As The Page Turns:

I was tired of such a nice camera going to waste, sitting under a pile of art supplies in storage. The weather was amazing (a few weeks ago) and here is what came of it.

Fall Break was actually only an additional day "off". I took off work Friday, and here is what I did with it:
1) Made Beth Bolinger's famous cookies.
2) Made a fort
3) Slept in Saturday afternoon

Nick's old roommate left him for a woman. Go figure. 


Congrats to the happy couple!

In my painting 1 class I'm working on a piece inspired by things seen at the greenhouse. I had never been to our campus greenhouse until we went as a class last week. Disappointed by camera and screen of my phone, my prof and I agreed another trip would be necessary for representing colors accurately. I made it a play date with my best friend and made the best of it. Awful, I know... having to be at the closest thing Muncie has to a tropical environment. Clearly we didn't have any fun at all. (Sarcastically)

Dale Herigstad was a guest speaker tonight at Ball State. The ball room was packed with eager minds like sponges absorbing the flood of information. I missed the first half-an-hour or so because Nick and I have ballroom dance lessons until 8, but for the remaining time I made the most of what I could.

Somethings found interesting to most people can be navigated on his website found here. Along with concepts which piggyback off modern development, such as Xbox's Kinect, Herigstad introduced the mind blowing Sony Ericson Timescape. His point was to encourage young designers to assist him in a challenge which promotes the concept of dimension and to push the elements of "gestural" based technology. Also, Herigstad encouraged these developments for advanced organization and the overall improvement of functional society. 

A video of a virtual 3-D organization/media based concept caught many off guard, including myself. The concept displayed in first person view demonstrated elements from label projection onto exterior cabinetry to accessible directions with voice commands when preparing a cup of hot tea. Feature controls allowed the first person user to filter the amount of incoming information from different ends of the spectrum and everything in-between giving usability nearly infinite reign. A student posed questions of possible surrounding fear to Herigstad who responded with reflection on internal debates which full circled back to the pro's outweighed the cons if constructed properly and cautiously. "The baby steps of technology are the glue in constructing the big picture. Every advancement is necessary no matter the magnitude" (paraphrasing Herigstad).

After the speech, I was more than disappointed by the number of students eagerly dismissing themselves. There was practically no effort on my part to reach Dale and spend 5 minutes with him. (If you get the chance, you'll find him more than friendly, positive, and very informative.) As a student with a future in design, I commented on personal struggle in landing a solid internship and the feeling of being overwhelmed by the numbers (including financial) when considering grad school. His response was enthusiastic about Ball State's VisComm program (kudos!) and encouraged me to keep focused on building my resume and portfolio in a well rounded manner rather than a special emphasis on any one (design) program. Although it has been my primary goal during my undergrad, it was reassuring to have my efforts confirmed by a leader among the professionals of today's design world.  


What an exciting night tonight became!