AIGA Intent/Content Conference 2007

	Paul Young's notes from the 2007 AIGA Intent/Content Conference On June 1–2, 2007, I attended and presented at an AIGA education conference focused on research.
The conference was held at the Hilton in downtown Nashville

About 200 educators from the Southeast and the rest of the USA attended

Design educators networked and took in the southern atmosphere at nearby downtown Honky Tonks

One of the highlights of the conference was a screening of the new documentary "Helvetica" by Gary Hustwit

Conference attendees were able to choose from a menu of keynote speakers, concurrent break-out sessions and roundtable discussions

A wide range of topics were presented by educators from the theoretical to the practical, with subjects ranging from curation to ethics
	Sessions attended: Session 1.3 > Curation Frank Baseman: One Exhibition, Two Institutions, Three Curators Audra Buck, Ann McDonald: Tough Issues + Varied Perspectives + Multiple Locations + Extreme Optimism: The Process of Running a Multiple University Design Course Paul Young: Personal Visions / Commercial Illustrations (presenter) Session 2.3 > Integrating Digital Media Julie Baher: How can Research be Incorporated into the Design Process? Michael Arnold Mages: Digital Media and the Education of the Graphic Designer Todd Duren: Holy Open Source Batman! Crime-fighting Projects, Tools and Resources for Design Educators Session 3.5 > Design History Samantha Lawrie: Reading, Writing, and Talking Design! An Alternative Approach to Teaching Graphic Design History Donna Sepien: Teaching Design History in an Innovative Manner Panel Presentation On the Shoulders of Giants: The Rise of Research in Graphic Design Panel: Ann McDonald, Matt Cooke, Elizabeth Throop; Moderators: Audrey Bennett, Paul Nini Session 5.1 > Critique Methods Kirsten Hardie: Creative Learning Jane Venes: Getting Comfortable with Outcomes and Assessments Kenneth Fitzgerald: The Graphic Equalizer Inspirations: ideal team assignments: duos not trios (students tend to share responsibility equally) testing: have students write test questions trend: Carnegie Mellon's Language Arts program now requires a visual literacy course "process book" vs 3-ring binder designing online courses: collaboration between content provider and instructional designer (editor) online: make verbal presentations on youtube.com put controversial topics (i.e. copyright issues), articles, artifacts on trial advanced outcome: students will be able to use visual metaphors and irony writing course outcomes: good words=use, define; bad words=know, understand (projects/exercises to try) document/critique signage/identity in one city block the personal poster (how do others "see" you?) open source text as content for book project (sell finished book on lulu.com) communicate with a phonetic pictograms discussion board: debate controversial articles (books to read) Graphic Imperative catalog (library purchase) Collaborative Learning Techniques The Alphabet Versus the Goddess Teaching With Your Mouth Shut RIT's Cary Graphic Arts Collection Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design (series) (links to explore) Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies" Free Font Manifesto American Memory (Library of Congress archives with hi-res images) threadless.com (T-shirt design contest) stock.xchng (open source stock images) Splice Music (open source music/sound mixer) lynda.com (over 2000 free video tutorials) InDesign Users Group (free InDesign training videos) Todd Duren's blog (Pellissippi Community College) Al Wasco's blog (Cuyahoga Community College) Also see pictures of Nashville TOP