Yeah, so, I've been at the IDSA conference since about 7am and taken hundreds of photos already. I've hit every lecture so far and met a ton of really cool people... but I needed a lil break. It is Saturday after all.

So I snuck off to the local glass blowing studio on Granville Island to catch some industrial design in action. Here's a few of the shots.

I met a couple of the blowers out on the street and the invited me to come snap some shots of them working. It was nice and warm in there. :)

It was nice to be away from the computers for a bit and be around people doing their craft with their hands and their sweat.

These two were an awesome team. They apprenticed together in this shop and now get together once a week to blow together. Quite a crowd assembled outside their studio for the 'show'.

They ended up busting this piece by mistake, but they laughed a lot and talked about learning a few things and making a few mistake. I think hey had fun. I sure did. :) The rest of the glassblowing shots are over with the IDSA conference ones at EventBlogging.com.

After the portfolio review the talks started. Here's some shots from the morning sessions.

Stuart Walker gettin' philosophical on our asses - Read Stephanies great write-up.

Everyone is pretty excited to be here and there is a bit of a buzz in the air.

Some visual people absorb information better while they are doing creative things like drawing. I doodle a lot during lectures too... well, I used to, now I type blog posts and upload photos. :P

The rest of my shots from the western conference are being collected here.

Joel Tobman reviews his portfolio at the Industrial Designers Society of America annual conference. He came to Vancouver from the University of Calgary where he is doing a Masters of Industrial Design.

The rest of my photos from the event so far can be found here.

*yawn* Sitting here at 7:15am drinking Tim Horton's coffee and getting ready to take some photos of the portfolio review this morning at the Industrial Designers Society of America's annual western confernece. This morning there are about 20 firms here from all over the west coast with representatives who will be reviewing student work and providing feedback. Lots of folks walking around with sketchbooks and sample work. It should be interesting to talk to some folks and do some eavesdropping and hear what kind of feedback the 'experts' give.

Great keynote last night by Eames Demetrios at the Emily Carr Institute for Art and Design.

Here's a link to all the photos I've uploaded from the Industrial Designers Society of America's western conference in Vancouver BC at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.

Hey there. Well, we're back in business with internet and power so no more excuses, eh? Here's some of the first shots from tonight's welcome reception sponsored by Alias.

This is the Alias illustration whiz I was telling you about in my previous post. This kid has mad skills!

See, told ya. He whipped this out in less than a minute.

Check out that printer in the bottom left hand of the image. That is a 3d modelling 'printer'. It creates one off prototypes of anything you can model in 3d software. Amazing

This object is the color registration test print that this printer spits out to calibrate itself. Amazing.

More of the cool prototype objects that have been created with this 3d printer. You can have one for only $28,000. :)

I also met the other Core77 bloggers. They're great. I hope I get a chance to kick it with them some before they head back home to America. :)

Well, the wireless is sketchy, several hundred of us are sharing a couple power outlets, and we're an hour behind schedule already.... but I'm stoked to be here nonetheless. Tonight is the kick-off of the Industrial Designers Society of America's annual western conference in Vancouver BC. I'm here at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design on Granville Island and the keynote will begin here any moment. I spent the afternoon walking around the campus, visiting the IDSA exhibit hall and chatting with other attendees.

The crowd seems to be made up of a lot of 3d modelers and illustrators and the hot booth is definitely the Alias/Wacom space where they have two 20inch Wacom tablet touch sensitive flat screen monitors running Alias' special drawing software. It's pretty hot. The artist who is demoing the gear is really good and can bust out a 3d sketch of nearly anything in about 10 seconds flat. Their booth and demo made me want their tech!

Anyway, there will be some time lag unfortunately between my photos and posts and them being uploaded due to technical difficulties, but hopefully by tomorrow AM when it gets hot and heavy all those issues will be cleared up. If you are at the conference here, please say hi... or leave a note in the comments. I'm looking forward to seeing who is reading this. Anyone in particular you guys want me to speak to? I brought the podcasting gear so I can do some interviews if I meet some interesting people.