Bobulate

posted on

September 10, 2009

by Liz Danzico

What to do with salt, and other essential tips for designers

Today, Core 77 launched their annual Hack 2 Work series, essential tips and articles for the design professional. You should consider stopping what you’re doing right now, and going to check out posts from Michael Bierut on How to Make Your Client’s Logo Bigger Without Making Their Logo Bigger, Alissa Walker on How to Shower People With Gifts, Andy Polaine on 19 Books Every Design Professional Should Own, Steve Portigal on 5 Keys to Successful Design Research, Steve Heller on Beat the Clock, and many others—those are just a few. More…

posted on

August 31, 2009

by Liz Danzico

School Day 1.0

Backpacks, notebooks, and leather shoes in need of a firm breaking-in; even if years are significant since the days when there was a purchase protocol for attending school, the metaphors for tradition are no less vivid.

More than 60 years ago, Silas Rhodes and Burne Hogarth founded the Cartoonists and Illustrators School with three faculty members and 35 students, creating a model whereby faculty were working professionals and courses were held at night. This model allowed students to work during the days, brushing up on professional skills if desired. By blurring boundaries between the profession and academia, the founders set pace for art education going forward. They, simply, started a tradition. More…

posted on

August 25, 2009

by Liz Danzico

Typedia Live

Yesterday was a landmark day for type (and type enthusiasts everywhere), as Typedia, a shared encyclopedia of typefaces, was unveiled. Typedia has been in development since 2006 when Jason Santa Maria first had the idea, and I’ve been watching him masterfully pull together the project since.

It’s really an honor to have been part of this kind of team, having the privilege to watch structure and design unfold as ideas and form take shape. Weighing in on features like the Forum (how much do people want to participate?), the Add section (how many fields are too many?), and Good Deeds (how can we engage people to add more?) were enormously interesting to be a part of early on. More…

posted on

June 1, 2009

by Liz Danzico

The Summer Build

When it’s clear summer has officially dethroned spring to become the sole proprietor of the season, my thoughts immediately turn to tradition. Tradition, as a condition of summer integrity, is crucial as it begets the connections between idleness and frenzy, between new and old, and between intellectual stimulation and lazy creativity. But no matter what the parameters, one thing is consistent from summer to summer — the critical nature of the prefix “re.”

You see, the prefix “re,” borrowed from Latin meaning “again” or even “again and again,” signals the critical cadence of summer, as summer is perhaps the underdog season of tradition itself. As footloose as we imagine ourselves in summer — barefoot and lightly clothed (apologies, San Francisco) — it’s actually replete with rituals as rigorous as the December shopping season. “Re” is affixed to just about every activity, signaling a return to familiarity, a reset, and our revelry in it. More…

posted on

January 6, 2009

by Liz Danzico

Marks and Milestones

January marks a fresh start for many, but for the MFA Interaction Design program, it marks a milestone in our development. We’re receiving our first round of applications January 15 — just under two weeks away. I’m delighted at the prospect of reviewing the first candidates for the MFA in Interaction Design program’s inagural class this fall. In the meantime, the department is busy with some upcoming events. More…

posted on

October 21, 2008

by Liz Danzico

Action in the Interaction Design Program

This summer, I announced we’re putting together a new program — an MFA in Interaction Design at the School of Visual Arts. While I continue to be busy with the details of putting the program together, I wanted to pause for an update of how things are coming together More…