Design Revolution Road Show

March 15th, 2010

Recap: Virginia Tech, March 15th

Our stop at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia was short but very sweet. We were welcomed by Industrial Design professor Ed Dorsa (who we have known for a while now and actually collaborated with a few semesters back on a social design studio), who guided us into the courtyard between the Design and Architecture buildings.

We met with the director and dean of the college before giving our lecture at 2pm. Our audience was about 90% industrial designers, 10% architecture students. In attendance were Roger Cobb and Emily Owsley, who we “met” via email about a year ago, and who helped orchestrate the aforementioned social design studio. Akshay Sharma was also there, who ran the studio and who I coincidentally met for the first time at a conference in Singapore.

After the lecture, we answered a few questions including one about the role of aesthetics in humanitarian design. The HomeHero fire extinguisher was a great example of how aesthetics can be used with a purpose to achieve a more important goal (in the case of HomeHero, the beauty of the object inspires people to put the extinguisher somewhere visible where it will be within arms reach in a fire). We believe in aesthetics “with purpose” as a means to engage users and make useful products more ubiquitous and accessible.

After the lecture, students came out to the trailer to check out the products first-hand. Before leaving, we did a few laps through the amazing studio space in the basement. We hope to stay in touch with the folks we met today and potentially invite some students down to our North Carolina projects later this summer. Thanks to Ed Dorsa for helping to organize!

March 15th, 2010

Quote From The Road: March 15th

When: March 15th, 12:46 p.m.
Where: In the Architecture + Design department at Virginia Tech

Matt: “It’s sort of one part trading floor, one part trade show.”
(On the setup of the open studio plan – see Daily Postcard above!)

December 9th, 2009

School Updates and Details: December 9

As of today, December 9th, we some newly updated information regarding a few of our school stops! As we schedule the parking spot and lecture times at each of the colleges and high schools, we will continually make this information available. Additionally, please check the individual school pages for the most up-to-date information. Here are the latest updates:

• February 15: University of Texas (Austin): Parking spot for Airstream trailer exhibition confirmed on Speedway Plaza from 10am-5pm, Lecture in Goldsmith Hall, 3.120 Lecture Hall at 12pm noon.
• February 22-23: Auburn University: Parking spot for Airstream trailer exhibition confirmed for the parallel spots by the South entrance to the Wallace Center, off of South Donahue Drive. Lecture confirmed for Dudley Commons, Parker Auditorium (B6), 12:30pm.
• February 27: Savannah College of Art and Design (new stop!): Lecture confirmed at Trustees Theatre, 216 East Broughton Street, 2pm. Parking spot for Airstream trailer exhibition to be announced.
• March 15: Virginia Tech: Parking spot for Airstream trailer exhibition confirmed at spot between Burruss and Burchard Halls, at the end of Old Turner St. Lecture confirmed for Cowgill Hall, Room 300, at 2pm.
• March 25: Syracuse University: Parking spot for Airstream trailer exhibition confirmed next to the design department’s Warehouse building at 350 West Fayette Street. Lecture confirmed for the Warehouse building’s auditorium at 12pm noon.
November 8th, 2009

Individual School Pages: Check for Updates

We’ve confirmed 25 different high schools and colleges as official stops on our tour! Each school has its own informational page, which can be accessed from the list on the Itinerary page here. Please check back regularly for updates on each school page- we will be adding specific schedule and location info for where the Airstream will be parked at each stop, along with when and where the lecture will be held as soon as we have confirmed details with each school.

November 1st, 2009

List of Confirmed Schools

As of November 1, 2009, the following schools have been confirmed (see the Itinerary page for the full route and more information):

• February 1: Redwood High School, Larkspur, CA
• February 2: Kick-Off Event with Adobe, San Francisco, CA
• February 3: California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
• February 4: Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
• February 5: San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
• February 8: Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
• February 9: The Design High School, Los Angeles, CA
• February 15: University of Texas, Austin, TX
• February 18: University of Louisiana, Lafayette, LA
• February 22-23: Auburn University, Auburn, AL
• February 24-26: Hale County Workshop (Learning Landscape build), Greensboro, AL
• March 1-2: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
• March 4-5: Bertie County School District, Windsor, NC
• March 11: Maryland Institute College of Arts, Baltimore, MD
• March 12: The Park School, Baltimore, MD
• March 15: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
• March 22: Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
• March 23: Brooklyn Community Arts & Media High School (BCAM), Brooklyn, NY
• March 25: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
• March 29: Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
• March 30: Design Lab High School, Cleveland, OH
• April 1: College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI
• April 2: Cranbrook Academy of Art and High School, Detroit, MI
• April 5-9: School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
• April 12-13: University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, Stevens Point, WI
• April 15: University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
• April 16: Wilmington High School, Wilmington, OH