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The Student Life an ongoing journal by Donald Lehman |
....who is Donald Lehman? |
April 8, 2003  by Donald Lehman I just arrived back in Rochester from attending the IDSA Northeast conference in Bridgeport, CT. We just drove 7 hours and it is 12:30am. I am a powder keg waiting to explode. The fuse was lit this morning. My friends from RIT, students from other schools, and other various professional designers were sitting in on a presentation about “the future”. Really, the lecturer was talking about the categorization lines between generations. Basically he broke 5 generations down to what we have all heard before: (in order from oldest to youngest) GI Generation Mature Generation Baby Boomer Generation Generation X’ers Generation Y (He wanted to call them “Baby Wavers” because then he could trademark the name. Can we please stop naming generations? It’s really stupid.) GI’s were born near the beginning of the 20th century and Generation Y started coming around in 1986. Apparently I am a Generation X’er. (I’m 20.) Wait, let me back up some. The conference had been a letdown. I went hoping to be inspired. I went to finally be able to talk with the design professionals that were out there doing really amazing work and making a difference. I went so I would be so jacked when I got back to my school, that I would demand nothing less than greatness from myself and those around me. What I got instead was uninspired lecturers talking about uninspiring topics. I saw designers that seemed willing to spend their lives styling curved pieces of plastic that were so uninteresting, so uninspired, so seemingly designed in Alias, that their impact was questionable. How is it possible that in the Northeast where there is so much design talent, where we have NYC, Boston, Philly; where we have companies like IDEO, Antenna, or anyone featured on Core77, we get treated to such backward thinking? The lone hope was keynote speaker Cameron Sinclair, a young architect who outside of his regular job runs Architecture for Humanity. But I could only see him in short spurts. Why? Because someone decided to schedule the KEYNOTE SPEAKER during the internship interviews. What I got to listen to instead was professional designers telling my friends and I in interviews that we were showing TOO MUCH THINKING BEHIND OUR DESIGNS. Do you know what the title of Cameron Sinclair’s speech was? DESIGN LIKE YOU GIVE A DAMN. ARE YOU SERIOUS? Perhaps I should start and finish a project by doing a pile of sketches, move directly into Alias to produce the final WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT WHY I’M DESIGNING THIS? So move back to me sitting though the futurist explaining the generations. Here is what he says about Generation X and the generation after us. (Most likely everyone that is reading this right now falls in these two.) : (I’m paraphrasing but here is the jist.) X’ers and Baby Wavers need to be constantly stimulated. / They want to be happy at all times. The minute something isn’t fun they question why they are doing it. / They are loyal as long as you produce something they like. Baby Wavers are even worse: They can actually sense before hand whether something will be fun or not and choose not to take part. / They love to learn and want to learn all the time. They expect to be continuously learning. / They are pessimistically optimistic. / They don’t know exactly what they want. Take for example a Baby Waver. They don’t have a stance on any issue. If you ask them what they want they will stare at you blankly and say I don’t know. “What is the American Dream?” “I don’t know.” All they want to do is eat a bag of Doritos and play Xbox. The situation doesn’t seem to be improving either. You managers out there will have to find ways of dealing with this mindset. (Then he sends me over the edge.) I fear for the future. The question and answer session comes. I am thoroughly annoyed. I raise my hand and ask him: “Do you think ‘Baby Wavers’ may not know what the American Dream is and only want to eat Doritos and play Xbox because THEY ARE ONLY 14 YEARS OLD?” He smiles at me and says (again, I’m paraphrasing): Well, I see that you mean does age play a factor in these characteristics? No, I think they will always be like this. That was it. My friends and I couldn’t take anymore. A few of us were questioning Industrial Design as a profession. We decided to leave as soon as the Merit Awards presentations were over. Thank GOD for the Merit Awards. If you don’t know what they are, basically the senior that is seen most worthy to represent each school is sent to the conference to present their work in front of the audience. Let me tell you now, the kids are alright. There was obvious thought and love poured into their work. The students’ intelligence and wit clearly showed. Specifically Ryan Bednar from Syracuse, Chuck Cerankosky from RIT, and the students from Pratt And Philadelphia U. all impressed me. (I’m sorry I don’t have the names of the students from Pratt and Philly. If you email me I’ll put them up.) It was a breath of fresh air after sitting though garbage for 2 days. These weren’t some completely foo-foo-art-student-what-If-pie-in-the-sky projects. These weren’t projects that were overly idealistic or against “the man” or capitalism. These were well thought out, much labored over, future products and ideas that CAN be implemented. So you know what? The futurist was not so wrong after all. Our generation WILL NOT do anything unless it makes us happy. We WILL question why we are doing something. We do LOVE TO LEARN. (What exactly is wrong with wanting to learn???) I am a powder keg waiting to explode not out of anger, but because of the OPPORTUNITY that is at hand. The students of today have shown me their love of design and their eagerness to want to affect the world in a positive way. We are looking to our predecessors and fellow peers to help show us the way. The need is for an event that addresses these issues. Leave your calendars open for April of next year to make a trip to Rochester, NY. We will be holding a conference of our own. A conference where we challenge ourselves, our generation, anyone who designs like they give a damn to come and take part in the discussion to improve. This conference will be student-centered with professionals, who are out in the world doing amazing and inspired work, there to help guide, share what they have learned, and discuss what is on their minds. If you are interested in taking part, please e-mail me: lehman@mac.com. |
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