I’m basically a print designer, and even though I have done web design I worried that they would be “talking in code” and I’d be lost. I was pleasantly surprised—the presenters who showed some code did it in a way that I could understand. Even Eric Meyer’s chat on “CSS for evil” was presented in a way that made sense to the print designers like me!

Monday morning started with AEA founder Jeffrey Zeldman giving a history of Emoticons. From the simple smiley face to winking emoticons with hats and mustaches to the difference between eastern and western styles, we were impressed with Zelman’s vast knowledge.

Just joking :)

Seriously, you know that the next two days are going to be great when you hear things like “Beautiful no longer means flash-based.” Zeldman’s passionate opening on the history of the web—Web 2.0—set the tone of the conference. He kicked off AEA by showing inventions from history that led to the web, and showing why we stand at the dawn of a newer and more mature web powered by standards.

Following Zeldman, we heard from Sarah Parmenter on Crafting the User Experience. She discussed principles from human psychology, such as speed, simplicity, surprise, social behavior and stirring emotions, and she gave practical advice for using psychology when thinking about web design and user experience.

Rounding out the morning was Jason Santa Maria’s session On Web Typography. He began by talking about what makes a good web typeface and major typography considerations, such as dimensions, special features, prolonged reading and internationalization. “Good typography is invisible. Don’t make me think about reading, just let me read!” Then he talked about the advances and choices we now have with web fonts. Even though those advances are exciting, he cautioned, we still have to use good design and web standards.

The afternoon started with Scott Berkun talking about Why Designers Fail and What to Do About It. He gave us his thoughts on how we’d never learn and move forward without failure. He said all designers fail 95% of the time, but design suffers from a lack of failure analysis—how to look at the reasons we fail and what to do about it.

One of my favourite sessions was A Content Strategy Roadmap with Kristina Halvorson. She provided valuable insights into how we spend a lot of time on strategy, wireframes and design before obtaining content for our websites. Content often comes last, when it should come first. The bottomline: “Start designing from the content out, rather that the canvas in,” she said.

Finishing off the day was Luke Wroblewski, whose presentation Mobile Web Design Moves left me eager for his full-day mobile web design course. It was exciting to hear about the huge growth in mobile usage, the immense possibilities of mobile web design and how we need to think differently when designing for mobile devices.

Day two started off with Eric Meyer and his talk The CSS3 Anarchists’ Cookbook. Basically, he gave us tips and tricks on how to use CSS for “evil”—how to mess with your co-workers by changing up code in their browser’s user stylesheets. I was a little scared of this talk, but whenever Eric showed the code he showed examples of what it did so it made sense. It was a cheeky way to show the new tools in HTML5 and CSS3.

Jeremy Keith followed with a discussion of Design Principles. He talked about how your principles and design should match, and how this will help you reach your goals—“The more you can boil down your design principles, the better.” Aarron Walter then did a presentation titled Idea to Interface. It was great to learn how those iPhone apps you have in your mind would translate from just an idea into actuality. He said you need to give yourself permission to be the person with the idea, and he outlined how you would carry it through.

The afternoon continued with Andy Clarke and his presentation Smoke Gets in Your Eyes about CSS3 web animation. We learned about the latest CSS animation techniques, and he showed some entertaining videos, such as the Flash vs. Web rap battle.

Alexa Andrzejewski, the founder of Foodspotting, followed with an intriguing presention The Dimensions of a Good Experience. She talked about evaluating experiences using 10 principles from urban planning, and how these same qualities could be applied to digital experiences—“Design influences our experience of the world.” It was the process that led her to create the Foodspotting app.

Finishing off day two was the humourous and incredibly passionate Tom Coates talking about Everything the Network Touches. He reminded us all about how exciting and powerful the web is and how the network is not only extending to people but to objects and places. His final thought: “I am going to say something controversial: I don’t think we should have web standards. It’s only with the ability to explore and not be bound by rules and regulations that we going to create and discover new realms.”

With our minds on overload from these two days we headed into day three, Mobile Web Design with Luke Wroblewski. Again, I had no reason to worry that we’d be doing something super techincal. It was all digestible information. Talking to a crowd of 300, Luke did a great job of getting us to interact with him and each other. He started by asking the audience what we’d like to learn. We also did a few interactive projects by sharing in small groups. Throughout the day, Luke took us through the major considerations when designing for mobile: what the constraints are, stats on usage, what behaviours drive the use of mobile devices and how they are used.

AEA, you know how to throw a conference: 12 exceptionally fantastic speakers, a live Twitter feed, three parties and a soundtrack! If you’re looking to attend a fun web design conference that runs seamlessly with loads of exciting and passionate people, check out An Event Apart. Having attended many design conferences I found AEA to be among one of the best experiences I’ve had. I went from not knowing anything about this conference to coming back with practical experience and tools ready to be put to use in our office.

Further reading:
A List Apart
World Wide Web Consortium
Luke Wroblewski’s Notes on AEA Presentations

Have you ever hung out with people who all belong to a different professional circle than you and they crack ‘industry specific’ jokes? You can feel clueless and a total ‘div head’ (English slang for a rather slow stupid person) for not getting the joke. In the same way I am also sure we have all been involved in conversations even within our own companies where people are talking about something that we don’t understand. Even though we may never admit it, we have probably played along with the conversation pretending to be in the know, nodding with a sense of confidence backed with extreme fear that we may get caught out.

This is one reason I decided to take the ‘Introduction to Web Development and Design’ course at BCIT. As a designer in my 30′s I was trained and bottle-fed on print design and not web design (the web will never smell as good as a freshly printed ink drenched brochure). My lack of knowledge and understanding for coding and web standards was starting to be a hindrance. Sure I may have nodded my head with understanding as our web guys talked about divs, WC3 and some guy called Zeldman, and as Art Director in a company that focusses on web and print design my knowledge was lacking, so it was time to go back to school.

I have a successful career, am married with a kid and I can afford more than just plain pasta for dinner and here I am at 37 being a student again. I know this is all in my head but it was for sure a little bizarre going off to class once a week. I was also concerned before the first class  that I would be the ‘old fart’ in the corner trying to keep up with all the young ‘whipper snappers’. In fact there was a great diversity of people there, from younger people who were just starting their careers; people who were hired by their companies to maintain their corporate website (and needed training) and people like myself.

The course was hard work. It was like learning a new language, something that doesn’t come easily to me. Remembering when to use absolute, float or relative positioning sometimes ‘mashed’ my brain but at the same time the problem solving part of my brain enjoyed figuring-out solutions to why the code I just wrote didn’t do what I had expected (damn those closing tags).

I procrastinated (well actually avoided) taking this course as I had to admit to myself that I was not perfect, or that times had changed and that I needed to ‘catch up’ a little. But I am glad I did. I can now participate fully in conversations, give better strategic direction to my entire team and am able to challenge my web guys and know what I am talking about. I don’t pretend to know everything about web and programming, but investing in this new knowledge has given me new tools and confidence.

One unexpected bonus of being in college for me was receiving a student membership card where I got a killer discount for trendy clothing shops selling 80′s style clothes (that I unfortunately remember wearing the first time I went to college).

In conclusion, I would invite you to ask yourself if there is room for you to improve or to be better in your job. It’s OK to go back to college or seek private one-on-one training when the opportunity arises. Don’t be a ‘div head’ and let your ego or some other reason prevent you from growing in your profession.

WHERE

BC’s Education Quality Assurance (BCEQA) Designation is Canada’s first and only provincial brand of quality for post-secondary education, and the British Columbia Council for International Education (BCCIE) is the nationally and globally recognized professional organization that promotes and supports all aspects of international education within BC and abroad. Together these two sites are meant to position BC as a world leader in education.

IDEAS

International education is a vital component of the BC fabric, both culturally and economically. BCCIE is the champion and ‘home base’ for international educators and practitioners. The goal was to capture the energy, creative talent, diversity and forward-thinking qualities of the professionals and industry in BC, and create a cohesive and better organized, designed and equipped online presence. This drove a complete, ground-up re-conception and rebuilding of the existing BCCIE website, and a site for BCEQA which had never been represented online.

Meant to work in tandem, these Drupal-based CMS sites needed to present information to a diverse group of constituents from post-secondary administrators and government through to potential foreign students and their parents.

WORK

Using vibrant colours and presenting content on the homepages in a simple and graphic context has made these content-deep sites more accessible to all. The added functionality and ease of administration and content management by the client has breathed new life into the sites, of critical importance since this is the first and main touchpoint for most targets, especially international ones considering BC for their own or children’s education.

Launch websites: www.bceqa.ca or www.bccie.bc.ca

Drupal development by Bayleaf Software

Over the years as a design director, design association executive, and design instructor, I’ve been asked by innumerable potential students about the merits or shortcomings of the various local design schools. It seemed time to put these thoughts down in writing once and for all, hopefully saving me some time in the future.

When considering design schools in BC, most think first of schools like Emily Carr, Capilano, and Kwantlen. But what about Langara, Vancouver Film School, Malispina (now called Vancouver Island University), The Art Institute of Vancouver, or Vancouver Community College? They may not be the first that come to mind, but each have design programs that may be well suited for you. Though perhaps not at the top of your Google searches, the students and faculty at these lesser-known schools can be as talented and passionate about design education as their counterparts in the bigger schools.

Design schools differ in size and location, embrace varying philosophies and program lengths, employ instructors of all kinds with various backgrounds and experience, and range from inexpensive to rather pricey. But which one is for you? Unfortunately, the answer is the all-to-common “it depends”.

“After finishing my undergraduate degree in Alberta, I was seeking a particular kind of intense, shorter design program with real-world emphasis to take me to that next level,” says VFS Digitial Design student Joshua Michie. “What I didn’t realize until I really investigated and spoke with recent graduates and industry professionals,” says Michie, “was the variance between the programs offered.”

There are currently six post-secondary institutions in BC that offer a Bachelors degree in the design field. They include Emily Carr University (Bachelor of Design in Communication Design), Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Bachelor of Applied Design in Graphic Design for Marketing), Thompson Rivers University (Bachelor of Design), Simon Fraser University (Bachelor of Interactive Arts and Technology), Vancouver Island University (Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design), and University of the Fraser Valley (Bachelor of Fine Arts, Extended Minor in Visual Arts).

Several other schools, such as Capilano University, Langara College, Malaspina College, The Art Institute of Vancouver, Vancouver Film School, among others, all offer diplomas in various design fields, with a few of them currently restructuring their programs to offer Bachelor degrees in the coming years.

Here are a few tips when considering which design school is best for you.

1. Do your homework. Determine which schools work closely with local industry and what efforts they make to get their graduates hired. Do they offer internships, co-ops, or job placement assistance? Do they invite industry advisors to engage with their program? Do they participate with local industry associations? Do they have any real evidence of their success, such as percentage of students who land positions after graduation? Considering the investment you are about to make, any school worth more attention will easily be able to answer yes to all of these questions. But your investigation should not end there. Ask to speak directly with one or two of their top faculty about the program—this could actually have positive results if you enroll at their school too as it says something about you, your process, and how serious you are about your education. Also, consult the Society of Graphic Designers’ website at gdc.net/education, or contact your local chapter’s Education Chair for some perspective and advice.

2. Consider your goals and what you are willing to do to get there. It’s important to consider what your dream job is and work towards that. What credentials will you require to get your foot in the door? There are numerous end results of a design education, with better schools offering Certificates, Diplomas, Bachelor degrees and some Masters degrees (even beyond at some schools, but not in BC). Some schools offer an intense multi-disciplinary education into one or two years, others have programs spanning three years, while the Bachelor degree programs involve a four year commitment. The important thing is to consider where you are now (perhaps you already have an undergraduate degree and experience in the design field), where do you want to go (do you want to be an Art Director or a production designer?), and how much time and money can you commit to your education? It’s about fit for you, but do consider that there really is no substitute for a comprehensive education and a field as competitive as design has little room for short-cuts.

3. Seek out a balanced program. There are numerous choices for potential design students in BC, so one way to evaluate a program would be to look at the curriculum and consider how much hands-on studio time is involved. Criticism of some programs include too much theory versus practical, or too much emphasis on the electronic tools of the trade versus creativity, ideation, and the craft aspect (hand skills) of the trade. Some programs stress the importance of art and design history, and so they should, but you also want to find a school that embraces the cultural and technological changes that occur so rapidly these days and is committed to teaching current thinking and practical skills. What you’re looking for in a design program is a balance between these elements.

4. Look at the results yourself. Perhaps the best evidence of a school’s success and suitability is to evaluate their graduates yourself. Treat it like a design project and evaluate the competitive landscape among the graduates of various programs. Look at designers’ websites, portfolios, employers, and see if you can identify any trends among your findings. Which schools produce the students winning the most design competitions, such as GDC’s Salazar, Rock, or Graphex Awards? But don’t stop there, identify a couple Art/Creative Directors you admire or design firms you respect (or would like to work for) and pick their brains and ask them where they have hired their best young designers recently. The bonus is that once you make that connection you are on their radar, and that’s powerful fuel for a new graduate shopping a shiny new portfolio around looking for work.

5. You get what you pay for. Obviously a key consideration when choosing a design school is cost. We’re all restricted by the budgets available to us and often public schools are more affordable compared to private schools. More expensive design programs in BC—intensive year-long programs can be as much as $30,000—include some outstanding programs, opportunities and extras (some schools even provide laptops loaded with software when you enroll). Each school has different facilities and you should investigate what they offer, where they’re located, and what tools you get access to. But remember also that there is more to any particular program than can be reflected by tuition costs, so consider all the other factors above and make your choice knowing you did your homework and understanding what you’ll get in return for your investment.

6. Evaluate the vibe. One important aspect of choosing a design program often missed is the culture or “vibe” of the school. Get into their space. Walk the halls, listen to the students talking, check out a grad show. A huge part of your educational experience will be the feeling that the school, program, students—even the space itself—is a good fit for you. Do you sense creativity and passion? Do the students and faculty seem enthusiastic about learning, debating, and exploring design and visual communications? Will you feel excited about going to school each morning? If the answer isn’t yes to those questions, think again.

7. Be ready to fill in the blanks. Obviously choosing a good design school is an important step in your education and career, but remember too that many remarkable designers have emerged from lesser-known design programs. While not an ideal situation, young design students sometimes find themselves enrolled in shorter programs only to realize they are missing key components of their education. The reality is that a designer never really stops learning and the good ones always overcome by filling in the blanks themselves. In many ways, your design education begins the day you leave school and start working as a design apprentice.

“This is an industry filled with people that are working their dream job, making it an incredibly competitive industry to break into,” explains Joshua Michie, “I chose VFS because that gave me access to an international network that was connected to some of the biggest players in the industry.”

In the end, the most important thing for someone considering a career in the design field is to pick a school you’ll be happy with. So, with that in mind, spend the time to do due diligence as you examine your options thoroughly. Be relentless in your investigation of each school. Interview the school as much as they might interview you—but remember that they want you to choose them, so take their answers with a grain of salt and look for real evidence that they provide what you’re looking for. Many of the better design schools maintain blogs, student forums, portfolio and grad show pages, social media pages on YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter. Check them all out with a keen eye for clues that this is the place you want to be associated with. Seek out the information you need to validate them as your top choice, and then prepare yourself—be it a one year or four year program—there is hard work ahead.

Graphic Design Degree Programs in BC (these are changing, so if you know of updates to this list, please add send them to me or post them in the comments below):

Emily Carr University
Bachelor of Design in Communication Design
Bachelor of Design in Industrial Design (includes courses on sustainable design)

Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Bachelor of Design in Graphic Design in Marketing

Simon Fraser University
Bachelor of Interactive Arts and Technology

Thompson Rivers University
Bachelor of Design

University of the Fraser Valley
Bachelor of Fine Arts. Extended Minor in Visual Arts

Vancouver Island University
Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design

Diploma:

Arbutus College, Vancouver
The Art Institute of Vancouver
Canadian Community College, Abbotsford
Capilano University, Vancouver
Centre for Arts and Technology, Kelowna
College of New Caledonia,
Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo
North Island College, Courtenay
Oxford College, Vancouver
Pacific Audio Visual Institute, Vancouver
Pacific Design Academy, Victoria
PCT, Kamloops
Prince George, Prince George
Pro-soft Training Institute, Surrey
Royal Oak College of Design, Vancouver
Selkirk College, Castlegar
Surrey College, Surrey
Thompson Rivers University, Burnaby
Trend College, Kelowna
University Canada West, Victoria
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
VanArts, Vancouver
Vancouver Career College, Vancouver
Vancouver Film School, Vancouver

Certificate:

BCIT/Emily Carr Joint Certificate, Burnaby
Lasalle College International, Vancouver
Northern Lights College, Chetwynd
Vancouver Community College, Vancouver

WHERE

The identity of the recently merged programs of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at this leading Canadian university were suffering from a fragmented and underwhelming online presence. In comparison to the programs of other universities of this calibre, the site would have little influence on potential new students, and was not functional as a means to unite those currently in the program.

IDEAS

A key to the redesign of the SALA website was to present the UBC School of Architecture as a leader in the education of architecture, as well as to reflect a culture of design, research and community within the four recently merged departments. Additionally, the site required the delivery and management of a vast amount of program and admissions information in diverse graphic and textual forms in an easy to navigate format.

The site’s audience was identified as five distinct constituents, each with different goals, content priorities, and expectations for the website. The new site needed to present different information for each constituent. If a faculty member was to log in, their experience and permission to edit or create content would be different than that of a student’s or the public’s

WORK

In contrast to the many brochure-style school websites, Industrial Brand proposed that SALA present the exemplary work that is produced on an ongoing day-to-day basis by its community on their new site. The new design dynamically features content individually input by staff, faculty and students using a Drupal platform as a content management framework and an HTML and Flash presentation layer. Through the provision of individual blogs/conversations and the areas of the site provided to key groups, the site fosters interaction, exchange and exploration amongst the SALA community.

The site’s homepage greets visitors with three key navigational methods for entry to content: 1. Taxonomy – the familiar hierarchic menus along the top; 2. Folksonomy – a unique, sortable tag bar system along the right side; and 3. Chronology – time-based content like upcoming events/news displayed along the bottom.

“Industrial Brand’s process was educational, creative and productive, all at the same time. More importantly we are proud of the result (www.sala.ubc.ca), which has been a good fit with our unique design-oriented community and faculty, staff and students.” - Ronald Kellett, Professor of Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA)

Launch website: www.sala.ubc.ca

WHERE

With top-ranked teams throughout the collegiate system, TWU wanted to update their athletic department logo to more accurately reflect that of a “passionate, active and distinct athletic experience”. The new brand had to resonate with students, faculty, staff and alumni as well as competing teams from other universities.

IDEAS

While maintaining their name and heritage as the “Spartans”, we explored many options for evolving their existing logo at the same time as providing a completely new and dynamic look athletes and fans can both rally around. After much exploration, a completely customized typeface was developed for the wordmark and a fresh, dynamic and modern logomark emerged as the final artwork.

WORK

With the new logo in hand, and guidance from us, TWU’s internal design team set about applying the new identity to the myriad items of branded athletic uniforms, equipment, signage and playing fields and courts. This new look has garnered much praise and will likely become the most enduring of the team’s identities in the history of The TWU Spartans.

The BC Chapter of GDC has been selected among a select few organizations to receive the 2008 Capilano University President’s Service Awards as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations. GDC/BC was honoured for its continued support and contributions to the university, its students and the design industry into which their graduates enter upon completing their studies.

To celebrate its 40th year since opening in 1968, Capilano University will be holding a special President’s Service Awards event on Saturday, November 15 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Birch building atrium at the North Vancouver campus.

October 14th may be the most discussed election date in recent memory; individuals’ voices—and votes—have never mattered more. Perfectthewayweare.ca, an online resource website and video, was created by a group of young Canadians who want to draw attention to some of the major issues Canada is facing right now. This viral movement was developed to ensure that all Canadians are informed on the positions of each party and have the resources available to them to make an educated vote on Election Day.

Please check it out, ask questions and make the right decision for yourself. Vote!

Many thanks to those who contributed to the project. You know who you are!

Work on the web? Then you’re (hopefully) familiar with A List Apart. (if not, shame on you!) Last year they ran their first survey for Web Professionals (results located here) and it’s back this year. Go take a whopping 10-15 minutes out of your day and answer some questions about what you do!

One of my good friends recently took the plunge and moved his life to the Cambridge University in the UK to study Sustainable Engineering. Brendan Baker has been researching the eventual environmental impacts made during product design. His project seeks to answer the following questions:

To what extent have environmental impact assessment tools been adopted into commercial product design processes?

What are the business drivers for increased environmentalism in product design?

If you’re involved in product design, on any continent, check out his undertakingThe Ginkgo Project, and more importantly, take 5 minutes and fill out his survey. Could win you $100 gift certificate at Amazon!