Hasta La Ideas

It must be utterly terrifying to be a student in architecture school right now — as opposed to the comfortably-mild terror the rest of us out here in the real world are experiencing. With Frank Gehry losing projects and Norman Foster‘s mass layoffs, to Scotland-based schools telling students to scram, or to the AIA‘s regular troubling reports, going to class every day and spending thousands upon thousands of dollars to be there as you inch forward every day toward a job that won’t be waiting for you has to be a pretty lousy feeling. But that’s just our theory. For the truth, we turn to the Guardian‘s Steve Rose, who put together this great piece wherein he talked to students at the Manchester School of Architecture, Norman Foster’s alma mater. Is it as bleak as we painted it? Unfortunately, yes. Granted, there’s always a lot of that post-university “What am I going to do?!” angst among people of schooling age, but reading through the students comments about what they’re finding out there makes it seem like getting a degree in architecture is a bit like getting a BFA in interpretive dance. Fortunately, before we’re all ready to jump out a window, Rose ends the piece with some optimistic notes, saying the tough will carry on through these trying economic times and firms will replace higher paid architects with fresh faced, cheaper labor — this, of course, isn’t much consolation for anyone (particularly those higher paid architects), but still, it’s nice to try and imagine a silver lining.

On Design Observer today, William Drenttel posted a piece reflecting on his visit to Alabama, with intersections with H.E.R.O. (Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization), Project M, Americorps, and some other good folks. (Project M will be coming to Winterhouse this summer; I will be lucky enough to be a guest critic.) The piece is reflective with just a teaspoonful of the critical, and has great links throughout. Here’s a taste:

Hale County is ripe to become a national center for design research into rural poverty. It is uniquely positioned, given the convergence of design disciplines already in place there, the consequence of these initial efforts by architects and designers who have already established deep roots in the local communities. To be fair, conflicts may well arise: so many designers working in one zone will raise questions of identity and turf; local communities may be confused by an unexplained and sudden influx of do-gooders; new work inherently raises political issues about existing racial and political structures; and the current focus on housing and architecture does not expand design input to other potentially critical needs in the realm of healthcare, education or social services.

Read the whole post here.

(more…)

Valerie Casey reminded me to reread Paul Hawken’s commencement address given at the University of Portland on May 3rd. It is impossible to pick the best sections here; the speech builds upon itself in the most beautiful way, and seems blasphemous to pick out any one or two paragraphs to paste right here.

Get inspired. Read the speech now.

(more…)

Looking to update your skills a bit or figure out how to wrap your brain around some certain concept you’ve been longing to get locked down? Our friends over at one of our sister sites, Graphics.com, have just celebrated their first anniversary of their service wherein you can learn all sorts of tricks of the design trade via on demand videos created by industry pros like Steven Brower and Angela Riechers. If you’re unfamiliar with it, each week a batch of new videos pop up, ranging from the how-to tutorial type to the more “here’s some things to think about to help your career” variety. They’re like quickie master classes, where you can pick up some useful bits of knowledge for use sometime in the future. Here’s a description of one of their newest courses taught by none other than Jonathan Gouthier (a brief sample has also been posted, if you’d like to get a taste of what’s there):

Branding expert Jonathan Gouthier knows the value of simple design solutions. With the help of some striking examples, he illustrates how color, white space, specialty printing techniques, and typography can be used to create simple design work that also makes an impact. In addition, Jonathan reveals the brainstorming strategies he uses in his practice to come up with concepts that lead to an effective final product.

Want to add InDesign to the list of skills on your resume (after “Adobe Illustrator” and “British accent,” and before “shuffleboard”)? What are you doing on the weekend of July 18? That’s when the mediabistro.com mothership is hosting “InDesign for Designers,” a class in New York City for Mac-based designers ready to make the switch to Adobe’s page-layout flagship. Art director and graphic designer Patricia Ryan will guide you through InDesign’s myriad features and capabilities to get you up and running quickly. And by the end of the weekend, you’ll be able to lay down an Inner Glow, an Outer Glow, and a Drop Shadow with the best of them. Click here to learn more and register.