brooklyn!

Thumbnail glimpses of the work of this year's student merit award finalists (at least the ones that displayed work in the break area).
The presentations in the late afternoon had the greatest turnout of the day by far. Congratulations to all of the finalists!

top to bottom:
anna engstrom
paul conte
michelle simas
keri bronk
kate witherspoon
sondra law

*If I have misidentified any work, please let me know!
(Update 4/10- kate witherspoon's work was mis-identified as evan gant's. Corrected above and apologies to both students)

Four design entrepreneurs:
Todd Seidman (54Dean), Scott Lundberg ([Make]), Paul Galli (54Dean), and Stu Constantine (core77).

A frank panel on using your portfolio to get a foot in the door, featuring an HR expert, a recruiter (or more accurately "THE recruiter" in ID), and three potential bosses. Some disagreement around the details, but the central message was the same across the board.

THE SHORT VERSION: If you're Shaq O'Neill, you don't need to know how to hit your free throws. But if you aren't a Shaq, you'd better master the basics.

THE HARD TRUTH: Desirable employers get 100 portfolios a month. More often than not they are looking for a reason to screen you out, not in. So don't make any easy mistakes.

STANDING OUT IN A DIGITAL WORLD: Use physical mail—a thank you card, a paper portfolio rather than email or cd.

OTHER POINTS THAT CAN"T BE STRESSED ENOUGH:
* Research the corporate culture of the company you are sending a resume/portfolio to. Ask about dress code, office size, etc. before you interview.
* Put your name on every page (digital or physical)
* Process, Process, Process. Sketching is the day-to-day lifeblood of ID, not flashy rendering.
* Persistence pays off.
* Energy, enthusiasm and passion should come through in your presentation. This is fun, folks!

Finally, a surprise (for me): Reviewers often like to sit back and let the student walk through the portfolio orally while they look at the images. Be prepared, concise and enthusiastic, then let the reviewer ask you follow-up questions.

left to right: Patrick Rae (Moderator), Chair of IDSA Philadelphia; Mario Turchi, Co-founder, Ion Design; Kevin Young, Principal, Continuum; RitaSue Siegel, President RitaSue Siegel Resources; Janet Villano, Industrial Designer, Rockwell Group; Sharon LaBella, Human Resources Manager, ChaseDesign

(Update 4/12- corrected order of names in photo. Thanks for the tip Arjun Joseph)

Five start-up design firms out of Pratt Institute met in a panel discussion on taking the independent path to a design career.

My pics of the event were weak so here are some pictures of their work (except Dan and Kiel—where the $#%@ is your webpage?)

upper row, left to right: The Design Can (Jeanie Choe & Steve Tomlinson), Dan Alexander & Kiel Mead, Eenamaria (Sarah Morgan)
lower row, left to right: 54dean (Todd Seidman & Paul Galli), [Make] (Scott Lundberg)

Everyone stressed the supportive community of fellow designers that serves as a sounding board and provides advice and inspiration, which sounds like a great and possibly unique feature of the industrial design world.

Lessons learned (and shared) included being open to happy mistakes and flexible enough to work within a transitional business model, developing a collaborative approach that works for you (whether with partners or employees) to make more powerful concepts, and learning to be very social as a means to build contacts.

In the first session, moderator Peter Barna, Provost of Pratt Institute, and audience members commented on the focus on craft and home items, noting the absence of digital products and large-scale manufacture. One of the reasons is the scale of a start-up doesn't lend itself to mass production, even when such is the ultimate goal. Several participants discussed the joys of working in products they feel passionate about, even as they kept day jobs in order to fund their businesses.

The workshop on sensory experience in environment design turned into jovial mayhem as Tim Kelly of Blue Sky Exhibits demonstrated the power of sight, sound and touch to develop a mood and create emotions. The overall atmosphere of whimsy created by soap bubbles and noisemakers resonated well with the mostly student audience and created a nice counterpoint to the deadly seriousness of portfolio review and jobhunting.

The key point of the session was to watch out for mixed messages among the sensory factors in a design. Tim defined the differing approaches to environment design and product design by saying that "the user touches a product but an environment touches the user." Personally, I think that employing this environmental approach in product design, thinking about how a product touches the user rather than vice versa, would serve to enhance the emotional impact of product design as well.

Rather than the expected museum exhibit or theme park examples, Tim used samples of his trade show exhibits to demonstrate how to apply sensory experience to a marketing environment.

Tim Kelly, Blue Sky Exhibits

The goody bag received by attendees: magazines, t-shirt, sustainable hardwood samples, Schick razor, nifty dog toy, notebook. I remember seeing the dog toy in a portfolio on coroflot (by Ryan Rutherford). Very squeaky.
Plus there is a spiffy raffle. The NE IDSA organizers did a great job on sponsorship.

The morning was devoted to student portfolio review, and since I am one of those students who managed to graduate without an internship and without showing anyone a portfolio, I took the plunge as well. In fact, today is my first time showing my work to anyone outside of Pratt. Many of the students here today are pros at the review process and hustle to see as many people as possible off the schedule. The level of composure and focus is very high, as is the quality of the work.

When I show my work, this is what I worry about: drawing drawing drawing.

But here's what the reviewers are interested in:
*thought process from initial thumbnails through to finished product— "don't be afraid to show the rough initial sketches where the design began"
*describing the problem—what is the market, what are the tech/human constraints, what are the project parameters? This can illustrate project management skills in addition to the creative design aspect
*showing some business savvy—not expertise, but research showing consideration of the user and the environment
*and yes, hand skills

This is not earth-shattering stuff, but it helped me break out of my overwhelming concern about not being a top-tier artist and really focus on what I do well. It is a mistake to work on your portfolio alone until it is perfected—feedback at every step is absolutely vital and certainly not anything to fear.

The IDSA conference is a great opportunity to get feedback and non-academic perspectives. The rooms were packed and the discussions extremely constructive. It's a true exchange—the reviewers are providing a service to the students, but they also have strong motives to seek out creative new work and look outside their own companies and fields.

Thanks to Bill Bickford of Estee Lauder, Jessica Lynn of Rita Sue Seigel Recruiters, Richard Snow of Lighting Services Inc. and Heather Reavey of Continuum for giving me the reviewer's perspective.

If any of the participating students read this, I hope you will leave a comment with your impressions.

Heather Reavey of Continuum smiling as she gives me the hard, cold facts. Post pictures of my own portfolio? Not this time.

The morning crush, seen here at the bagel table, is made up of students preparing for portfolio review. We are crammed in to the 4th floor hall in Pratt Studios, but it does make for some high energy and serendipitous bumping into all the right people.

This is the view from Memorial Hall, where most of the NE conference sessions will take place.

There is too much to see and do in New York to make comprehensive suggestions, but I did promise a little more about Canal Street.

Canal Street is a major tourist destination, with its eastern half being the anchor for Chinatown to the south and Little Italy to the north. For the IDSA attendee, of more interest may be the industrial supply stores and junk shops that cluster around the western half of Canal Street (most are west of Broadway).

Below is a short list; besides these few, Canal between 6th Avenue and Broadway hosts shops for electrical and mechanical parts, discount electronics, second hand motors and assorted junk. Only Pearl Paint is open on Sundays, though.

1. Plastic Land (plastics) 357 Canal @ Wooster
2. Canal Plastics (plastics) 345 Canal @ Wooster
3. Canal Rubber (rubber and foam) 329 Canal @ Greene
4. Industrial Plastics (plastics of all kinds) 309 Canal @ Mercer
5. Space Surplus Metals (scrap sheet, bar and rod stock) 325 Church @ Canal
6. Pearl Paint (5 floors of art supplies) 308 Canal @ Mercer
7. Victor Machinery Exchange (machine tools) 251 Centre @ Broome

For lighting and restaurant supplies, head north on Bowery from the eastern end of Canal to find blocks of lighting stores and restaurant supply stores. And back on the tourist beat, west of Broadway and north of Canal to Houston St. is SOHO with great art galleries and boutiques for clothes, furniture, etc. Ingo Maurer's lighting store at 89 Grand @ Greene is a personal favorite.

A final note: Canal Street is also the center of New York's counterfeit handbag market. The people whispering "Louie-Louie" up and down the street aren't trying to get you to dance—they want to sell you fake Louis Vuitton.

Industrial Plastics on Canal Street, much beloved of ID students at Pratt and a classic New York destination for wacky things made of plastic—nativity scenes and disco balls as well as great model-making supplies like acrylic rod and sheet stock, is closing.

I was there Saturday and saw a sign saying "everything 50% off." I inquired and heard the sad news—they are to close on April 15. A writeup in the New York Times cites the general difficulties doing business in lower Manhattan since 9/11 and higher plastic prices due to oil prices.

Canal Street as a whole is a blessing for local ID students: it's an only-in-New-York resource for stores with all kinds of industrial parts, scraps and model-making bits and pieces that inspire us and save our a**es when projects are due. But easy access to such supplies can be too much of a good thing; Pratt professors have been known to refer to some student work as "Canal Street design": too literal, relying on putting current production parts into new contexts rather than really thinking deeply about the problem. I know this because I am guilty of it.

Regardless of the pitfalls, Canal Street is a treasure trove for a designer. If you are visiting New York for the IDSA conference, I recommend a stop. In the next day or two I will post a map and some pointers. Losing Industrial Plastics will mean losing a bit of the soul of Canal Street. It is the best of the plastics stores (of which there are three—an embarrassment of riches!) for pure atmosphere and for surprises on the shelves.

However, my sadness will not stop me from taking advantage of the opportunity to stock up on half-price supplies before April 15th. And, if no one else does, I may just have to buy the forlorn plastic turkey carcass as a memento. I have a great idea for a lamp design...