IDSA / CMU

aigacmu: A recap of some of the amazing firms we visited in New...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:45:30 -0500

A recap of some of the amazing firms we visited in New York. Over 90 students attended this 3-day trip!

“When They Fight, They Fight” by the Generationals.
Video by Linda Dong

emancarrillo: Design Intelligence 2012: Industrial Design...

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:12:08 -0500

emancarrillo:

Design Intelligence 2012: Industrial Design Results.

Way to go UC!

Top 3 for Undergrad, coming in at #9 for Graduate. @cmudesign

jacksonchu: Recently completed project designing a companion...

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:28:07 -0400

jacksonchu:

Recently completed project designing a companion product for the Fiat 500. The project involved the deconstruction of brand language and reconstruction in product form.

Last week, the Junior Industrial Design Studio finished up designing companion products for specific car. More pictures from the critique to come!

ucidsa: Hire Me?! The Portfolio Handbook Industrial Design...

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:26:28 -0400

ucidsa:

Hire Me?! The Portfolio Handbook

Industrial Design seniors at DAAP, have put together this awesome book on putting together your first design portfolio. It’s a great resource for those new to creating portfolios and full of great tips and tricks for those who are more experienced.

This book is directed towards Industrial Design students, but the advice given applies to many different majors. Check it out, and recommend it to your friends.

For those who are not able to afford a copy. There is a plan in place to get these distributed for free, you might have to wait a bit. But we want this to help as many students as possible.

Also Michael Roller will be presenting this book and a bit about what he and his class learned while making the handbook, at the National IDSA conference. If you’re down in New Orleans, be sure to check out the lecture.

The Portfolio Handbook, by the ID class of ‘12 at DAAP.
Preview the book here.

First Meeting of the Year! The Design League held it’s...

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:28:49 -0400

First Meeting of the Year!

The Design League held it’s first meeting where we presented some of the activities and trips (such as our end-of the month trip to Kentuck Knob and our mid-semester trip to New York) we have planned for the upcoming year as well as information about becoming a student member of both IDSA and AIGA.

Remember, to join the CMU Design League and/or sign-up for the IDSA and AIGA chapters, all you have to do is fill out this online form and all charges will be taken from your student account:

Sign-up Form!

Day Shift Furniture, a company started by CMU design alumni...

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:12:50 -0400

Day Shift Furniture, a company started by CMU design alumni Justin Lacey (‘09) has been working hard designing and fabricating the new School of Design Lounge. We’ve been peeking into the construction to admire the beautiful hand-made furniture, but you can follow the whole construction process through Day Shift’s Flickr Feed.

Can’t wait to see it in action!

adayinthelandofnobody: multi-volume alarm clock by Linda...

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:45:00 -0400

adayinthelandofnobody:

multi-volume alarm clock by Linda Dong

Searching through the “product design” hashtag, I found the work of our very own Linda Dong (ID ‘12). This project is from her sophomore year - doesn’t it feel like ages ago? (She’s done much more work since then; click through the image to check out Linda’s website!)

danielleatecosa: Just returned from our aboriginal living...

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 09:17:00 -0400

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

danielleatecosa:

Just returned from our aboriginal living skills course with Cody Lundin, which was a three day hiking and backpacking trip in the Verde Valley canyon. Quickly uploaded a video to give you a sense of where we were (more to come later!).

Before leaving, we were instructed to use the trip as a way to reconnect with nature and to observe. But further, I believe that the purpose of this trip was broad: to teach us about how people lived sustainably in the past by actually living that way (or pretty close to it) for a few days, to understand a true reliance on nature, to be sensitive to the amount of a resource (water, energy, etc.) we have within us and have available to us, to bond as a group, to understand how every action we make affects nature, and lots more I can’t put into words right now.

packing list:

2 hats & 2 bandanas

3 shirt layers

2 pants layers

2 shoes

1 pair of socks & 1 pair of underwear

2 water bottles

1 blanket & 1 sleeping pad

1 baggie of sunflower seeds & 1 baggie of trail mix

1 knife & 1 bowl

1 trash bag

camera & notebook & pen

[READ: no tent, no sleeping bag, no toothbrush/toothpaste, no sunscreen, no cell phone, no bathing suit, no toilet paper, no raincoat, etc.]

A few of my major takeaways (developed after a debrief with everyone this morning!):

1. Sense of community - We had to rely on each other to complete daily tasks from the path we decided to take to building and fire and cooking food to warmth at night. The food part really struck me, as today we have such little connection to where our food comes, and especially who works to make it available to us.

2. Literally leaving no trace behind - Tasks like sweeping the campsite area to be free of foot prints, crushing and dispersing the coal from the fire, and not moving plant parts to where they would not naturally be were really brought to our attention.

3. Using the materials readily available - We learned how to make discoidal knives by hitting two stones of the correct shape together at the right angle, how to make super strong rope from processing plant fibers, how to use coals for sun block, which plants were good for eating. And more, it caused us to become very observant of and sensitive to the details around us.

4. Always being in “conservation mode” - With limited resources available, it was necessary to always conserve energy within us individually and as a group through things like finding cooler shaded microclimates whenever possible, having two people go to the river for water instead of all going, and taking our time on tougher terrain. Further, we had to take advantage of the resources like food and water when we came across them, because it was unknown when we would be right next to the river again or come by a certain plant again.

5. Units of measurement - Without watches, we judged how much daylight was left with our hands like this and thought of tasks we needed to complete more by the calories or physical energy they would take, as light and energy are what we were relying on.

6. Sense of history - Often through out the course Cody would say something like, this is the same river along which people traveled hundreds of years ago or this is how they would create a strong rope for many purposes. In this way, I felt a true sense of history that can’t be accomplished through reading a text book.

7. Lack of hunger & abundance of energy - During the debrief, one of the common themes was that none of us were really very hungry or very tired throughout the trip. This was often attributed to the lack of over stimulation or multitasking we often experience and the necessity to accept this sense of slowing down.

8. Favorite place - At one point, some of us climbed up a steep wall of the canyon to go into ancient ruins way up in a cave. The sense of design history along with the beautiful view was amazing (pictures to come soon)!

9. Connection to design everywhere - In every task, we were constantly challenged to think about how things were “designed” through how the factors like the direction of the sun and the flow of drainages played into where we chose to set up camp, to the shape of the fire pit.

Well, that was more than a few…

But while going on a backpacking trip doesn’t necessarily come to mind as the first thing on a sustainable design curriculum, it was an amazing way to jump into the real meaning of “sustainability” from someone who understands it by living it.

ID Junior Danielle Parnes is spending a semester in Arizona learning more about sustainability and what it truly means in design. Be sure to check out her Tumblr that will share what she learns with the rest of us!

Rising Sophomores: This one’s for you. Usually...

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:37:00 -0400

ABYU's Pig Lamp

Freshman Recycled Object Project

Rising Sophomores: This one’s for you. Usually there’s a some talk about how the projects in freshman year are too conceptual or not congruent to what you’ll actually be doing as an industrial (or communication) designer. There’s plenty of evidence to the contrary, but here’s some literal you-did-this-as-a-freshman-and-someone-out-there-is-profiting-from-it reassurance.

ABYU makes couture lighting, and dang, that looks kind of familiar doesn’t it?

Yup that pretty much sums up all craftsmen.

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 06:09:03 -0400

Yup that pretty much sums up all craftsmen.

CMU Rising Juniors win Core77’s Student Transportation...

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:59:56 -0400

CMU Rising Juniors win Core77’s Student Transportation Section!

Speak of the devil, Jonathan Ota and Ethan Frier (ID ‘13) just won a Core77 Design Award for Project Aura, a bicycling safety light system. Congrats to both of them! You done us proud.

Core77 Design Awards have been announcing winners throughout...

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:35:51 -0400

Core77 Design Awards have been announcing winners throughout this week live from around the world. One student project that caught our eye was the Fl.int table by Taylor Mackenzie-Veal from RISD. Made for urban apartment dwellers, this table uses only thumbscrews for assembly and can transform from a low coffee table to a dining table. Simple things done well!

Check out all the Core77 award-winners!

Student Lecture Series 2: Allison Tran’s “The Making...

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:58:00 -0400

Student Lecture Series 2: Allison Tran’s “The Making of Neue”

This past spring semester we (IDSA/CMU and AIGA/CMU) hosted our second Student Lecture Series, where we invite current design students to present their work, internships, and design experiences.

Allison Tran (ID ‘12) presented her work on “Neue”, a fashion line that features laser cut fabrics, as well as her inspirations and apparent cyclops-ness.

Check out more of Allison’s work on her portfolio.

Also be sure to check out the video of our first SLS!

IDSA Summer Springboard Series

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:38:59 -0400

IDSA Summer Springboard Series:

IDSA is hosting a student-oriented webinar series featuring early career advice from young professionals. Each talk will happen every other Wednesday starting (today) June 8th at 5pm PST/8pm EST.

Two of the talks are from CMU ID alumni: Jason DePerro and Jason Howell, so definitely be sure to check this out!

Event Description: “Join us every other Wednesday evening this summer for an online speaker series about the trials and tribulations of early professional practice. Each of the speakers will tell their personal career story of what they did upon graduating from school and what they did to get where they are now. Come prepared to hear ridiculous stories, shocking advice, regret warnings, resource tips and obscure personal strategies.”

Tarngblog: 5 Days of Smart (Part 1)

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 01:03:00 -0400

Tarngblog: 5 Days of Smart (Part 1):

Follow our former IDSA Vice Prez, Julius Tarng as he blogs about his experiences working at Smart Design in New York. Looks like he’s having a killer time!

tarngerine:

I have some time to kill at work, and I was given the OK to blog about my work experience today. This post is about the first five days I have spent at Smart Design NYC as an Industrial Design Intern, specifically about the culture.

Internships and me

I have not had the best luck with…

“I Draw Cars” Kickstarter Project! Two industrial...

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 23:09:59 -0400

“I Draw Cars” Kickstarter Project!

Two industrial designers have created a sketchbook/reference guide for students that include all things car design. Tutorials, templates, industry info and sketches from featured auto designers: it’s feels like the holy grail of slick farkled-out car renderings.

Help them out and check out their Kickstarter Project Page. (It’s $25 to claim a sketchbook for yourself)

Rewind: Freshman Pop-Up Books! Take a look back at the freshman...

Wed, 25 May 2011 20:05:29 -0400

Rewind: Freshman Pop-Up Books!

Take a look back at the freshman (now sophomore!) class spring project to create an alphabetic pop-up book set. See you guys next year :)

Sad to see you guys go, but we know you’ll all do great...

Sun, 15 May 2011 12:41:35 -0400

Sad to see you guys go, but we know you’ll all do great wherever you guys end up. Say hello to the real-world for us! And keep in touch!

Project Aura: A Bicycle Safety Lighting System Ethan Frier and...

Wed, 11 May 2011 13:44:00 -0400

Project Aura: A Bicycle Safety Lighting System

Ethan Frier and Jonathan Ota (both ID ‘13) created this amazing bicycle lighting system for night riding. Powered by the hub dynamo on the rear wheel, LED lights embedded onto the wheel rims light up when the rider is moving. One of our favorite parts about Project Aura (other than the obvious bike porn) is the fact that as the bike slows down, only the red LEDs shine, acting as brake lights. Killer.

Jon and Ethan also did a great job documenting their whole process (from photos in shop to videos of lighting mechanisms) on their SURG 2011 Blog. Definitely check that out.

Project Aura was funded by CMU’s SURG grant, which allows undergraduates to do independent research in any field they’re interested in.

Frankie Gaw’s (ID ‘13) Plant Lantern Concept...

Wed, 11 May 2011 13:01:11 -0400

Frankie Gaw’s (ID ‘13) Plant Lantern Concept Featured on Treehugger!

The camping/hiking lantern uses LED lighting to illuminate forest paths and to act as a light source for growing tree saplings. As a terrarium, the lamp allows you grow native trees that you can transplant back into the forest, creating an emotional tie between you and the environment you’re walking through.

See more of Frankie’s work!