Stop 1 | Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO
Durango, Colorado: Recently named the 8th worst dressed city in the United States, accepts Papyrus on signage down Main Street (which I would have styled accordingly but even Google Docs doesn’t use that font), and smoking in a bar is still OK. So why did two designers and a creative strategist from Denver drive 250 miles to spend 30 hours in a small town 6 hours away?
We are the #roadwarriors of AIGA Colorado and we hit the road last Friday at 7am to kick it with some design students. We were hosted by Fort Lewis College and had students attending from Colorado Mesa University only a few 170 miles up the road.
Friday night featured a social hour for the students, faculty, and of course the AIGA Colorado crew and included a film screening, Q&A and raffle. We did the ‘getting to know you’ out of the way and the Board Members and Volunteers from the AIGA CO chapter shared our own stories of sign painting and then screened the documentary Sign Painters. Dir. Faythe Levine and Sam Macon.
10am on a Saturday is rough for anyone but we are happy to boast that 32 of the original 38 attendees stood somewhat bright-eyed and bushy tailed the next morning when we kicked of a day of workshop + portfolio. Half of the students went off with Cat Fincun and Brandon Roth, both AIGA CO board members and Denver design pros, for a portfolio prep review session. The remaining students were subjected to a rapid prototype workshop where verbs only a designer could love were brought to life with only the use of some recycled cardboard, a box cutter, and tape to solve their design problems. Each group switched experiences and had to present their prototypes to the group to guess what each verb was.
I’ve done this workshop at least 60 times and the outcome from this group was amazing, one group had to prototype the verb “ruminate.” It was a tough exercise and they killed it! The portfolio work was decent as well and we can’t wait to see them bring their ‘A-game’ at The Review on April 25th, 2015.
This is stop one of many that will be a part of the AIGA Colorado Road Show bringing design thinking to all four corners of our creative state. If you are interested in AIGA CO bringing some programming and opportunities to your campus, or if you are a designer who wants to be a #roadwarrior for AIGA CO, reach out to Amber at theambermeister@gmail.com.
Next stop: University of Wyoming on February 24th with Peter Fine and his creative student group!
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