Jessie Storey | Alumni Interview

Jessie Storey, a 2005 graduate from VT, was just interviewed by IDSA.  She is currently a Senior Industrial Designer at Steelcase (a leading international furniture company).  She has a lot to say about what design means to her and how to become a better designer!

Check out the interview at http://www.idsa.org/content/whosnext-jessie-storey-interview

IDEA Finalists

Congratulations to Oscar Salguero, James Connors, and Reid Schlegel (all 3rd years) for having their humanitarian footwear project selected as an IDEA student award finalist.  This is a very well known and prestigious design award for students and professionals alike.  The process to make it to this stage in the competition is very selective and these guys should be really proud of themselves.

The Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners are yet to be announced, so stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed for these guys!  Check out their project below...

March is Detox Month

Hey guys, sorry for the late post on this.  For the rest of March we will be having three awesome detox sessions that you can't miss!

Wednesday, March 16th, 7:00PM
"Photoshop" by Greg Lefevere (4th Year)

Wednesday, March 23rd, 7:00PM
"Portfolio Theory" by Tony Smith (4th Year)

Wednesday, March 30th, 7:00PM
"Flash Basics" by Saylor Allf (4th Year)

February Speaker Series

February is filled with an array of awesome speakers! Here is the list of who's speaking, including when & where they will be speaking, as well as, a quick bio for each...

Jim Mueller | Friday 2/4 Noon | Room 300
Jim is known as one of the pioneers of universal design and has concentrated in designing for disability since 1974.  He is the author of "Seven Principles of Universal Design" and has done work for Herman-Miller, Steelcase, Blackberry, & HTC just to name a few.

Tucker Viemeister | Wednesday 2/9 7:00PM | Room 300
Tucker helped found two of the most well-known industrial design firms: Frogdesign & Smart Design.  While at Smart Design, Tucker helped design the Oxo "Good Grips," which are known as a standard for excellent universal design.  Alao, he has won many design awards including 11 selections in ID Magazine's Annual Design Review.

Ron Kemnitzer | Friday 2/11 Noon | Room 021
Ron is currently the Head of Virginia Tech's Industrial Design Program, as well as, one of the Senior Studio Professors.  Ron has won numerous design awards including the Gold "Good Design Award" in 2001 & 1997, a Gold Award in the 1993 "Plant Engineering" magazine "Product of the Year" competition, and a Bronze Award in the 1992 Industrial Design Excellence Awards sponsored by "Business Week."  Also, in 1988 he designed the "Bola" chair, which won the IBD Gold Award.

Alan Feng | Wednesday 2/16 Noon | Room 021
Alan is a recent graduate of Stanford's Product Design masters program.  Currently, he serves as a key member of OrbitBaby, a design and manufacture firm of strollers and car seats in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Patric Santerre | Friday 2/25 TBA | TBA
Patric is the owner of ARCADIA designworks LLC, which focuses on the design of modern architecture and industrial design products.  He has also worked for Orcutt Associates as an Architect and was the Architect & Director of commercial development at Integrated Design & Construction.

Jeff Smith Workshops: Demo Video #1

Jeff Smith just posted one of the sketching demo videos on youtube and I thought everyone would find it fun/useful to check it out!

Here is the link (I am having a lot of trouble getting videos embedded into the posts, sorry)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iua5zE66NsQ

Jeff Smith Workshops: Sketches

Here are some of the sketches from Jeff Smith during the hand sketching workshops...

Jeff Smith Workshops: Event Pictures

Here are some pictures from the Jeff Smith sketching workshops...

Jeff Smith sketching with some of the students

Jeff's setup: chartpak markers, ballpoint/felt tip/sharpie, 8.5x11 bond/canson paper

Jeff Smith leading a Sketchbook Pro demo

Jeff Smith Sketching/Solidworks Workshop

Welcome back! It's a new semester and IDSA has plenty of events planned.

Jeff Smith is coming in town from Thursday, January 20th, to Friday, the 21st, to lead a few sketching and solidworks workshops. Jeff Smith is an industrial design director at Reflex, which is based out of Orlando, FL. He is also an active contributor on Core77 forums, where he shows his own work as well as helps young designers.

Here is the schedule for the workshops (sign-up sheets will be posted in studio soon)...

Thursday:

Hand Sketching (2:00-5:00PM)

Beginner Solidworks (6:30-10:00PM)

Friday:

Sketchbook Pro (10:00-12:00AM)

Hand Sketching II (1:00-5:00PM)

Advanced Solidworks (6:30-10:00PM)

Fall Semester Recap | Holiday Potluck

After classes ended last semester, we held our annual Holiday Potluck at Mitzi Vernon's house. The food was great and the company was even better (not to mention Mitzi's awesome house). It was a nice way to end a jam-packed semester.

Here are some photos from the event...