Weekend of Design

This past weekend I attended 3 local design events--two here at the MU Design lab & one at Penn State Harrisburg.

Thursday I went to Stefan Sagmeister's lecture at Penn State Harrisburg.  He talked a lot less about his designs then I had expected, discussing mostly the psychology of happiness, leading up to a little plug about his film The Happy Film, which was largely filmed during his one year hiatus from his firm's work.  (His firm famously takes a yearlong hiatus once every seven years to avoid exhaustion.)  The film itself did include some nifty experimental typography for the titles.  You can check them out here.

Sagmeister did talk later a little into his designs, mostly his exhibit The Happy Show, which was exhibited in the area last year at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

But the main takeaway for me was his advice on remaining happy & unbored in design.  His eight key points included...

Thinking about ideas & content freely--with deadlines far away

Traveling to new places

Using a wide variety of tools & techniques

Working on projects that matter to you

Having things come back from the printer well done

Getting feedback from people who have seen your work

Designing a project that feels partly brand new & partly familiar

Working without interruption on a single project--losing yourself in it 

Friday our local Central PA AIGA president Joshua Buckwalter stopped by the MU design lab to give a talk on user experience design.  Buckwalter previously worked for Harrisburg design firm andCulture & now works as creative director for Elizabethtown's Inovāt.  I found his case studies to be very informative & telling of how much research goes into a good user experience.  I was surprised how much research & interviewing was actually done within the company--from description cards to a scale of formality--to ensure they got a website that accurately portrayed the company, followed by the usual wireframes, moodboards, & mock-ups.  Overall, Buckwalter's presentation was an interesting & practical extension of what was discussed in the precursor of this course, Intro to Experience & Interactive Design.


Saturday some of MU Design's recent alumni returned to the lab to talk about their post grad experiences & to give some advice to us still in school.  The alumni had lots of helpful tips on interviews, internships, networking, & finding the company that fits you.