Overall this was one of the best IDSA district conferences that I have attended over the years. Certainly Vancouver is a beatiful city in which to spend a couple of days thinking about design. What made this conference distinctive is the focus and passion surrounding the topic, Enduring Design.

The Pacific Northwest loves "sustainability" (about as much as coffee and cheap sushi) and this conviction was evident in the list of presenters that it put to the podium. Usually at these things the speakers try and stick the conference theme somewhere in the title of their talk or work it in to their introduction. Rarely is it the backbone of their presentation.

At the IDSA-West this year we did not witness the tired parade of presenters who merely talk about their own or their studio's work. While these are occasionally interesting, or interesting in moderation, such "portfolio presentations" usually have the icky feel of a lightly veiled studio infomercial. The presenter often comes off as a design braggadocio with the an inflated sense of global importance (let's keep that you "revolutionized" the field of kitchen mops in perspective).

Conference organizer and Wesstern District VP, Dedre Toker was able to organize many leaders in the design sustainability field for this one-and-a-half-day gathering. Evidence of this was in the unusually high number of educators who spoke; yet, certainly the voice of enlightened practitioners was quite welcome. Indeed they have a more difficult task of meeting the seemingly irreconcilable demands of sustainability with corporate appetites, which nearly demand un-enduring design to produce enticing quarterly profits reports.

Thanks to the speakers, conference organizers, Emily Carr Institute, and passionate attendees for their efforts and attention to this topic. Let's hope that the spirit of the debate and the importance of the big picture endure.

I'm putting out a challenge to the other District Conferences. Prove to me that your raffle is bigger and badder than the Southern District. These guys gave away some serious booty. Thanks to donated prizes from generous companies like Hunter Fan, Ryobi, Motorola, Bolt, and Eastman, everyone had a good chance of walking away with some sweet schwag.

I even got in on the action and walked away with a Ridgid Random Orbital Sander with a retail value of $180! I think I'll put it on my mantle for all to see...but first, I'll have to get a mantle.

These are the people that made it happen. The organizers for the conference included two students from University of Illinois Urbana Chamapign, Professors, and IDSA Professionals.

By Sunday morning, everyone was blaming Beale Street for missing the 7am portfolio review sessions, slurred speech, and constant nodding off during presentations. Even a few of the speakers acknowledged having a bit of trouble getting the right words to flow. Here's a few snapshots of a really long street, large groups of people, long lines, and late nights...

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:

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.)

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

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.

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

No content, just eye candy:

Appetizing, no?

Milling around the lobby.

Jim Morrow of Morrow Design talking to a student.

Bruce Nussbaum of Business Week gives a student the lowdown on what it takes to get a Gold IDEA award.

Checking out the Alias Cintiq. Check out the dude munching on chips.

More hot Alias Cintiq action. The dude in the middle looks like he's going to pass out.

Milling around. Wishing we were out side...why?

Cuz it's BOOOTIFUL outside.

Turns out IDSA - Beyond isn't the only group using the Pratt campus for it's conference. The National Association of Black Cowboys was here too.

Didn't make it to the meeting, but apparently there was whoopin and lasso work like you wouldn't believe.

After the final speaker of the day, a small group of professionals, along with 63 Georgia Tech students, and roughly half the population of Memphis, headed to Rendevous, one of the most famous rib joints in the US. One word: porktastic. Okay, so it was riblicious as well, but the best part was our surly waiter. He got a little fed up with us not knowing what we wanted. FYI: the MEATLESS Red Beans & Rice is indeed MEATLESS.

Yay Spring in Brooklyn!

So I have never been to this fine city before, so I spent the day on a bike riding around the place. For those of you who have never been here before, it is quite nice. The city is nestled between many bodies of water and many mountains - here is some zeitgeist for you.

And here is the red punch...

I am here at the beginning of the IDSA's western conference in beautiful downtown Vancouver after a nice day of biking around the city on a beautifully sunny day (despite an archetypal pacific northwest forecast for overcast and rainy weather).

The conference begins with an enjoyable Alias-sponsored reception, where many attendees eat food and drink red punch. Here are some attendee's eating, drinking, and being merry...

Like many of our peers across the south, Ayham and I (Mardis) made quite a trek across the south to attend the IDSA conf. We left University of Houston's new ID studios on Thursday. Barelling accross Louisiana, high on energy drinks and gas station goodies, we were determined to roll into Memphis in style -jittery and windblown :) Nine and a half hours and a speeding ticket later we arrived in Memphis (86mph in a 60... who knew that wouldn't play well in LA? -duh!). 4:15am to bed and up at 8:30... ahhh, the things we do for the love of design.
Not to be disappointed, IDSA has stepped up to the bar. They have planned an action packed weekend full of design workshops and events (parties) from dawn to dusk. Seriously folks, its gonna be a hell of a weekend. "Wish ya'll were her... -Mardis"

I'm at a conference full of smart people presenting cool stuff, and what am I super impressed with? Urinals you can flush with your foot!

Jim Wicks of Motorola, on the design of the Pebl phone's expressive opening mechanism:

Jim: As a designer it's really nice to have a user open a product and illicit an emotional response... it's kind of like opening your wallet and finding money in it!

Audience member: Or a kimono.

Jim: Well, that all depends who's in it.

In addition to Holly's eloquent and necessary guide to Canal Street (one of the best resources a designer ever had, in my limited opinion), I thought I might mention a few less hectic spots to get inspired if you're a designer in town for a few days. You'll at least have Sunday free, right?

Museums:

There's the obvious Cooper-Hewitt, which serves as the design branch of the Smithsonian. One of the few branches of that institution to live somewhere besides the Mall in DC, it fills Andrew Carnegie's former Fifth Avenue mansion with well-selected exhibitions of interest to design geeks. Current shows are both focused on textiles, one guest curated by Dutch designer Hella Jongerius, the other concerning new technological developments in woven materials.

Less obvious might be PS1, a MoMA-affiliated institution just across the East River from midtown Manhattan. It's known for exceptionally daring, exploratory exhibitions, and the current show is one of the best: Greater New York, an event that happens just once every three years, dedicated to young and emerging artists in the Tri-State area. Every time it happens, someone becomes famous, so drop by, and you too could say "oh yeah, I heard of her years ago, before she got big..."

Stores and Showrooms:

Moss is the must-see, of course. It was recently named by Icon magazine as "probably the most influential design shop in the world," and a visit to its oppressively gorgeous, tantalizing white space will make a believer of you too.

For more home-grown flavor, Sublime is definitely worth a check. Sprawling elegantly over a wide-open, three level space in Tribeca, it features furniture and product design from U.S. designers exclusively, some of which you'd be hard-pressed to find in any other showroom.

If your time at Pratt has you intrigued with design in Brooklyn, take the G train up to Williamsburg and visit The Future Perfect. The small but passionately curated selection of goods includes several local designers, as well as work from farther afield, and the sense of irony and humor that permeates it all is downright refreshing.

This is just scratching the surface, but you knew that. Off the top of my head, there's also R 20th Century for midcentury modern, ABC Carpet and Home to see what the fashionable Gothamite is kitting out their overpriced apartment with, The MoMA Design Store for MUJI goods (the only place in the country that sells them, sadly), the Noguchi Museum for..well...Noguchi, and any number of elaborate retail spaces in the Meatpacking District.

On second thought, perhaps one Sunday isn't quite enough for all of this.

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

The main reason I was going to the Midwest Conference? To celebrate the U. of Illinois' national championship victory with a ton of hot sorority girls!

Well, that plan was thrown out the window late Monday night when the Illini lost to North Carolina in the title game. Bummer. I guess it's up to me and DJ Kreemy to get this party started right tomorrow night. See you dudes in Champaign!

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.

Thanks to graduationg senior Eric Whewell, we got ourselves a tour of the CIA Industrial Design Studios. The studios are large, open, and have tons of pinup space for displaying all the superb work.

Based on the evidence gathered here at the Mideast Conference, I've come to the conclusion that the historically male dominated field of ID is in for some overdue changes in the coming years. How do I know this? There is a line out the door for the women's restroom. I don't think I need to say any more. Much thanks to Lindsay from OSU for the insider info...I swear I'm not eerily keeping watch over these kinds of things. Honest.

How do you know you are at a design conference?

The audience is full of people who listen AND sketch new ideas in their sketch books.

continued...

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...

Um, my computer crashed as I was saving my last post, leaving me with nothing to salvage. Minor hiccup to the day's events...I'm running out of hours to get some rest...it's an early start tomorrow with student portfolio reviews at 7am. With that said the next few posts will be brief...

After taking a cab out to the Cleveland Institute of Art this morning, I decided that I had missed out on a city's greatest experience: its mass transit system. With some time to kill before lunch and the conference kickoff I found the nearest bus stop to see if I could navigate my way back downtown to the hotel, roughly 6 miles away. Lucky for me the 9X bus driven by Ed (RTA employee for 13 years) was headed straight for it. What luck! With the burden of navigation and bus-hopping out of the way I decided to snap some photos of the trip Westward down picturesque Euclid Avenue.

After the Claxton talk this morning I headed off across the CIA campus to meet up with another blogger covering the conference. The directions I was given were as follows:

"Take a right at the McGehry building, left on Euclid, go past McDonald's, and the building you're looking for is the McCullough."

I didn't realize that there was such a strong Scottish heritage here in Cleveland. I'm pretty sure that the "McGehry" was really a Frank Gehry project though, so maybe it's just a weird coincidence. I can't seem to recall ever seeing Frank Gehry in a kilt...

Just got the conference. Alas, I had to teach so I missed most of the day.

The Cleveland Institute of Art students were most helpful in getting me going. (Note: I am a CIA professor, so I might be biased.)

If you would like to show your gratitude to the helpful students, Go see their Spring Show on April 19, you can view it all day, starting at 9:30am. There is a recption at 7:30 in the evening.

If you're in Cleveland, and it's after midnight, and you're jonesing for some good eats, I MUST recommend you put in an order to Rascal House Pizza. Granted, I don't think there were too many options at that hour, but the Pizza ala Greco hit the spot. Much thanks to Shirley from Marriot's At Your Service for the hookup.

Hi all, I'm Yianni. I'm the second person covering the Cleveland conference. Unlike Nate, I live in Cleveland, so it is just a matter of finishing work, jumping in my car and heading to the conference.

Weather in Cleveland has been great the past few days, and it looks nice today. (Granted, it's supposed to get cold tonight and possibly snow tomorrow.)

Like Nate, I will gladly field questions directly. yianni@yessios.com

Okay, so I'm here in Cleveland. After a 3 hour flight to Newark from Fort Lauderdale, and another 1 hour jump from Newark, I have arrived. And it's just a tiny bit windy. And that's a tiny bit of sarcasm. I thought I'd stroll around the downtown area, get the lay of the land, see what I could see, but I decided after about 5 minutes that maybe I'd just snap a photo of the hotel and retreat inside...so here you go. More later.

I'm Nate. I'll be covering the Mideast Conference. If there's anything you readers want to know, drop me a line. My goal is to make this as interactive as possible. Questions can be addressed to me, to a headlining speaker, to your design colleagues who made the trip and left you to do their share of the work on top of what you were already doing...

Send your query, along with your name and location. I've got answers: nate@thenate.com

Check back beginning April 1 to see ongoing coverage from the five IDSA District Conferences.