Thursday, May 29, 2008

Interplay: Collaboration, Synergy, and Delight! featuring Marc English, Liz Lambert, Terri Ducay, Mark Rolston & Adam Greenfield

general session

There’s no better place than Austin to talk about how collaboration, synergy, and design can lead to delight. And no better person than our moderator and host Marc English, a hypercreative graphic designer, filmmaker, writer, teacher, and “renaissance cowpoke-cum-illustrator” whose studio is based in Austin. He is designing unique introductions to:

Austin resident, and innovator, urban boutique hotelier Liz Lambert, creator of the Hotel San José and Jo’s Hot Coffee, two landmarks in Austin’s vibrant South Congress district. How does a former attorney become an influential design muse? By creatively looking at new at run-down funky Austin. Liz has changed the face of South Congress by seeing potential in the down-on-its-luck Spanish Colonial-style tourist court, and turning it into a chic urban hotel and an absolute must see. Her latest projects are a rock n’ roll-themed hotel on a Victorian estate outside Austin and a kibbutz in the desert near the hotbed of artistic activity in Marfa, Texas.

Terri Ducay, a leader in the search to find common ground between technology, entertainment, and design. Ducay, former head of design strategy for Cheskin, currently focuses her work on using cultural design to meet the needs of emerging and Bottom of the Pyramid markets.

Mark Rolston, chief creative officer of frog design and a founder of its digital media group. Rolston directs his firm’s creative efforts for clients such as Hewlett-Packard, Nextel, Yahoo, Disney, Dell, and others. He’s been responsible for groundbreaking new media design work and user interface, including utility applications for the Compaq Presario.

Adam Greenfield, writer, teacher, and consultant on design, technology, and cultural issues. A former military psychological operations specialist, Greenfield is now head of design direction for Nokia and teaches Urban Computing at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. He is author of the book Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing.

SEGD Awards Luncheon & Fellow Celebration

luncheon

The 2008 SEGD Fellow, Ronald Shakespear, is an inspirational designer and speaker. He is the founder of Buenos Aires-based Diseño Shakespear and the creator of urban sign systems for the city’s underground, city hall, public hospitals, zoo, and city wayfinding. His work has been exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Triennale da Milano, and Icograda Helsinski. The SEGD community will celebrate his body of work and welcome him to the SEGD Fellowship.

WOW! Workshops on Wheels

Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems

workshop on wheels

Before there was LEED, carbon footprints, or even Cradle to Cradle, there was Max’s Pot, the non-profit education, research, and demonstration center specializing in life cycle planning and design. Led by renegade architect and landscape architect Pliny Fisk III, Max’s Pot undertakes projects based on their potential contribution to site, regional and global sustainability, and human health, emphasizing regional contexts as the basis for responsible use of materials, energy, water, waste, food, and meaningful employment. Fisk is one of the USGBC’s most popular conference speakers and is widely considered a pioneer in the Green movement, here and abroad. This is an experience that will leave you flooded with ideas.

Dell Children’s Medical Center & Mueller’s Information Center

workshop on wheels

Dell Children’s Medical Center is the first LEED Platinum-certified hospital in the U.S., and incorporates a unique organic wayfinding system that leverages the natural materials integrated into its construction. The tour will be led by Dan Clements and Joe Kuspan, AIA, heads of the Karlsberger design team that designed the hospital and its environmental graphics. The success of this project is a result of the team, including Brian Ott of TBG Partners, the landscape architect, and clients Alan Bell, Bill Cook, and Laura Speer of the Seton Family of Hospitals. You will have the time to talk with designers and clients on the challenges and rewards of the latest in healthcare design.

Long Center for the Performing Arts

workshop on wheels

This is truly an example of “perseverance furthers.” Impatient with some of your projects!? How to survive a complex public project?

After 16 years of planning and construction, Austin’s new Long Center for the Performing Arts is complete. Our private tour will be led by Stan Haas of Nelsen Architects and museum director Cliff Redd. Phase I of the old Palmer Auditorium’s transformation includes a large concert hall and a flexible studio theater. The design and location of the Center, created by Nelson Partners in collaboration with Zeidler Partnership Architects, combine to create an exciting cultural and economic resource for Austin. Lots of lessons to be learned here.

University of Texas at Austin

workshop on wheels

It is not just attending the famous UT football games. With thousands of first-time visitors, a densely packed central campus, ongoing construction projects, and multiple visitor garages, UT Austin needed a clear, user-friendly signage system. You’ll learn first-hand how Cloud Gehshan Associates developed a comprehensive system that defines the campus edges, provides highway trailblazers, creates standards for banners, and improves pedestrian wayfinding. With Cloud Gehshan designer, Barbara Schwarzenbach, the project liaison, graphic designer Frauke Bartels of the UT office of physical planning, and Jim Nicar of Texas Exes.

Urban Austin - Sponsored by Hudson & Hudson

workshop on wheels

Get a design insider’s view of what makes Austin so unique. If listening to Liz sparked your curiosity, you will certainly enjoy a personal tour. With Lambert, the owner of the Hotel San José, Jo’s Hot Coffee, and other Austin landmarks. She’ll show you the projects that changed the shape of the city. And as a special treat for our members, she’ll let you in on the progress of her own latest projects, including the rock n’ roll themed St. Cecilia Hotel, located on a Victorian estate.

Harry Ransom Center and Texas State History Museum - Sponsored by Skyline Design

workshop on wheels

The Harry Ransom Center on the UT Austin campus is one of the world’s most renowned literary archives. Among its collections are one of the few Gutenberg Bibles, housed in an exhibit designed by Pentagram. It also includes a rare first edition of Alice in Wonderland and one of Jack Kerouac’s spiral-bound journals for On the Road, to name just a few of its treasures. You will be invited into the inner sanctums of the collections with the curators, and see the new additions designed by Lake Flato Architects, with windows designed by fd2s, and fabricated by Skyline Design.

The Texas State History Museum is another Austin treasure. On our tour led by the museum’s director, you’ll see three floors of interactive exhibits that bring the state’s colorful history to life. BRC was the exhibit designer charged with the giant task of interpreting the history of the great state of Texas.

LEED Gold-Certified Austin City Hall

workshop on wheels

With Fred Evins, redevelopment project manager for Austin’s Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office

Behind the Scenes at Frog Design

workshop on wheels

Designed by green guru Michael McDonough, the offices of frog design were designed to be disassembled and incorporate low-VOC paints, recycled materials, and sustainable products. With special consideration given to designers, the spaces are designed with many curves to encourage non-linear thinking. The office is described as fun, cool, hectic, and crazy. Sounds like a stimulating place to spend an afternoon!

President's Reception at the Driskill Hotel

social event

Join friends — old and new — at a landmark hotel in the heart of Austin, built in 1886 as the showplace of a local cattle baron. Wear your boots and Stetson for an evening in the opulence of a bygone era.