Wrong Tool, Right Reasons
What would make a person ride a retro cruiser with one gear from the HUB on Penn State’s main campus to their home in Boalsburg in 81 degree weather with 65% humidity? Why would you do it in jeans? There are several reasons and it all makes sense when you think of the human race and our ability to push boundaries and use tools in innovative ways.
The first reason that I rode a bike with one gear "around the mountain" is because I could ride a bike with one gear and a set of handlebars made for cruising from work to my home. I could do it and I wanted to do it. It’s just that simple.
An Open Letter to Technology
Dear technology,
I think that I don’t love you so much right now or more accurately for a while now. You see it’s my job to make things work and quite honestly a lot of you just don’t play that well together. You don’t. Admit it. People expect web-type things to work consistently on everything that they use. And they don’t care what it takes behind the scenes to actually make it happen. They want their web-type thing to work on a Mac, a PC, a tablet (not the Babylonian kind), a cell phone or smart phone, a notebook (not the paper kind), or whatever else that you create and send to the market that has the ability to access the Internet(s). I’m tired of all of the work-arounds and quirks.
One Burger Heads to the Boneyard
I‘m sure that I’m not the only one that has a whole digital box full of illustrations, graphics, mock-ups, ideas, etc. that just didn’t reach their full potential. Whether the idea itself was left to die in a cruel game of the majority rules or the shift of a project changed focus, we as design people go through a lot of iterations and create a lot of digital assets. I’ve had various versions of a blog and my intent was to allow those things to live on and/or be memorialized in the digital universe. So it is my intent here to let this burger live. It may not have the meltiest cheese or the correct arrangement or shaped sesame seeds, but it’s my rendition of a double quarter pounder with cheese.
God speed my tasty, vectorized burger.
What is a Multimedia Specialist?
It’s funny when I think about my job title, Multimedia Specialist, because when I look back on my career being a generalist has been my greatest strength. My job title is a sweeping generalization and the actual job description varies from job-to-job. It’s almost as if the idea of specialization carries with it an expiration date with the fast pace of technology and the expectations derived from the business economy. And I think that it’s a shame.
Drawing and How it Relates to (My) Life
I experienced a good liberal arts education in the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State. Up until recently my grades were good enough to be president and even though my GPA doesn’t reflect it, I did learn quite a bit. I have benefited greatly from the mixture of social and earth sciences, math…cough…math, english, art, and other courses. In my pursuit from film/graphic design to ceramics to multimedia specialist, one thing stands out as an absolute fundamental skill – drawing.