In May, I and two other graduate students from Iowa State University went to a UCDA conference in South Dakota and gave a panel discussion.  Our panel topic was on the "Exploration of a New Design Education Model: Designer as a Content-Identifier in a Diverse Cultural and Social Space."  The other graduates that came along on the trip were Calee Himes and Brittany Thompson.  We were the only panel discussion at the event.  Below is our abstract for the conference. 

The conference was fantastic and eye opening.  We were able to meet with many other design educators and learn about their methods for reaching students through new methods and new projects. I received a lot advice about teaching from current teachers and some that were wanting to be done with teaching.  We went out to dinner with almost everyone that attended the event and we were all able to talk on a more personal level.  I feel this allowed me to learn more about teaching from them because they seemed to feel more open in the setting of the restaurant then at the conference.  The advice was more about how to work with the other instructors and the college and less about the students. 

This made me think about how instructors may be more worried about who they are working with and less about the students they are working for.  I wonder then if there is a issue that could be resolved here to make student's experience better. I feel as though I have not seen this issue at ISU, but I have seen issues at other colleges I attend.  All of this is a tangent thought, but maybe one to return to at a later time. 

I am very lucky to have such generous and caring professors at Iowa State University.  It was probably the spring semester when I went into my professor's office to talk to him about a something.  I do not remember what it was I went in to speak with him about but it turned out to be a lucky day for me.  While I was in his office I noticed the beautiful poster you see above laying on the floor.  

I was getting ready to leave and I mentioned to him that I loved that poster series he had been involved in and that I thought they were gorgeous. He said to me "you can have that." I was in shock.  I didn't mean in the slightest that I wanted him to give it to me.  It was meant as more of a passing by comment.  Still I was so thrilled. 

The thing about me is I love, love, love posters.  Always have.  I have had a few major dreams in my life.  Become a graphic design instructor = #1. Become a famous poster designer = #2.  Design beer bottle labels, boxes, and caps = #3. 

Part of dream number two, is that it creates this love of posters everywhere.  I am picky though.  I don't just collect any posters.  They have to be perfect, like this one.  They are usually strange, unique, and have a story.  I also fall head over heels when they are limited edition.  It is such a strange feeling when these posters and I connect.  I can feel the passion in my chest begin to rise and I know that the poster I am looking at needs to come home with me.

This particular poster, when I first saw the series online, I felt this feeling, but knew it would be a pipe dream to own one.  It is one of those dreams where you imagine you own it because imagining it just as good as actually owning one, because you know you will not get the chance.  It is better to have imagined and find yourself happy then to pine over something that has a low probability of ever happening. 

If you can find out more about the series by visiting Brian Wiley's portfolio site at http://brianwiley.net/post/31833660453.  ENJOY! I know I am!

The Nevada project is coming along nicely.  I have recently signed up for more work with the Iowa Architecture Foundation. I have been scheduling conference rooms and creating a presentation power point to show clients and coordinating with the other designers to get files for the presentation.  I kind of came out of my bubble during the last meeting and helped direct the flow of conversation.  I think this helped because the original meeting was going to be 4 hours and I was able to cut it down to 2.  Efficient = me. 

The images above are examples of the proposed renovations for my block in the city of Nevada.  I have created a block street scape that shows my building renovations in relations to the proposed street scape models we showed the city during the last meeting.  

I have enjoyed working with IAF this summer and I am also looking forward to our final presentation to see whether the project was a success or not.  I hope to follow up with Nevada in three years when the renovations may begin to be implemented, just to see it the changes in real life and not just suggestions on the computer.  When that happens I will gladly update this blog to show before and afters of what volunteers can accomplish with helping a city with updating their look to help their economy. 

For work at Engineering LAS Online Learning, I am sometimes asked to create flyers to promote new courses or courses that are needing higher enrollment.  Today, I was asked to design a flier for CPR E 522 X XE.  The XE is the section and means that the course is offered online. 

I did a little research on the pieces of the description that is listed with the course and a lot of the imagery I found online showed radio signal lines and interruptions of data or complex data charts.  After looking at imagery to better understand the subject I decided that it would be cool to design a poster that was abstract, colorful, and showed abstractly the movement of data and data being interrupted and bouncing off of objects.  I believe the typography could use a little more work, because to me it looks too flat, but considering I only had a few hours to come up with the design, I am fairly proud of the design.  

One of requests for the flyer was that it would look good if students opened the email on their phones.  I have included a image in the slideshow above that shows what the message looks like on a phone.  

If you are interested in the links that are included with the email, you can visit the course page at http://courses.elo.iastate.edu/CPR%20E/522X/XE/2015/fall/overview