December 16, 2015

GD Faculty Amy Fidler, Jenn Stucker, and Alumni Jacob Parr Crash The Big Easy with AIGA

Posted in Alumni, News.

Revival, the AIGA annunal conference highlighting design, designers, and design thinking was a wild ride in New Orleans this October. BGSUGD Faculty Jenn Stucker and Amy Fidler spoke on the panel Thinking About Teaching? How to Trade Clients for Curriculum and BGSUGD Alumni Jacob Parr (’13) competed onstage in the Command X design competition.

An honor bestowed on a select few designers out of thousands submitted to compete, Command X puts designers on stage before influential judges such as Gail Anderson, Aaron Draplin, Marc English, and more, to hear comments and critiques. Seven designers enter the competition, and only one can take home the prize. Jacob took the show on in full force with his first submission by creating an entire typeface from scratch stylized around the theme of voodoo priestess Marie Laveau. The comments and critique from judges offered high praise for achieving the complete custom typeface in time for the competition and praised Jacob’s construction and concept. Supportive criticism came in regard to design research and insight into the appropriation of visual cultural vernacular.

Jacob won the round and successfully progressed to the next challenge,  a rebrand of Southern Comfort. It was at this level that Jacob, while solidly designed, fell to the weight of online voting and took an incredibly close second to Cards Against Humanity designer Amy Schwartz and her equally strong design work. Parr has no regrets and only positive experiences to share from the event having met idols, networked with killer designers, and left the event with more than a few new highly talented friends.

On a note of serendipity, Parr has recently completed a successful Kickstarter launch of his own card game, Master Thief, with his newly formed company Sparr Games. Meeting Amy Schwartz from the hit card game Cards Against Humanity was a pleasure for Sparr, and he notes that the friendships made at the event are his favorite piece of the experience.

Aside from the excitement of competition, our faculty had a feature of their own. One of the education affinity sessions at Revival was Thinking About Teaching? How to Trade Clients for Curriculum. From a wrap up on educators.aiga.org:

“The Saturday morning program explored basic professional concerns about entering and advancing in academia. The near full house featured a mixture of professionals thinking about teaching or doing so part-time, and current instructors looking for advice from the veteran presenters. Amy Fidler, Lecturer at Bowling Green State University and DEC Steering Committee member, served as session moderator and introduced the proceedings.

The three presenters charted a course from deciding to enter teaching to securing tenure at a public institution. In “Becoming a Design Educator,” Jenn Stucker, Assistant Professor at Bowling Green State University covered the philosophical and personal dimensions of choosing to teach. Annabelle Gould of the University of Washington followed with an outline of the application process.

Karen Zimmerman, Professor at Arizona State University concluded with “Navigating the Academic Career,” understanding how achievement is measured in academia and the practical concerns of applying for and gaining tenure. Audience questions following the presentations included inquiries about the applicability of K–12 teaching experience to the university level (experience is experience!) and how teachers stay motivated and connect with diverse audiences.

A PDF of the presentation slides is available here.

Congratulations Jenn & Amy on a successful talk, and congratulations to Jacob & all our BGSUGD attendees who made the trip to take part in the excitement (stay tuned for an upcoming post highlighting their experiences!). There were (possibly, probably) a few spilled drinks, a few torn jeans, a LOT of great design work, and a plethora of killer experiences crammed into one design-packed weekend.