Congratulations to our Department Head of Photography, Jerry Burns. His web site— Studioburns.com—is a featured Site of the Week right now on Livebooks.

For two days each September, Barkley agency in Kansas City locks its doors, rents a historical downtown theater, and kicks off a Creativity Symposium for its 350 employees – from the financial people to the highly creative folks.

They invite speakers from all over, and this year I was honored to give the opening session. I left totally impressed with Barkley’s commitment to creativity. Their motto is “Every idea has an expiration date,” so they’re constantly after new ideas – and new ways to discover those ideas.

“Great ideas can come from anywhere – and from anyone,” says Brian …more

An alum recently sent me the link to this post on ICSID about Design Education and the Corporate Partner. In it, Dr. Mark Brietenberg states:

Many international companies, such as General Electric, Nike, Hewlett Packard, Intel Corporation, and others, are devoting a larger share of their research and development budget to shared projects with design schools. Again, this is important evidence that corporate thinking about design is changing: these are partnerships involving innovation strategy and advanced research, not work for hire.

The article suggests that corporations get the benefit of the great ideas and “blue sky” thinking of young talent, willing …more

I am fifty-four years old. I am not an athlete. I have never been to a football game above the high school level. (And only then because my daughter was in the band.) I have, however, stood six feet in front of Peter Green (of the original Fleetwood Mac) as he played the guitar solo to ‘Black Magic Woman’ through a tower of Wem Amplifiers that nearly blew the skin off my face with their sheer volume. A musically historic and defining moment for me. Different strokes for different folks.

Nowadays, this non-athlete rides a bike. Not because Jesus and Lance …more