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The Student Life an ongoing journal by Donald Lehman |
....who is Donald Lehman? |
November 18, 2002  by Don Lehman A diary of finals week madness… November 6, 2002 (Wednesday) Today has been dedicated to working on the final telephone model for my consumer product design class. I have been working fairly steadily on it for the past week and a half, but suddenly feel more of a sense of urgency to get it done. Probably because it’s due in 5 days. I figure if I can get the model for this class and for furniture design done by late Friday or early Saturday, I can devote the rest of the time for the presentations. Late last night in the studio, we heard the most amazing cover of a Nine Inch Nails song ever, done by of all people, Johnny Cash. We have been calling up the local radio station to request it ever since. Massimo Vignelli is receiving an honorary doctorate from RIT this week. Tomorrow he is giving a lecture right in the middle of my furniture design class. I am still debating weather I can fit it in or not. November 7, 2002 (Thursday) Massimo Vignelli has been dropped from the schedule in favor of buying the new Johnny Cash CD and working on final projects. Sorry Massimo. The best track on the whole disc has to be his cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”.  Furniture design class time is spent working on models. Well, most of it. The last half hour randomly became “101 Uses For A Scrap Piece Of Tire”. As my professor, Stan, was leaving, he walked past us playing around and made the comment, “That’s the best furniture design I have seen all quarter.” I’m feeling pretty good about finishing the models. I think I can get the phone model sanded and primed by the time I’m done working tomorrow, which leaves the rest of the weekend for furniture design. I leave the studio around 3am. November 8, 2002 (Friday) Massimo came up to the industrial design studio today with his wife and design partner, Lella. She showed us a pretty cool silver bracelet that she designed. They seemed genuinely interested in what we were doing. As he was walking around he comes over to Sam’s desk and they start talking about his fruit bowl design.  Massimo: Why isn’t it round? Sam: Well, I have been really into this rounded off square shape and I think it works well with this design. Massimo: Well if you take away the square, you still have the round! Oh, that Massimo. He received his doctorate later on in the day. The reception after was great: free food and wine. They had these desserts that were chocolate cups with chocolate mousse stuff on the inside. You can never say no to chocolate within chocolate. 12:30am My plans to have the phone primed have been thwarted by some moron in the photo side of the building. Someone opened up a fire extinguisher and it got into the ventilation. Fire department shows up and won’t let anyone back into the building until it gets cleaned up, which may take 2 hours. Fantastic. I decide to get some sleep instead of wait around. November 9, 2002 (Saturday) I woke up this morning in a panic. “This model along with a presentation is due on Monday.” I sprint to the studio. Sanding and spackling take up the majority of the day. It’s not until 5:30pm that I am able to throw the first coat of primer on. My schedule is pushed back. Finish painting the phone model by late tonight (hopefully), work on final renderings for presentation and finish furniture model tomorrow. 4:46am Things I no longer care about: 1) The difference between the color “winter grey” and “grey sandable primer” 2) This stupid phone. 3) Things that happen while I’m awake. 4) Anything. November 10, 2002 (Sunday) My schedule is in shambles. I had to go back to the studio first thing so I could give the model another coat of paint for the pictures. Run back home and do some renderings in Illustrator for the presentation. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to spend time on my furniture model until Monday after presentations. I think some of my classmates are getting annoyed with the amount of times they have heard Johnny Cash in the past 4 days. November 11, 2002 (Monday) I have acquired an interesting trait to my sleeping. I’ll lie there, wanting that two hours of sleep in the worst way, eyes half dead, and I swear I’m dreaming. But I am most certainly still awake. I can dream while still being awake. My roommate Steve informs me I’m on the road to insomnia. My mom is the greatest person in the history of the world. She comes over to my apartment at 10am with an oven pan full of pasta and other miscellaneous food items. “I didn’t want you to go hungry. I’m worried about your eating habits!” God bless you dear woman. The phone project wraps up just barely on time. After the crit, we all walk around in a delirious daze. “It’s over. I… I… I can’t believe it’s over.” Yeah well, not so fast. My furniture design project is due tomorrow. Looks like no sleep until at least 5pm tomorrow. After spending the last 5 or 6 days devoted entirely to the phone I am really happy to be working on something different. November 12, 2002 (Tuesday) 9:20am Things I still care about: 1) Furniture Design I cannot tell you how much more enjoyable it is to work on this office furniture that it was to work on that phone. Looking back on it now, I see I unknowingly approached these projects as if they were polar opposites. With the phone I started out being concerned with features and styling. As a result it became really boring to me and I couldn’t put my finger on why until 5 hours ago. Furniture on the other hand I was working off a feeling I wanted to create when people used it. All other features grew out of that. 20/20 hindsight is a beautiful thing. 6:12pm I can sleep. I was really looking forward to eating again but I can’t taste anything. The Super77 I had been inhaling for the past 20 hours may have had something to do with that. “Your Own Personal Jesus” Design of the Month Club: Johnny Cash - “American IV: The Man Comes Around”  I give Johnny Cash full credit for getting me through that week. How badass is that cover? |
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