The First Piece of Advice for Design Students
Buy a Camera
If you’re not serious about documenting your work from the get-go, don’t even go to school. Hell, don’t even read this feature. Okay, you can read this feature, but then go buy a camera. A good one. You know, with f-stops and everything.Seriously, you’re spending like $75,000 on this education; surely you can spring another $600 to keep a record of it. Do your research here: dpreview.com
Core Reccomends:
Compact: Canon PowerShot SD1000 (Digital IXUS 70) Digital SLR: Nikon D40X or drop more cash on the Canon EOS 40D Daddy’s rich: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
5 Ways to Sound Smarter in a Crit
What comes out of your mouth is sometimes as important as what you tack up on the wall, so when presenting design work in class, you wanna make sure your patter raises your game. Try these 5 phrases to start you off when you’re in a crit. They’ll make you sound smart, and if you can pull them off, they just may just help you think bigger about your ideas. But be careful not to go too far; there’s a pretty clear line between balls and bullshit.
Phrase #1
Just enough: “This design is all about scale…” (You can’t ever go wrong with that one.)Too much: “This design is all about scale, from the micro to the macro, from the human condition to the expansion of the cosmos. Design is about infinite possibility, and at this stage in my education, I consider myself limitless in creativity and ambition…”
Phrase #2
Just enough: “What I’m showing here blurs the line a bit between form and content…”Too much: “What I’m showing here blurs the line a bit between form and content, teasing out the possibilities between what is and what might be. I think we can all agree that a true articulation of a design requires both the storytelling and, well, the actual book itself…so let me read you my book…”
Phrase #3
Just enough: “I tried to break the problem down into its most elemental parts…”Too much: “I tried to break the problem down into its most elemental parts, and that the further I went, the more it became clear to me that at the end of the continuum—’cause that’s what it turned out to be, actually—at the end of the continuum, what we’re really talking about right there is ‘the user.’ So I started with the user…”
Phrase #4
Just enough: “The thing that I had the hardest time with was trying to make this assignment personal…”Too much: “The thing that I had the hardest time with was trying to make this assignment personal. Without sounding narcissistic or self-absorbed…wait, are those the same thing?…well, without sounding like that, I really wanted to design something that made ME happy; something that I’D want to buy. And I have to say straight-out: I’d want to buy THIS…”
Phrase #5
Just enough: “Well, let me go on record that I have conflicted feelings about this work, but that at base, I really feel that these are studies. And as studies, they are more discursive than demonstrative…”Too much: Actually, that last one IS to much, but it’s a great test. If they don’t cry B.S. after #5 comes out of your mouth, you’re pretty much ready to graduate. Congrats!
*BONUS* Patty
When all else fails, you can always go with “I’ve taken my cues here from both nanotechnology and biomimicry…” or the ever-popular, “…and of course, it’s totally wireless.”
Classmate Designertypes
(and what you can learn from them)
Look around the studio. Who do you see?
Let’s examine the classic classmate designertypes shown above, starting from the left: 
“The Chosen One”
Surely you recognize your token class overachiever. Well, he’s actually hard working and super talented and you just call him an overachiever because it’s nearly unbearable how freakin’ flawless he is. His concepts, drawing skills, models, and presentations are top drawer without fail, and besides academics, he’s impeccably dressed, has the coolest new music you haven’t heard yet blasting on his iPod, and of course, the fashion chicks love him. Yes, it’s easy to hate on someone who makes life look so easy, but remember that you are who you hang out with and you might be able to learn a thing or two from Mr. Perfect. 
View more Classmate Designertypes
1000 Words of Advice for Design Students
Here are 64 of them:
“We work for you, not the other way around. Teachers have an annoying habit of setting up the power dynamic to make you feel like they’re in charge. I hate to roll out the ‘you are consumers of an educational product’ argument, but the reality is that teachers, administrators, librarians and deans are all there in the first place because you decided to attend.”
Read the other 936 words here.
—from All You Ever Needed to Know You Learned in…1000 words of advice for design students, by Allan Chochinov.
Lurking here as a teacher? Maybe consider reading 1000 Words of Advice for Design Teachers. Here’s a (bitter) taste:
“Watch their faces. Teachers have their fingers on two sets of dials: One set for each of the students (see above); another—the Masters—for the class as a whole. You’ve gotta be attenuating one while monitoring reverberations through the other. A class is a dynamic system changing minute-to-minute, depending on time of day, empty stomachs, the sun outside. And the VU meters for this system? Your students’ faces. Read them and you’ll know how you’re doing. (Tip: Stop talking long enough to do that.)”
When You Have Style Block
It happens to the best of us. Style block. Is it gonna be a blobject? Or maybe something geomtric-y…agh! Pages and pages of sketches later, you might find yourself tempted to grab a 40 oz. to get those creative juices flowing, but we’re suggesting a slightly more proactive approach here. After 30+ years of spitting out universally-loved products, Apple continues to innovate and evolve, and you can too. If you’re in the mood to flip through pages, check out Steven Heller and Louise Fili’s Stylepedia, a comprehensive and deliciously visual time line of designers, schools, and movements that have impacted the creative industry up to this very day.
Make Your Product Shots Look Awesome Tip
#1: Build a Light Tent
Ever wonder how those product photography shots in the magazines end up so luminous and gorgeous? Two words: Light Tent. Put your models in one of those, place some lights on the outside, and click your way to moneyshot heaven. You could buy one for sure, but it’s better to make your own. Make a bigger one and share it with your studiomates!
Make Your Product Shots LookAwesome
Tip #2: The 3 Essential Photoshop Tricks
Threre are more Photoshop tutorials out there than you can throw a lasso at, but for our money, there are three Photoshop tricks that will turn your dull, generic digital photo from drab to fab (and the first one’s not even a trick.)
STEP 1: CROP TIGHTER
There is nothing more boring than a picture of a design in the middle of a gray background. Don’t do that. Instead, consider a tighter crop of the object, maybe bleeding it off the edge of the frame.
STEP 2: USE THE SHADOW/HIGHLIGHT FILTER
Many people go up to the “Image” menu in Photoshop and try to optimize using the “Brightness/Contrast” and “Hue/Saturation” tools. But for our money, the most startlingly useful—and underused—filter is the “Shadow/Highlight” filter. Set it at 25 and hit OK. Then do it again and see if it’s even better. If not, back it off with undo. Easy.
STEP 3: TRIM THE ENDS IN LEVELS
There is an encyclopedia to be written about how to master Levels, but a quick way to get big results is to simply “trim the ends” on the histogram. If you’ve got flat lines on the left and right, move the two outer arrows in toward the center. The darks will get richer, the lights will get brighter, and it will take you about 2 seconds. Play with the middle arrow if you like, but really, you could save-for-web right about now.
Design Research: Practice Noticing Stuff and Telling Stories
By Steve Portigal
To be a better design researcher, hone your ability to observe the world around you. Keep a regular log that you add to at least weekly (daily would be ideal). Document the strange, the curious, the weird, the awesome and the funny. Learn to keep a close eye on the artifacts, signs, designs, behaviors, products and experiences that you encounter in your everyday life. Put your observations on the Internet. Maybe no one will see them, but the discipline of taking your observations out of your own head and publishing them in a sharable form will force you into telling a story. As much as design research is about observing others, there’s something very personal about how and what we see, and developing that voice will serve you well. Collect stories and retell them in your own way, emphasizing the perspective you want others to take away.
As much as design research is about observing others, there’s something very personal about how and what we see, and developing that voice will serve you well. Collect stories and retell them in your own way, emphasizing the perspective you want others to take away.
Your log doesn’t need to be conclusive, you just need to be observant and tell people what you think, wonder, or imagine. Learn to hear yourself feeling “Hmm—that’s interesting!” and then share the interesting thing, being sure to articulate what it is about it that’s interesting. Don’t worry about fixing it (if it needs fixing), just notice and tell a quick story in your own voice. Be funny, sarcastic, critical, or outraged as appropriate. Continue reading Design Research: Practice Noticing Stuff and Telling Stories by Steve Portigal
DIY Air Horn
Opting for a nap on the blue foam-dusted studio floor, becoming distracted by the latest ID couples romance gossip, falling asleep during the Craft Movement segment in History of Design: these are all unacceptable behaviors that hinder the potential excellence to be achieved by the end of the semester! Take 5 minutes out to fashion a DIY Air Horn, should anyone, at any time, become distracted from what could be the most incredible balsa-foam model of a touch-screen cellphone in the history of sophomore year.
Check Out What Other Schools are Producing
It’s all well and good that you got into your school and are studying away, but it might be a smart idea to see what’s out there in the competitive landscape. Check out work at other design schools using our Portfolio TagMap, which displays Coroflot portfolios from designers and students affiliated with each school. Like what you see? You’re in the right place. Don’t? Well, that drop/add deadline is only 2 weeks away.
Set Your Phone to Vibrate
Best Teacher Prank We Wish We Tried
There’s a great prank out there where students are able to control where an instructor stands in the classroom. Here’s how it works: If you’ve got a teacher who likes to pace back and forth while lecturing, coordinate with the class ahead of time that everyone will pay rapt attention when the teacher is on the left side of the room, but will drift their attention (looking at their notes, checking their watch, etc.) while the teacher’s on the right side of the room. In no time, you’ll have the teacher pinned in the corner, and they won’t know why. (Thanks to bickytortor for the hack.)
Build Your Desk Out of Cardboard for Free
Everyone’s favorite DIY project, FedExFurniture.com, is offline right now, but you can still see some pics here. These kind of things can be surprisingly sturdy, and if you do most of your heavy construction in the studio—more fun and inspiring than working alone in your room—you won’t need much structure anyway. Just a place to put your electric sandwich press on. Loser.
(If you can’t improvise and want something fancier, you can try foldschool.)
Make Dinner from Practically Nothing
Pizza and macaroni-and-cheese may get you through sophomore year, but at some point you have to grow up a bit and look after that body you’ve been dragging around the campus. There are lots of 10-minute recipe sites around, but our fave is a quick page on how to make dinner from practically nothing. Sound enticing? It oughta. The presumption here is that you have 4 things stocked in your kitchen, which we’re betting you do: Onions, Pasta, Cheese, Canned foods (tomatoes, beans, tuna, etc.), and Frozen vegetables (spinach, broccoli, peas, etc.).
Wait, this actually kinda sounds a lot like pizza and macaroni-and cheese! Well, you’re sure to love it then!
Small Spaces Guide
Shoulder-to-shoulder living is a given if you’re in college, but you mustn’t succumb to interior design fouls like using the floor as a closet or your pillow as a place mat. And please take those Natty Ice posters down. You can keep the X-mas lights as long as they’re tastefully strung (a.k.a. not in a tangled pile on the floor).
When it comes to cramped quarters, Apartment Therapy really knows what’s up. Naturally, they’ve got some great tips for maximizing a modest abode, and if you’re feeling cabin feverish, remind yourself of the reasons why small spaces are better than big ones. Also check out their Smallest Coolest Apartments 2007 winners. Oh, and if you jerry-rigged some cable, watch Small Space, Big Style on HGTV to get inspired. (Great excuse to veg out!)
Witness the awesomeness that is IKEA Hacker
We know you’re getting most of your furniture from IKEA anyway, but out-of-the-box is for buffers. Designers need to get their hands dirty with even the cleanest Swedish goods, and luckily, there’s just the place for you on the web: ikeahacker. This site is chock full of amazing mods to existing IKEAware, including handy tips on painting difficult surfaces and other construction tricks. Favorites for hack2school are the super-swanky little umbrellas, big light, and the full-on didier’s living structure, but you can find just about anything here. So as smart as IKEA stuff already is, now you can make it even smarter.
Bubble Scrubber
For the love of hygiene, keep your end of the dishwashing bargain and have a little fun to boot. Before your next turn to scour rolls around, invest in a Bubble Scrubber. Let’s hope your scumbag roommate’s as into it as you are.
Dorm Drop-Off: Making a Nightmare into a Dream
By Steven Heller
The annual running of the bulls in Pamplona is a cakewalk compared to moving into any urban campus college dorm. Despite the best intentioned systems configured for effortless access, the fact that scores of new freshman—jumpy about their entirely new surround—and their anxious parents—agitated about their empty nests—converge at the same time and place with a few elevators and limited parking is a blueprint for meltdown or worse.
Although in real time this annual ritual quickly comes and goes, when one is in its throes it feels like forever. Hence, the potential for intense and intestinal distress exponentially increases, particularly as parental memories of the first step, first bite of solid food, first day of school, and first college tuition payment come flooding in. Oh, the humanity!
Students who follow this method will doubtless feel superior to other students who do not have a system. Parents who encourage this method will doubtless feel less stressed and far superior to other parents who are scrambling for wheeled bins after their assigned parking times have expired.
In anticipation of this dreaded day when, in my case, my only male heir leaves his only family for his new home, I have drawn on my decades of acquired design know-how—lessons learned at the feet of some great modernists whose utopian mission was to make the world a better place—to offer a solution to the proverbial problem. Indeed what is good design if it can’t help ease the stress and strain of daily life?
So to reduce the pain of this rite of passage, I designed the following strategic steps for getting through this nightmare without the usual angst or remorse.
Continue reading Dorm Drop-Off: Making a Nightmare into a Dream by Steven Heller.
Cool Points on the Cheap with Readymech
Everyone loves an urban tchotchke. They add real personal flair to any living space, as microscopic as yours may be. If you can’t afford those crazy popular vinyl toys and such, just print and fold your own for free! (Well, besides the menial cost of paper and printer ink, but that’s in your budget right?) Readymechs, designed by graphic design group FWIS, are flat pack toys that can be printed out on 8.5″ x 11″ sheets of paper to be cut out and assembled by you. There are 22 in all so if your room’s looking pizzaz-less, this is a no-fail way to jazz it up. (Also a nice little warm-up before the real model-making mayhem begins!)
DIY Dixie Cup Spherical Dodecahedron Lamp Shade
Here we have a true example of “design within reach.” No, not the store that has all sorts of stuff that costs as much as your education. We’re talking about the Dixie Cup Spherical Dodecahedron Lamp Shade, an affordable luxury lighting hack that looks as snazzy as it is easy to make. If you long for a designer dorm room, whip up one, two, or five of these for some instant chic! If you’re feeling extra granola, comb the campus for used cups strewn about…but it might take you a while to find enough cups—maybe after you graduate?
T-Shirt Folder
If your folks are coming for a “surprise visit” (your sister tipped you off), you might want to straighten up a little. Wanna really impress them? Have all your t-shirts folded perfectly in your closet with this DIY shirt folder. Too much construction? Try this old favorite.
Do Your Laundry in the Shower
We’re not endorsing this or recommending it, but one of the most infamous hacks we’ve ever heard of is students laundering their sheets on the floor of the stall while taking a shower—just moving their feet around to agitate, soap, and rinse. Now, this seems more sad than ingenious (although pretty darn ingenious), but if you want the recipe, look here. And if you want a video on a variation—this one wearing your dirty clothes—click above. Yikes.
Get Cork Out of Bottle
As hacks go, this one is all show, but for those rare occasions when you accidentally finish a bottle of wine and then accidentally push the cork back into the bottle while it’s empty and accidentally have YouTube open in your browser, well then, knock yourself out. Cool though.
Wake the ***k Up!
9 A.M. studio class? No? Oh, Art History!?! Hope you like coffee.
Honestly, the best thing you can do is wake up early so you have enough time to at least grab a bite, spray air freshener on your pants, get your stuff together, and shake off the morning grogginess—all without being late. This means no snoozing!
If getting up in the morning feels like medieval torture to you, then you should consider some serious clock choices that will irritate you awake, but still look cool on the night stand. If you wait too long, Clocky jumps from any surface as high as 2 feet and hides from you while making really annoying beeping noises. For all you MacGyver types, the Danger Bomb clock will scare you the frack awake with explosion sounds and can only be turned off by “disarming” it with the right code.
…and there’s always training to wake up without an alarm clock. Good luck with that.
Designer Dorm Prank
Just one prank to show here, but one is all we need. The lesson is that if you’re going to do it, you gotta go all the way. And while we appreciate the classic nature of the prank above, the image below, courtesy of Sagmeister Inc., reminds us of why we went into design in the first place.
Presentation : The Next Generation
Today’s ready-to-use and free online tools like blogs and photo and video sharing sites make presentation boards look totally played out. Added bonus: your clumsy roommate’s orange soda can’t stain in cyberspace. Whether you’re sharing a hot concept or just some good ol’ classroom antics, tell your story proper and show every nitty-gritty detail in a well documented blog. Set one up in no time using Blogger, WordPress, or Tumblr to document the research, process, and final outcome of independent, group, and class projects and activities. Archive photos and set up handy slideshow presentations using Flickr and mesmerize the masses by sharing ID-centric videos on Youtube. The best part is you can embed it all back in your blog. Divulge. Upload. Get to it!
How to Work the Design Blogosphere: Design Blog Editors Teach You How to Get Your Shit Published Online
“Dear Core”? “Dear Core Editor”? “Hey Core, I love you and I’m wondering if you’ll publish my…”? What are the Do’s and Don’t’s of sending your stuff in to design blogs? We asked the editors of 8 top design blogs for their advice. Most common advice?: No PDFs, and send a thank you note if they publish you. Here are some highlights from each editor. Read the full text of their sage advice here.
Tina Roth Eisenberg, Editor, swissmiss:
Prepare a potential ‘post’. Chances of your suggestion being considered raise tremendously if you prepare a possible post about your suggested product/design/link. The blogger can then take that writeup as a starting point for a post. Do NOT send Microsoft Word documents, or PDFs. Everything should be in your email, ready for ‘copy and paste’.
Heather Ann Snodgrass, Editor, JoshSpear:
Be nice. Make an effort to illustrate that you actually know the site and you’re not so obviously spamming a bunch of different people at the same time—and, if you’re going to do that, please learn to BCC your addresses. Be succinct, to the point and follow up a few days later if there’s no bites. Just because someone doesn’t respond doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t run something…but don’t repeatedly email back if there’s no interest after a week or so. That’s annoying. You know what else is annoying? TYPOS. Maybe that’s just the editor in me, but please at least use a spellcheck before you send out your stuff.
Josh Rubin, Editor, CoolHunting:
Offer exclusives. Send us something first and tell us you’re doing so. Give us a chance to post or decline before moving on to the next site on your list. If you’ve been published already, tell us where and send us links.
Grace Bonney, Editor, DesignSponge:
Don’t be afraid to ask for advice or for an editor to suggest additional sites to contact if your work isn’t right for their blog. I really enjoy passing artists that aren’t quite right for D*S onto other great blogs in the field that are more appropriate.
Harry Wakefield, Editor, MoCoLoco:
Get a website (I often recommend Coroflot, Blogger and Flickr—all free); Make sure your website has all your contact info, including a phone number (so Target, the NYTimes or Surface can speak to you directly)
Régine Debatty, Editor, We-make-money-not-art:
Design is design is design, right? Not necessarily. I write mostly about art, and sometimes about critical design and interaction design. So please target the blogs; don’t send an email detailing your fantastic beige sofa concept to someone who only blogs about interaction design.
Jean Aw, Editor, NOTCOT:
DO make it clear what is a concept and what has gone into production. Half the crazy comments people write will assume that its already in production and that someone much richer than them is buying it. If it is in production and is available for purchase, make sure to link that. After all, you want people buying it, right?
Marcus Fairs, Editor, Dezeen:
Good work will get published no matter what, but there are three things that are important: images, images and images.
How to Get Your Stuff in Stores
The retail limelight isn’t reserved for 30+ year-old established designers. Be smart about it and get in on the action. It’s a great way to get your name out there early and a little “cha-ching” never hurt anyone. If you work on a project that involves furniture, housewares, textiles, or jewelry, remember that stores don’t need to see a diploma to sell your stuff…as long as your design meets the criteria. We asked the owners of three established design stores to list the most crucial points of exactly what it takes for student work to grace their shelves.
Dave Alhadeff, The Future Perfect and A&G Merch
1. It’s all about presentation. Make sure it’s through email and email only. Photos are a must. Include price, minimums, and shipping info. People these days don’t have the time to sit and listen to everyone explain their special widget.2. It’s not just what you have to sell, but who you are selling it. Believe in your design and work hard to make sure everyone knows why it’s so great.
3. For The Future Perfect in particular, we look for fresh, concept-based, un-gimmicky, non-one liner, beautifully perfected pieces with a focus on strong American design. I love hearing from students interested in The Future Perfect because they are the truly new designers.
At A&G Merch, we’re focused on reasonable value with trend-right modern design for affordable and fair prices.
The Future Perfect
115 N6 Street, Brooklyn NY 11211
A&G Merch
111 N6 Street, Brooklyn NY 11211
Jamie Gray, Matter
1. I’m not a green fanatic, but when designing a product one should take into consideration the environment. If a product is disposable it will never see a shelf in my store. If it has the potential to become a design classic or paves the way for one and is well crafted/produced then it meets the first criteria. I won’t sell anything I think might end up in a landfill.2. The packaging of a product should be considered. I don’t like it when I have to remove packaging before selling a product to a customer because it’s ugly or poorly conceived or chosen out of pure laziness. It’s wasteful. Use the least amount of packing possible, but make it count. Packaging can make a huge impression.
3. Don’t try to sell me a half finished product. If it’s still a prototype I’m happy to look at it as a prototype. But when you submit a product for sale it should feel thought through; work out the obvious bugs and put together a price list and line sheet. If you present yourself professionally you’re more likely to get your foot in the door. I look at student work and professional work with the same eyes. If it’s a good design your name doesn’t have to be Zaha Hadid.
Matter
405 Broome Street, New York, NY 10013
and 227 5th Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215
Josèe Lepage, Commissaires
1. The very first key element is the presentation of the work (booklet, catalog, website, packaging, price list, terms and condition etc., etc.). Are you well prepared?2. It’s not just about the work, but also about the personality and confidence of the student.
3. Most importantly, we examine the realization of the product. While it needs to involve a good concept, it doesn’t need to be beautiful or perfect—it just needs that “something extra.” For example, a Freitag bag is not especially beautiful, but it’s a brilliant and well-executed idea.
Commissaires
5226 boul. St-Laurent, Montreal, QC. Canada h2t 1s1
Creative Seeds: What Employers Look For
On the new Coroflot Blog, Creative Seeds, we ask leading designers what they look for in a new hire. Check out the responses from Paul Budnitz, founder of Kidrobot, to get some idea of what you might be looking at. But don’t sweat it; you’ve got a couple years to prepare. Here’s a taste:
Q: What is the single most valuable piece of advice you could give to those on the hunt?
A: I had a candidate come to me, and she said, “I have been bussing tables for the past 12 months because I was waiting for the perfect job. I’m here because I want to work for you more than anything and if I don’t work for you, I’d rather go back to work at the restaurant until something else comes up that’s worth my time.” I hired her almost three years ago and she’s worked her way pretty high up in our company now. My advice is, show up and be genuinely passionate about the job if it’s one you really want. If you’re ambivalent, and you can afford to, wait for the right thing to come along.Continue reading interview with Paul Budnitz.
The Life of the Party: Working Your Net
By Alissa Walker
Right up there with going to class, doing your homework and changing your underwear at least every other day, networking is a skill that’s absolutely critical to your budding career. Networking is the only way for people to associate a personality with your portfolio. It completes your brand experience, if you will. And in your case, it can make the difference between getting blown off and getting a job. Any wanna-be designers with visions of health insurance dancing in their heads would be crazy not to indulge in a little extracurricular mingling with others in the field. Besides—and this is good news for you—the drinks are usually free.
During the upcoming school year many of your peers will attempt to navigate the legendary social circles of their elders. The best of them will get a flurry of Linked In hits, a phone call or two, and possibly something we working folk like to call employment. The worst of them? Well, you’ve already seen them humping the podium after one too many Jagermeister and Red Bulls, tossing business cards at Yves Béhar while mumbling something inappropriate about his hair.
I’m not saying it’s more important to go to the IDEO panel downtown than do your color study homework…but sometimes it’s more important to go to the IDEO panel downtown.
If you already did that last week, don’t worry—at least everyone will remember you. But if you’d prefer to network like a pro, follow these five simple rules. Soon you’ll be the most popular employed designer in town.
Continue reading The Life of the Party: Working Your Net by Alissa Walker.
5 Reasons to Enter Design Competitions While You’re a Student
There’s nothing duller than looking at a student portfolio with nothing in it other than “student work.” So how do you change it up? Well, enter a bunch of design competitions while you’re in school, and you’ll have a more varied mix. But that’s not all. Here are 5 reasons why you should be entering design competitions while you’re still a student:
1. Preparing your entry will force you to create a well-crafted, well-produced “piece”—with great photography and great copy. Which means it’s portfolio-ready.
2.Even if you don’t win, many competitions—especially online ones—publish dozens of notable entries. So you’ll probably get some press from it, which you can screengrab and put in your portfolio next to the entry spreads.
3. It’s not schoolwork. Many design competitions have themes that are ambitious, progressive, and challenging, so entering them will give you a great opportunity to spread your creative wings. Especially if you find that a lot of your classwork doesn’t possess these characteristics, go get it across the street.
4. The fact that you enter design competitions sends the message that you’re engaged in the design world beyond school. Which you should be.
5. You may just win. And then that point about printing out press clippings takes things to a whole new level. “I see that you’ve won or been published in 3 magazines and on 5 websites since your Junior year?” Endorsements from judges and editors may get your interviewer to think a little more seriously about you, which is the point, right?
Keep It Classy 2.0
Rover applied for a job at a well-known consulting firm in NYC. His buddy Greg, whose face is cut off in this picture, was being considered for the exact same position. Who acquired the job after all?
Greg.
Despite Rover’s excellent sketching skills, future-forward thinking, and awesome model-making technique, he overlooked the fragility of his presence in public 2.0.
Everyone likes to party, but it’s best to leave the party at the party. You must remember that your profiles on networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, and Youtube are a reflection of who you are and are oftentimes accessible to strangers—this includes prospective employers. DIY background checks are easier than ever to execute, so it’s an excellent idea to polish up your online presence. (Creepy bonus: Get scared here.)
You can take the easy way out by setting everything to private. You can also take advantage of these opportunities to show your best attributes. (Don’t worry, your friends still know you’re a beer-guzzling booze hound on the weekends—you don’t need to advertise it.) Be selective of who you accept as friends and think hard before you post. Let the world know what you’ve accomplished and what inspires you, exposing positive and likable elements of your personal and professional self.
Google Yourself
Yes. Google yourself. Potential employers won’t hesitate to Google you. Be aware of same-namers you don’t want to be confused with. Make mention of unsavory search results having nothing to do with you.
While you’re at it, add some executive flair to your online comms. Set up a professional email address and screen name. catbutt87@hotmail.com is completely unacceptable and we’ll guarantee that prospective bosses and coworkers won’t take chats with beer4me4eva seriously. When in doubt, use your real name or a slight variation.
Design Writing in Three Flavors
by Alice Twemlow
For some of you, the very decision to study design stems from a dislike for, or at least ambivalence toward, writing. And yet, more and more design programs are requiring that students write essays and theses as part of humanities or liberal arts classes—classes that in the end can account for up to a third of a student’s credits. Some students are finding, to their surprise, that when it’s directed toward something they are really interested in—themselves and their work, for example, or the world seen through a design-tinted lens—they are actually pretty good at writing after all.
Some students are finding, to their surprise, that when it’s directed toward something they are really interested in—themselves and their work, for example, or the world seen through a design-tinted lens—they are actually pretty good at writing after all.
The designer who writes is hardly a new phenomenon, however. The tradition extends all the way back to design’s emergence as a discipline. In Carma Gorman’s anthology of writings about industrial design, which spans the years 1851 to 1999, none of the extracts featured are by writers who make their living by writing alone. Some of the pieces are by politicians such as Nixon and Krushchev, or manufacturers such as Henry Ford, but most by far are authored by designers. From Christopher Dresser and William Morris in the late 19th century to Le Corbusier, Eliot Noyes, Dieter Rams and Charles Jencks in the 20th, these designers expressed opinions and theories about their own work and their profession through the medium of writing.
Today, the vehicles for design writing and criticism are more abundant than ever before. As blogs, magazines, academic journals and newspaper column inches devoted to design proliferate, so do the numbers of designers who consider writing a key component of their toolsets. In addition to these publishing venues, there are other initiatives that aim to improve the quality of design writing and enrich design discourse. Among them are the Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing & Criticism, now in its second year and announcing its winners on September 19, and a new clutch of graduate programs in design writing and criticism in the US, Sweden and London.
As designers you can use writing in a multitude of ways. Here are just three:
Continue reading Design Writing in Three Flavors by Alice Twemlow.
Why You Should Start Your Portfolio Now
Most design students start putting their porfolios together at the end of their education—indeed, most schools offer their “porfolio class” during the final semester. Bad idea. What you should do instead is start your portfolio the first semester of your design education. Here’re 2 whys and 2 hows:
Why #1:
Everything you will eventually want to put in your portfolio will be a)lost b)stolen c)broken d)all three. Bottom line: when you’re ready to “put together your portfolio,” you will invariably have nothing to put in it—it’ll all be gone. So it’s a good idea to capture your work as you do it, and put it into a format that can easily be tweaked later.
Why #2:
Internships. Design studios considering interns will be much more impressed with someone who has a book of work to show than someone who “learns fast and is a hard worker.”
How #1:
Take pictures of every single thing you produce—no matter how lame or how useless you think it is. Digital pictures are essentially free, so it’s really your time we’re talking about. And you don’t have a leg to stand on arguing that the 9 hours you spent on your prototype doesn’t merit the 1/60th second to document it. Then, right before the final crit of a project, take photos of the finished design (see light tent). That way, you’ll capture it before it gets busted or fingerprinted to death. Put all these photos into a clearly labeled folder on your computer (or flickr, or blogger, or whatever). Label them really well, ’cause you may need to navigate them in 3 years from now.
How #2:
Hire the best graphic designer you can afford first semester and get them to create a simple, clear, master template that you can simply “populate” with your work. Categories can be project title, description paragraph, glamour shot, process photos, diagrams, etc. When each project is finished, insert all the assets you’ve been gathering into the template, and then move on. Don’t design it (it’s already designed—that’s what you hired out), just populate it. Your book will now be an evolving document that will give you great comfort and hopefully create some great opportunities.
(By the way, we know that nothing we can possibly say here will actually make you follow this advice. But ask any recent grad what they’d do differently and listen to them respond, “I wish I documented my work while I was doing it.” Promise.)
Pimp Your Coroflot
There are many places online to put your design work, but we want you bad. Coroflot is an amazing place to find creative work (the “creative output” kind as well as the “creative paycheck” kind), and with tens of thousands of portfolios and hundreds of design jobs, you’re sure to find what you’re looking for…and be found. Wanna see what’s going on at Coroflot right now? Watch the CoroSpy—a live feed of everything that people are looking at and uploading right this very second.
TED Talks, pop!tech pop!casts
If you should find yourself at a loss for world-changing ideas, know that you’re only a click away. Check out TED Talks and Pop!Tech Pop!Casts to get schooled and inspired by the greatest thinkers sharing their greatest thoughts.
Recommended from Ted Talks:
William McDonough on cradle to cradle design
Janine Benyus shares nature’s designs
Alex Steffen sees a sustainable future
Stefan Sagmeister shares happy design
Edward Burtynsky on manufactured landscapes
Cameron Sinclair on open-source architecture
David Kelley on human-centered design
Recommended from Pop!Tech Pop!Casts:
Brian Eno shows how simple things can give rise to complex things
Ben Saunders explores the frozen Arctic Ocean
Carolyn Porco brings breathtaking images and stories of Saturn
Erin McKean debunks common misconceptions of dictionaries
Theo Jansen blends the line between art and engineering
Blaine Brownell introduces a wonderful world of products made from repurposed materials
OKALA Design Guide
Green is the new black when it comes to student design, but if we see one more “green” bamboo plywood coffee table or “sustainable” mirror made from CDs we’ll vomit…or explode…or maybe even both at the same time. There’s nothing wrong at all with going green—in fact, it’s downright commendable as long as you don’t take the easy way out (CD mirror). It’s no simple feat, but you’re not without help. The iDSA has recently published the Okala (hopi for “life sustaining energy”) Design Guide for 2007, an intro to sustainable design for practicing and beginning designers. Pick the best morsels that inspire you to launch your ecologically responsible concepts with some real substance. Follow through with solid research and a logical application—a sophisticated, well thought-out concept in theory kicks way more ass than a, um, CD mirror.
The 7 Design Books You Must Have on Your Shelf
There are a ton of great design books out there, and it’s near impossible to boil them down to 7, but if you’ve only got the money or the shelf space for a baker’s half-dozen, make them these:
Worldchanging
by Alex Steffen
In the Bubble
by John Thackara
By Design
by Ralph Caplan
The Design of Everyday Things
by Donald Norman
Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step
by Edward De Bono
Cradle to Cradle
by William McDonnough and Michael Braungart
Shaping Things
by Bruce Sterling
Now go fill your shelves: core77.com/resources
Design Sites
Similarly, there are a boatload of design websites out there (and a hot new design blog popping up seemingly every 2 weeks.) We’ve got a great list of design site links at Core77, so start there and then let your mouse take you further afield.
(We know that instead of emailing us all the great sites missing from our list, you’re going to email us asking where you can buy these awesome Monitor Mates. Here they are.)
Design Magazines
Okay. This will be our only iPhone item. Magazines are a great thing to subscribe to, but you can get a lot of them for free. Most colleges have libraries that have shelves full of current issues (and back issues!) that you can just veg out with for hours. Visit at odd times and have the place to yourself, or check out versions on the web—the URL is often just the magazine name+mag. If you’re one of those iFortunate folks with the iCandy, you might want to point your scepter to Texterity Magazines, who have iScreen-ready versions of such favorites as ReadyMade, Craft, Make, I.D., and Popular Science. iStop with the iPuns now.
Want more mags? Check out Core77’s design magazine listings.
Why You Should Write in Your Books.
Or, Talking Back to Aristotle and Loewy
By Ralph Caplan
My freshman year in college I took a philosophy course from a professor who began by announcing that no textbooks would be used in his class. Plenty of books were required, however. “I want you to come out of this course with the beginnings of a good library,” the professor told us, “and textbooks have no place in such a library. Nothing in the world has less value than a used textbook.”
So we were not assigned any books with titles like “Introduction to Philosophy,” or “Foundations of Empirical Thought,” written by scholars whose training and degrees presumably qualified them to interpret what thinkers thought. The books we read were original material, the works of the thinkers themselves: Plato, Aristotle, William James, Bertrand Russell, Albert North Whitehead, Kant, Descartes…
I argued with Plato, mocked Immanuel Kant, challenged the logic of William James, talked back to Aristotle. Of course they couldn’t respond; but given the stupidity and naiveté of some of my comments, that was just as well. And it offered advantages the internet can’t. The satisfaction of online exchange comes at a cost: the dead can’t play. Sure, you can talk to Michael Beirut and Yves Behar. But you can’t reach Raymond Loewy or Norman Bel Geddes in the blogosphere.
The professor’s flattering assumption was that students were smart enough to confront ideas directly. Maybe we were, but this was heady stuff and tough to go through without the organizational crutch of a textbook author. I cannot imagine getting through it at all, had the professor not provided us with a tip: “Make each book your own,” he exhorted, “by annotating and footnoting and indexing it for yourself.”
Continue reading Why you should write in your books. Or, Talking Back to Aristotle and Loewy by Ralph Caplan.
Read Some Manifestos
Manifestos can be limiting, but they can also be inspiring. Start with this one on sustainability:
Hippocratic Before Socratic.
‘First do no harm’ is a good starting point for everyone, but it’s an especially good starting point for designers. For a group of people who pride themselves on “problem solving” and improving people’s lives, we sure have done our fair share of the converse. We have to remember that industrial design equals mass production, and that every move, every decision, every curve we specify is multiplied–sometimes by the thousands and often by the millions. And that every one of those everys has a price. We think that we’re in the artifact business, but we’re not; we’re in the consequence business.”
–from 1000 Words: A Manifesto for Sustainability in Design, by Allan ChochinovWanna be yelled at some more? Read the rest here.
Want more manifestos? Check this.
Think Bigger
Design is part of larger systems—cultural, technological, environmental—you name it. Sometimes it’s hard to get a bird’s eye view of things, but fear not, there are lots of resources. One of the best books for your (new) shelves is Else/Where: Mapping New Cartographies of Networks and Territories, by Janet Abrams and Peter Hall, a wonderful book for smacking you upside the head with a left of scale and a right of context. For your bookmarks bar, there’s infosthetics.com, an amazing blog highlighting some of the best in data visualization.
Spinning Form: How to Tell Stories with Product Design
By Scott Klinker
Photo: Ragnheidur Sigurdardottir Cranbrook Design StudentI have a few friends that are tragic slaves to fashion. But for me, it’s more sad to see how many industrial designers are trained to be slaves to function. While both extremes may be tragic, I’ve always wondered why the fashion designers seem to have all the fun. Why has fashion managed to tell so many stories, and industrial design so few?
Design today is not neutral. It is biased and targeted at specific audiences based on emotional triggers that have a specific form. Don’t be timid about it.
Well that may be changing as more product designers see the value of storytelling as a tool for creating form and delivering new product experiences. ‘Designer as Author’ is an emerging concept in education that seeks to fill this cultural void—where products are not slaves to function, where sometimes Form follows Art, where products can be ideas first and utility second, where new stories lead the market—not follow it, and where design proposals introduce alternative social values into pop culture.
Think you might have that mutant design author gene in your DNA? Then you may need some new tools. Here’s six introductory tips for getting the story into the form.
Play with Words
Wordsmiths have long been able to deliver complex ideas about the human condition with simple emotional stories. Language is the starting point for any design process; words define your goals and often determine the results. Inventive keywords can help you reposition the product to breach new categories. Literature is full of theoretical tools like deconstruction for the designer who learns to play with language to build meaningful forms, intellectual positions, and experiences.Continue reading Spinning Form: How to Tell Stories with Product Design by Scott Klinker.
How To Lead a Sustainable Life as a Design Student
By Jill Fehrenbacher
There’s a torrent of talk in the news these days about ’sustainability.’ And as design students, many of us spend a lot of time thinking about how to make our designs more energy efficient, healthier, and more environmentally sustainable. But amidst this onslaught of talk about sustainable design, one thing that doesn’t often get mentioned is the sustainability of the atmosphere of design school.
I’m currently an architecture grad student, and despite my sincere passion for being in school, I can tell you that I’ve never seen a more unhealthy, more unsustainable environment than that of architecture school. How many people recognize this picture: students routinely spending 10-15 hours per day sitting in one place, glued to flickering computer screens working on 3D renderings, wedged into painfully cramped desks while toxic chemicals are mixed and handled all around them. I’ve often found myself in this exact position: eyes straining, back sore, trying to finish a project at 4am, under flickering fluorescent lights, while someone next to me melts acrylic with a cancer-causing chemical, the person on the other side of me hacking up toxic blue foam with a small saw, and the person behind me snoring in a sleeping bag underneath her desk. If you recognize yourself in this picture„consider this your wake-up call: THIS IS NOT HEALTHY!
Amidst this onslaught of talk about sustainable design, one thing that doesn’t often get mentioned is the sustainability of the atmosphere of design school.
I frequently managed to pull multiple all-nighters in this type of environment, slowly watching more and more lines appear underneath my eyes and grey hairs popping up on my head. Why do we pay tens of thousands of dollars to subject ourselves to this kind of life, when other professional schools seem to have evolved to a more reasonable understanding of a live/work balance? Even medical schools, which used to be famous for torturing their students with grueling hours and unreasonable deadlines, have wised-up to the fact that red-eyed, sleep-deprived, pill-popping students can’t learn effectively or make smart decisions. We do it because it’s the culture of design school„this is what is expected of us, and what everyone around us seems to accept as ‘the way things are.’ This type of uber-competitive, insanely unhealthy atmosphere will only change when we decide to stop putting up with it, so the change has to start with you. And you can’t fight the battle alone, so talk to your friends and teachers and try to get some support to stop the madness.
Here are 5 steps to taking back your life, and demanding a sustainable, healthy and productive experience as a design student:
Check Out Core77 Archives
There are a ton of great articles here at Core77 for design students—we’ve been at it since 1995—so in an admittedly self-serving gesture, here are a bunch of our all-time faves chosen for the budding designer. (Hey, you’re already at the domain!)
Riding the Flux
by Kevin McCullagh
Experience IS the Product
by Peter Merholz
Plastics Primer
by Carl Alviani
Nathan Shedroff Broadcast
interviewed by Steve Portigal
Beware the Backlash
by Kevin McCullagh
More Brain, Less Storm:
How to think creatively about thinking creatively
by Michael Flanagan
Enlightened Innovation:
5 Keys to Promoting Thoughtful Design Leadership in Education
by Xanthe Matychak and David Morgan
Classroom Case Study:
Drug Marketing
by Brianna Sylver
Is Design Political?
by Jennie Winhall
16 Manufacturers, 175 Products, 7 Weeks: Reflections on a mission to Manila
by William Gordon
Pedal to the Mettle:
The unbelievable, true story of Automoblox
by Patrick Calello
Deep or Wide:
Between Education and the Design Profession
by Pete Zerillo
Why Grad School?
by Niti Bahn
Dissection:
Understanding design decisions through product autopsy
by Justin Petro
By Design: Special Issue
by various contributors
Why You Shouldn’t Hang Out With Designers
By Sam Montague
Photo: SmithsonianWell, don’t hang out with them all the time. It’s the start of the semester, and soon you’ll be engrossed in a world of blue foam, Bondo, and marker fumes. You will be eating, sleeping, working, and partying with your fellow designers 24/7. (Maybe not sleeping with them exactly, but you get the idea.) It will be very easy to get caught up in the narrow focus of design education and to not look past it. But the great thing about the world is that there are a ton of smart, interesting, and engaging people who are not industrial designers—haven’t even heard of one. And if you are going to work with and design for the rest of this world, you need to go out and meet some of them.
If you are going to work with and design for the rest of this world, you need to go out and meet some of them.
Start with your campus
Hang out with some engineers to learn how stuff works. Find out what technologies are on the horizon, and where their disciplines are heading. Talk to physicists, geologists, and biologists—they’ll provide you with insights into how the world works. Biologists can also talk to you about natural organisms, piquing your interest in biomorphic forms, biomimetic strategies, and everything else literally under the sun. Talk to anthropologists about how people, cultures, and civilizations work, and then tap climatologists and environmental studies students to learn how complex and rich “green design” really is.Observe how these different disciplines problem solve and develop new ideas. Architects, communication designers, painters, and photographers are extremely interesting (and have good parties), but their experience and points of view might be a bit close to home. Instead, have lunch with the person down the hall who is majoring in philosophy. Who knows—you may discover that all this interaction with other disciplines becomes your own personal “allegory of the cave.” Talk to business, marketing, and finance majors, since you’ll be working with them a lot in the future. (You have no idea, actually.) Find a friend who is a writer or literary major, and learn how they discuss ideas and communicate stories.
Continue reading Why You Shouldn’t Hang Out With Designers by Sam Montague.
GTD
* We’d like to share with you the ironic humor that is this post being the last one executed. Go figure.
The best of us struggle with GTD. If you don’t know what GTD is, it literally translates to “Getting Things Done.” The very popular and trademarked phrase and acronym title the work-life management system and book by productivity guru David Allen. Procrastination gets you nowhere, so we’ve got some nice hacks for you to try out. The only way you lose is if you’re too lazy-boned to click on the links in this post.
Besides taking advice from Mr. GTD himself, there are a few other tricks to try that involve visual fires-under-the-ass. Let’s start with celebrity wisdom. Jerry Seinfeld’s unending fountain of sarcasm doesn’t flow as effortlessly as one would assume. He swears by his Don’t Break the Chain strategy that involves marking off calendars and perfecting consistency. You can also exaggerate your To Do list and bask in your own done-ness.
In the end, even the most heinous procrastinators somehow get stuff done. But reaping the benefits of controlled productivity is more than worth skipping the extra hours watching TV, spacing out, picking noses, and contemplating doing the work that you’re too dang lazy to do. You’ll also be more well rested and will have achieved a great sense of accomplishment over and over. So GTD! Don’t break the chain! Do what’s To Do! Bask in your own done-ness!
I.D. Romance
There are some people who say that “when you know, you know.” But sometimes it takes a little conversation to find out if you’ve truly discovered your designer soulmate. Here’s our little cheatsheet for you, divided into 3 groups of 7:
Phase 1: Best I.D. Pickup Lines:
“I think it’s about to brainstorm. Let’s get outta here.”
“If you’ve got the form, I’ve got the function.”
“Baby, God is in your details.”
“Are those styrene pants? Because your ass looks vacuum-formed.”
“Let’s make like a dovetail and join.”
“If you’re interested in sustainability, ya, I’ve got sustainability.”
“Sit on my lap. It’s ergonomic.”
Phase 2: Best I.D. Dinner Questions:
“Danish or Dutch?”
“Business or Innovation?”
“Rare or Well-Done?”
“Mount on Black Foamcore or White?”
“Newson or Lovegrove?”
“Observe or Speak Up?”
“Bauhaus or Your House?” (apologies to Tom Wolfe)
Phase 3: Best I.D. Dump Lines:
“I feel like we’ve prototyped this far enough, and now it’s time to call a sketch a sketch.”
“It’s like when you feel your respirator cartridges need changing. You know what I mean?”
“I honestly can’t see taking this any further with someone who doesn’t even know their decimal inch equivalents.”
“The fact that I have a Victor Papanek portrait as my laptop wallpaper should impress you. I don’t know what else to say.”
“You can’t take criticism. Like…in a crit.”
“Three-dimensionally, I think we’re solid. But the surfaces just aren’t resolved.”
“You need to design like you give a damn. And frankly dear, you don’t give a damn.”
Print out your own graph paper
Sometimes you just feel like going oldskool and sketching things out on some classic graph paper. But instead of buying the pads, grab a stack of sheets from the recycling bin in the department head’s office and print your own. Bonus feature: This site’s got pdf’s for dots instead of squares (good for those join-the-dots games), as well as guitar Tabs. Rockin’.
Why the Perfect Pen Makes All the Difference
by Jessica Helfand
The perfect drawing tool can be anything: charcoal or graphite, rolling ball or ball-point, razor point or wide nib, fountain pen, cartridge pen—even, if all else fails, a number two pencil. Whatever it is should fit comfortably in your hand, making you want to use it constantly. It should move smoothly on the surface of the pages of your sketchbook, like it has a mind of its own, a free and independent destiny.
For anyone studying the design disciplines, drawing is as essential as breathing. (It may, at times, be more essential.) Drawing is a language with which one achieves fluency only through practice: it benefits from a kind of persistent engagement, an ongoing stride. There’s a kind of aerobic state you reach in drawing when you do it for hours on end, when the rhythm of the line feels like an extension of your hand.
Best of all, you learn by doing. Forget everything you ever learned about the concept preceding the form. Now, start to draw, and watch closely: this is where form begets form, the iterative, generative process unfolding and taking you along for the ride. Jettison all the preconceived notions you have, and watch closely. Your ideas take shape, disappearing and resurfacing, shifting and reconstituting themselves while you work.
Fuck the computer. Start with a really good pen, and keep drawing until you die.
Jessica Helfand is a designer, writer and educator. A founding editor of Design Observer, she is partner at Winterhouse and a Senior Critic at Yale School of Art. Her favorite pen is the Pentel EnerGel.
Hacking Sites
Floppy disk bag via MakeWe’ve already mentioned Ikea Hacker, but don’t forget about these other hard-core DIY sites:
Instructables
Hack-a-Day
Craftster
Get Crafty
And where would this feature be without a big, huge, fat link to LIFEHACKER.COM! We love you.
Consider the Hipster PDA
One of the classic note taking devices got a shot in the arm when 43Folders posted their now infamous Introducing the Hipster PDA instructions. There are a ton of hacks out there to customize it (tabs, pen holder, starchart pdf)–there’s even a flickr set of the organizers.
Feeling a bit more ambitious? Try PocketMod.
Find the 800 Number for Any Company
Having trouble getting Amazon on the phone about that late delivery of Pez refills? Or got a scratched copy of The Aristocrats from Netflix?
Look no further than hardtofind800numbers.com, an alphabetized listing of free numbers to every business that makes you dig for it. (Unless you actually want digg, in which case you’re out of luck. Maybe one of you can submit it to the 800numbers site?)
5-Second Break
Terrible crit? Alias all-nighter? IBS? Whatever’s got you down won’t stand a chance (for the duration of this video) against the Dramatic Prairie Dog (aka LOL of the year, 2007). It’s so played out that it’s funny again!
Post a Question in the Core77 Forums
This one is stupid simple. If you’ve got a question about what glue to use when bonding two materials, or about writing a resume, or about design in China, or about what you should do with your life, just throw it up in our discussion boards. The community is super-helpful (though admittedly tough at times), and responses will be quick.
“The one and only Yo” has some well-timed advice for students that he posted a couple weeks ago, and it’s perfect timing. Our favorite is “Do whatever (WHATEVER) it takes to get at least 2 internships, even if you do one for free a couple of days a week in the summer.”
A few of our recent faves:
Why did you choose your school?
want to get into ID but cannot draw
Carbon fiber bicycle manufacturing method?
Design Morality
1 Hour Design Challenge
Make Your Own Video Projector for the Big Game Practicing Your Presentations
Want to fill a wall with projection but can’t afford the gear? Make your own with an overhead from the supply closet and an old LCD screen out of the dumpster.
Top Web Tools for College Students
Web 2.0 Backpack: Web Apps for Students is a consolidated list of very useful web apps for you to check out. Categories are Office Replacements, Notetaking, Mind Mapping, Studying, Bookmarking, Collaboration, Calendars, Calculations, and Other, and links to everything from OttoBib (”Enter the ISBN of a book, and automatically have your bibliography entry created in MLA, APA, Chicago, BibTeX, or Wikipedia style”) to Stikipad (”A collaborative wiki service that you can use to keep track of group notes on a project.”)
The Last Piece of Advice for Design Students
To be in design school is a privilege. You are learning about how to make things better, how to leverage and exercise the power of design, and how to influence our world. Understand the responsibilities and joys that come with that, and take it seriously. Then have some fun.
Hack2School Contributors
Photo: More From MagnoliaThanks to all the hack-2-school contributors: Jeannie Choe, Allan Chochinov, Glen Taylor, Julian Friedman, Alissa Walker, Ralph Caplan, Alice Twemlow, Steve Portigal, Jessica Helfand, Steven Heller, Scott Klinker, Sam Montague, and Jill Fehrenbacher.
Article from : http://www.core77.com/hack2school/
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