Yesterday, I had a lively conversation with someone (Tania) regarding my latest obsession, riding my bike—in traffic. Now, this someone is among the contingent who has nagged me for years about my diet, my lack of exercises, and my fondness for white chocolate mochas from Starbucks, even threatening to tattle to my nutritionist about minor omissions in my food journal. You’d think the bike riding would be cause for celebration. I’ve lost fifty pounds, my blood pressure has dipped to normal, and I feel like a kid again, out there weaving between the Hummers and the Beemers on Peachtree.

We’d …more

Here’s a little teaser from one of the student blogs:

Wednesday, August 17, 2005: In bed with Design

It’s a funny thing, this portfolio school. Once you work so hard for something you have so much passion for (or sometimes seems that you have convinced yourself you have so much passion for) you become married to it. What I know of marriage may not be much, but I do know that you can’t really escape the person unless you divorce them and then you are basically left with nothing but the brand that you have just divorced a person. I can’t stop thinking …more

Seems we have several among the Portfolio Center community—students, faculty, and alumni—who’ve started their own blogs—offering everything from the informative to the philosophical to the soap operatic. Here are a few I know about, and I’m hoping you guys will ‘comment’ with links to the ones I’ve yet to discover.

• okaysamurai.com
• lifeofaharpy.blogspot.com
• annepages.blogspot.com
• dontbeamachoman.blogspot.com
• flyingconundrum.blogspot.com
• boatsandstars.com/home/

Hi! and greetings from a very rainy, grey, can’t-see-beyond-your-elbow-in-fog Boston this morning… thought you all would like to see a picture from the AIGA Design Legends Gala held Wednesday evening at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in downtown Boston… an unforgettable black tie event celebrating the 2005 recipients of the AIGA Medal and the Corporate Leadership Award. The recipients of the awarding were Bart Crosby from Chicago, Meredith Davis of North Carolina State University and Steff Geissbuhler of C&G Partners of New York City and Hallmark Corporation and Gillette Corporation. I’m very proud of the representation of our students at …more

Radical Careering, a new book by Portfolio Center alum Sally Hogshead offers 100 truths to jumpstart your job, your career and your life.

Sally Hogshead is one of the advertising industry’s most celebrated creative directors, opening her own agency at age 27 and winning hundreds of national and international awards for clients such as MINI Cooper, Coke, BMW, and Harry Winston Jewelers. Since the age of twenty-three, Sally has been giving keynote speeches to and about Gen-X professionals; her book will be heavily promoted with motivational seminars around the country. Now a highly sought-after consultant and speaker, Sally lives in …more

This afternoon, I leave for the biennial AIGA Design Conference—the largest design conference in the world, with over 2500 designers. You’d think I could get lost in such a crowd, but no doubt I’ll still not escape the thirty-or-so Portfolio Center students who will also be in attendance—right in the middle of our studio weeks and critiques, no less. Everyone’s end-of-quarter “issues” (printer deaths, production problems) will be suspended in mid-air, like Roadrunner off a cliff, until we get back to Atlanta. But I’m looking forward to seeing old friends, perusing the student work, and participating on the roundtable Friday …more

Like all of you, I am overcome with sorrow for the residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in general. We at Portfolio Center offer our thoughts and prayers to the victims and their loved ones, some of whom are part of our family of students and alumni. As a school, we are striving to find a meaningful way to help in the long-term. For now, though, our guys and gals are mobilizing, taking action for the short-term, many of them sacrificing valuable studio week crunch time (I’m very proud of you and your priorities). They’re already collecting clothing, …more

It’s officially studio week, which is the last chance to make our projects perfect before critiques. Having gone through six of these puppies now, I think it’s about time to impart some tips and tricks to the first quarter students. Enjoy.

10) You will go to Sam Flax about ten times this week. Four times will be for Epson ink cartridges, three will be for foamcore, and three will be for more foamcore because you freakin’ messed up with the previous purchases.

9) The typical studio week diet consists of Starbucks, vending machine Snickers, 1:00 AM Soft Taco Supremes (Combo #4), and …more