« November 2004 | Main | January 2005 »
December 22, 2004
Winter "Break"
I'm off for winter break, which involves trips to Baltimore for Christmas festivities, then off to San Francisco for job interviews and kindergarten tours (for my daughter). Somewhere in between I have to finalize the syllabus for the Interface and Interaction Design class I'm teaching, which starts January 10th. It's a substantial overhaul from last year's class, both in terms of projects and curriculum.
In any case, I hope you have a great and festive holiday season and I'll blog you next year.
Posted by Dan at 1:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 19, 2004
Thesis Project Poster
I put together a poster (393k pdf) of this project for presentation at CMU and possibly at CHI and/or the IA Summit. I've submitted proposals and (for CHI) a paper in support of showing there, so we'll see.
Posted by Dan at 10:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Final Typography Project
Above is an image from my final typography project: two spreads and the front and back cover of a fake literary/arts journal called Cadence. I chose the 20th anniversary of White Noise, Don DeLillo's National Book Award-winning novel, as my subject matter.
Unfortunately, because of how I made this project (more on that in a second), I can't really post something that's going to do the final piece justice; even a pdf isn't going to look right.
In order to get an arty, grainy, 'zine-like feel, I used a technique that my professor Kristin Hughes taught me. First, you print out your pages backwards and then xerox them. Then you take lacquer thinner and paint it onto a sheet of newsprint (and thus stink up half of the second floor of the design building), then press the xerox onto the newsprint, smoothing it down. When you peel the xerox off the newsprint, the ink from the copy sticks onto the newsprint, giving it the texture you can sort of see above. It's a neat effect.
Posted by Dan at 6:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 18, 2004
Fall's End
Elizabeth is right: it's at the end of the semester that taking studio classes really catches up to you, with their final projects. I haven't posted here in 10 days, which is probably the longest I've gone while school is in session without an entry. When I haven't been furiously working (7am-midnight, 7 days a week), or taking final classes, I've simply been too exhausted and/or burned out to blog.
In any case, fall semester is over now, and all my projects turned in, and I've even gotten some of my grades, including the first B I've gotten in grad school. (Bs in grad school are the equivalent of the "Gentleman's C" of an earlier era.) I'm trying not to be annoyed by it, but it probably blows my chances of getting into the graduate school's honor society, Phi Kappa Phi. My GPA is now 3.88, my lowest previous grade being an A- (and only one of those). But it's not about grades, right? Right.
Posted by Dan at 6:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 6, 2004
If Desktops Reflect a State of Mind...
...my desk says it all on this, the last week of classes.
Posted by Dan at 9:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Thesis Project "Paper" Prototype
Please feel free to play with my low-fidelity, non-interactive prototype. Usually, these sorts of prototypes are done on paper, but I thought I'd try an online version so that I could get feedback from you good people. So please, feel free to leave me comments here or via email.
Posted by Dan at 8:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 1, 2004
A Light at Tunnel's End
In my email this morning:
Dear Carnegie Mellon Graduating or Graduated Student,
You are receiving this message because you have either graduated this past summer or will graduate this fall or coming spring.
Commencement is May 13-15...be sure to bookmark this web site for the most up-to-date commencement information.
Congratulations!
Enrollment Services and the Office of Events Management
I can't tell you how happy this made me.
Posted by Dan at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack