Lance Barr, Nintendo February 4th

Thursday, February 4th at 6:30pm, WWU IDSA welcomes Nintendo of America’s Director of Product Design, Lance Barr. In the second of our guest lecture series for winter quarter, Lance will share his life experiences, advice, and design wisdom. We will start promptly at 6:30 so please come early, space will be limited.

Lance Bar is currently the Product Design Director for Nintendo of America. After studying industrial design at Western Washington University and the University of Washington, Barr consulted with different Northwest companies, including Cybot, an educational robot kit manufacturer, and later joined Nintendo in 1983. Mr. Barr has worked in the field of industrial design more than 27 years, acquiring more than 20 US and international patents, concentrating on video game and consumer electronics design, including the original NES and Super NES, several video game controllers including the NES Hands Free controller.

Hope to see you all there!

Featured ID Student: Senior Beth Blair

Senior Industrial Design student Beth Blair was gracious enough to send me a new blog interview. Check out some great advice on taking risks, working alongside your classmates, as well as some insight from her summer internship at Intel.

“…We’re all here to learn, and that doesn’t happen without some trial and error. It’s been said many times before, but it’s true: If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough”

2010 WWU IDSA Spring Trip

It’s Official! The annual WWU IDSA trip will be traveling to Denver to attend the IDSA Western District Conference. Clear your calendars for April 22nd-25th, you may have to miss a class or two so make sure to talk to your professor the first day of class in spring quarter. Things to look forward to are guest speakers, workshops, portfolio reviews, senior student merit award winner presentations from the Western District ID schools, checking out Denver. For a little preview, here’s Core77’s wrap-up from the 2008 Conference in Portland. To sign up and receive updates / info, sign up on the list in the Sophomore Studio or e-mail wwuidsa@gmail.com

ID Portfolio Review: Saturday February 6th 2pm

The annual IDSA NW portfolio review will be going down on Saturday,  February 6th 2-6pm at the Ballard Library, 3614 22nd Ave NW Seattle. Drinks to follow at Old Peculiar 1722 NW Market St. Seattle from 6-9pm. This is a great opportunity to get feedback from real design professionals before applying for internships or jobs.

Paul Kearsley, Freelance Designer January 14th

The first IDSA guest lecture series of 2010 will be landing on Thursday, January 14th, at 6:30pm. Paul Kearlsey, WWU ID graduate of 2007, will be speaking on green design and also sharing a sample of his portfolio. This is a great opportunity especially for students interested or active in the sustainable design minor. Hope to see you all there!