When we set out for our discovery trip to the University of Notre Dame I was curious and skeptical about what we would find out and experience on campus. For a couple of reasons: 1) it is already one of the most recognized university brands in the US and therefore comes by default with a lot of preconceptions and 2) I am always careful when religion gets married with education. Given that and the nature of a discovery I kind of was the devil’s advocate on a Catholic campus.

As strange as it might sound it is not a bad position to be in when you are trying to find out how water proof a concept, philospohy or idea is. If you already bought into something you don’t listen and look as careful as you probably should. But, no risk of that in this case. And that also had a lot to do with the people we interviewed and met with. As with every journey or road trip you’d take you come across things you didn’t expect, which more often than not is what makes it memorable in the end. With universities it’s rarely the beauty of the campus or the advanced labs you might see during a campus tour (although Notre Dame’s campus is cool and the view into the stadium from the press lounge awesome).

Most often it is the stories and people you meet that embody the essence of the brand and bring it to life immediately. In the case of this trip it was definitely the meeting with 94-year-old Father Ted (Rev. Theodore Martin Hesburgh, C.S.C.), former long-time president of the University of Notre Dame, holder of the world record for most honorary doctorate degrees (150) ever awarded to one person, the first figure in higher education to receive the Congressional Gold Medal and the highest civilian honor the Medal of Freedom, former Chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, advisor to several US Presidents and a thousand other unbelievable things. Simply put he was one of the most impressive people I ever met for as least as many reasons as he has doctorate degrees.

Especially amongst catholics he is a living legend, one that always fought for a better tomorrow and against the perception that as George Bernard Shaw (founder of the London School of Economics and Nobel Prize winner in literature) once said “a Catholic university is a contradiction in terms.” Father Ted believes “there is no conflict between science and theology except where there is bad science or bad theology.”

With everything he has been involved with, from being appointed by President Eisenhower to the Civil Rights Commission in 1957 and by President Carter to head a delegation of Americans to a global conference on science and technology for development in 1977 to going on a fact-finding tour of refugee camps around Kosovo for the United Nations in 1999 he is the living proof of his and Notre Dame’s philosophy.

Given all the skepticism I had going into this I have to admit that Father Ted was just an extraordinary icing on an amazing cake and the whole team got convinced not only by him but the whole, extremely passionate, welcoming and open-minded community we experienced during our trip. Now our big challenge was to capture everything we learned and to translate that into a Notre Dame undergraduate brand that can convey its story to a variety of different audiences in the most engaging and truthful way. Communicating all the facts, achievements and opportunities, especially to the 16- or 17-year-old high-school student that starts thinking about what they want to do with their lives.

And now, roughly six months later we hold the seminal piece of the new brand in our hands, fresh off the press. I hope this viewbook will inspire and convince the audience as much as we were inspired and convinced. And when it comes to advocating, no question I am now on Notre Dame’s side.

See more work for Notre Dame here.

Last Friday I left the City of Brotherly Love for a trip to the American South. For my first ever visit to Alabama, I was heading to Greensboro to volunteer a couple days of my design time alongside a friend who works with HERO (Hale Empowerment & Revitalization Organization), a non-profit housing resource center.

Greensboro (population 2,731) is located in Hale County, one of the most poverty-stricken counties in Alabama, and draws the support of many non-profits and community service organizations. It was great to visit this town that I’d heard so much about — a design Mecca that has been receiving a good deal of press over the past few years. I met so many energetic and engaging people who were completing degrees, fellowships, or AmeriCorps service programs with various groups in town, such as: HERO, YouthBuild, Project Horseshoe Farm, Rural Studio, Pie Lab, and Habitat for Humanity.

While it was an inspiring and insightful trip, it was also an intense time to be visiting this region of Alabama. Although Greensboro was mostly untouched by the April tornadoes, many of the surrounding towns are suffering from extensive damage. The HERO office on Main Street was transformed into a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center for three of the days of my visit, as those affected community members came by for disaster assistance.

A big thank you to all the welcoming people of Greensboro that I met this past week! Looking forward to visiting again soon. (And stay tuned for an upcoming blog post that details the logo design process that my friend Julie and I created for a new program within HERO…!)

Above: Inside an in-progress schoolhouse behind Greensboro’s Main Street.

Above: A peek at the front counter and open kitchen of Pie Lab, described by the NY Times as “a combination pop-up cafe, design studio and civic clubhouse.”

Above: Two of the amazing $20k Houses ($10k labor and $10k materials), a concept created and realized by students of Auburn University’s RuralStudio. “The 20k house project seeks to address the pressing need for decent and affordable housing in Hale County. The aim is to produce a model home that can be reproduced on a large scale, becoming a viable alternative to the trailer in this area. The challenge is to build a house for $20, 000 that can be bought in conjunction with the ’502 Direct Loan.’”

Last week I was honored to be a reviewer for AIGA Philly’s 13th Annual Feedback student portfolio review. For fifteen minutes each, I met with eight graduating seniors who looked very promising for the design industry. A few had the beginnings of a great portfolio, and the rest still needed a little more tweaking to strengthen their body of work. Understandably, the past month has probably felt like an infinitely accelerating train where the last stop was AIGA’s Feedback. The printing, the cutting, the gluing and repeating have probably taken a toll on these emerging designers. Trust me, we’ve all been there, but it only gets better.

After the review I spoke with fellow reviewers, and I was able to collect their feedback to the graduating seniors which I’d like to share with you. Take it or leave it, it might help you land your first big job. (FYI, 160over90 is still hiring.)

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1. Don’t forget to present your portfolio as a narrative. Tell your story through your work, and guide the viewer in an interesting and engaging way.

2. Vary up the pacing of the portfolio. Instead of presenting five websites in a row, throw in a printed piece in between to show variation and diversity.

3. Try not to include projects that were type exercises. They’re exercises for a reason: To help with bigger and better projects worth presenting. We’ve all done type exercises but they don’t belong in a portfolio. Which brings me to the next tip.

4. Curate your portfolio to a limited number of pieces. Instead of presenting 20 pieces, limit yourself to your strongest 10-12 pieces. You can always show the rest on your personal portfolio site.

5. Pay attention to how you visually present your work. Try not to shoot your book covers or packaging projects on your wrinkled bedsheets. It can be distracting. You can always take it outside and use natural lighting if you have to instead of the harsh flash that most digital slr cameras have.

6. If you have a portfolio book, try to keep it to one project per spread. When looking at two different projects on a single spread, it becomes difficult to focus on one piece.

And the last tip for you:

7. Don’t save your strongest piece for the ‘grand finale.’ In an interview, you may not have enough time to show your entire book. Bring them up to the front where you can spend the right amount of time explaining the concept, the process, and the final product.

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These are just a few tips that I gathered from my experience at Feedback Thirteen. Again, take it or leave it. It’s ultimately up to you on how you want to present yourself and your work. To all the graduating design students, congratulations and good luck!

Special thanks to Dave Copestakes and Gigi  McGee and the rest of the AIGA Education committee for organizing this great event!

Open Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 6pm, The Book Thing is a space you can visit to pick up used books. For free! From the F.A.Q. section on the website,

Are the books really free?
Yup.
Really?
Yes.
Absolutely free?
Yes.
What’s the catch?
All the books you take have to be stamped “not for resale”. That’s it.
What is the suggested donation?
A smile.

The building never seems to end as you turn a corner and discover yet another room with densely populated bookshelves lining the walls. The books are organized by subject, but this experience will still appeal to the treasure-hunting book finder as there are additional bins along the floor to dig through to find that classic novel you’ve been wanting to read. And if you’re a graphic designer like myself, you may gravitate towards certain aesthetics of more unfamiliar books for their moments of design ingenuity:

Bring a tote bag and be sure to pick up some books (or donate books!) the next time you’re in B’More:

The Book Thing of Baltimore, Inc.
3001 Vineyard Lane
Baltimore, MD 21218

Forty years ago, on April 22, Earth Day began as a massive grassroots movement (please excuse the pun) to raise awareness about environmental issues. The original demonstration attracted nearly 20 million people who engaged in marches and teach-ins. Today, Earth Day is a global phenomenon. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps you’ve even used phrases like “carbon footprint” and “go green” and “organic” before. Though I’ll admit that I will probably never create an actual compost pile, and I’ve had entire conversations about carbon offsets in which I had no idea what I was talking about, I’m all for environmental conservation.  The earth is good, and we should be good to it.

In honor of earth day, hemp bracelets, National Parks, bicycles, and back-to-the-land, here are a few things that we earthlings should consider doing more often.

-  Ride bikes (no hands, if you’re good) to work. And then zip over to a body of water where you can skip stones.  Enjoy the sunshine. Appreciate the flowers. Do not make a daisy chain.

-  Eat an entire apple, including the core*, in order to prove that waste is unnecessary.

- Shun unnecessary packaging (publicly, if possible), and bring your own bag to the grocery store.

- Use the word green as a term of endearment. As in, “What up, Green? I like those new water-soluble, zero carbon footprint shoes you’ve got on.”

-  Begin growing a dreadlock as a tacit reminder to use less shower water. By next year, you’ll have both a conversation piece and proof that you gave back.

In the meantime, check out this awesome photo retrospective from National Geographic–especially the one of people camped out on Independence Mall in Philly.

Happy (early) Earth Day!

*160over90 not liable if this causes you to grow an apple tree in your stomach.

Don’t miss out on your chance to bid on one of the limited-edition De’Longhi Artistas. The Artista series, a line of laser-etched Perfecta espresso machines, features the designs of ten internationally recognized artists and designers including fashion designer Nicole Miller, jewelry designer John Hardy, interior designer Kelly Hoppen and illustrator Mike Perry.

The collection of espresso machines are now available to the public through ebay giving works. Proceeds benefit Oxfam America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the fight against poverty and social injustice.

Please join us at 160over90 as part of Design Philadelphia on Tuesday, October 13th from 6:00-9:00 pm for Counter Culture, an exhibition of the De’Longhi Artista Series. 160over90 in collaboration with De’Longhi commissioned designers across varying disciplines to create original works of art to be laser-etched onto the De’Longhi Perfecta Espresso machine. Beginning on Sunday, October 4th these limited-edition pieces will be auctioned off on ebay giving works to benefit Oxfam America, a charity committed to the fight against poverty and social injustice.

The Counter Culture Exhibition will be the last time the public will be able to see the Artista Series in its entirety before the machines are sent to the winning bidders. Contributing artists Mike Perry, Damien Correll and Mario Hugo will be on hand as well as familiar faces from the Philadelphia design community. We hope to see you there.

RSVP by Friday, October 9th to rsvp@160over90.com

]]> http://www.160over90.com/blog/2009/09/28/counter-culture-a-design-philadelphia-event-at-160over90/feed/ 0 http://www.160over90.com/blog/2009/08/03/interview-with-blake-mycoskie-of-toms-shoes/ http://www.160over90.com/blog/2009/08/03/interview-with-blake-mycoskie-of-toms-shoes/#comments Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:08:36 +0000 stephen penning http://72.10.33.187/blog/?p=3817

By now most everyone has seen the AT&T commercial featuring Blake Mycoskie of TOMS Shoes. For those of you who need a refresh check out the video below.

After seeing this several times I started thinking about the effect of this spot on the TOMS brand and mission. Naturally I did some digging around online. I checked out the TOMS site and Blake’s blog and only got more intrigued about the idea behind TOMS shoes, how it started and the effect of the commercial.

I reached out to the kind people at TOMS and with their coordination was able to interview Blake Mycoskie.

During your travels you must have been exposed to an array of needs that children in developing and third world countries have. What made you decide that shoes would be the best way for you to help?

When I visited Argentina in 2006, I met so many children in the Misiones region who did not have shoes. They weren’t able to go to school because they didn’t have proper footwear, they walked miles barefoot everyday and had cuts in their feet, and a simple game of soccer put them at risk for infection. These were all situations that could be addressed and prevented with shoes.

How, if at all, did the needs of the children influence the design of the shoes?

The alpargata is a traditional Argentine shoe that people have been wearing there for many years. The brand is built on the alpargata silhouette, therefore we give the children in Argentina a shoe that their culture is familiar with.

How did you go about starting a cause-based shoe company?

The children I met in ’06 instilled in me such passion and drive to create change for them. I learned how to be a shoemaker, I rallied friends, and I put out ads on Craigslist to start building a team. Soon enough, a small group of us were running this One for One shoe company called TOMS, Shoes for a Better Tomorrow, out of my apartment in Venice, CA. The past three years have definitely been a learning process, but the challenge has been well worth it.

How did you get the word out about TOMS?

The concept of TOMS is so simple, which allows people to really connect and share it with others. Word of mouth has been the most successful marketing for TOMS. Every time someone wears the shoes, they share the story of One for One.

Could you explain how the Shoe Drops came about and how they work?

The concept of Shoe Drops originated when I returned with friends, family, and colleagues to deliver the first 10,000 pairs of matched TOMS to Argentina. During a typical Argentina Shoe Drop, volunteers spend five days visiting villages and bringing new shoes to the children and three days learning about and exploring the Argentine culture.

Have you seen an increase in the One for One effort since the AT&T commercial has aired?

We’ve had to get more server space and more people to answer the phones! TOMS is very thankful for the exposure the commercial has offered this brand.

Do you think that the commercial ultimately benefits the One for One effort more than it does AT&T?

There have actually been a lot of comments commending AT&T for working with TOMS—so there’s definitely positive sentiment for both parties.

Do you think the One for One effort will evolve beyond shoes?

Part of my vision is that TOMS won’t always be a shoe company and that we will expand into additional products when and where it makes sense for the TOMS brand.

What do you attribute your drive to helping others to?

My family is an incredible influence. My parents brought up my siblings and me to be positive people and treat others fairly. A friend told me once, “The more you give, the more you live” and that concept has stuck with me, too. Its simple, but powerful.

If there is one singular thing you could tell our readers what would it be?

Incorporate giving into everything you do.