Big Bang and IDSAtlanta Present: From Our Heads to Your Hands

Duane Smith and Stefane Barbeau are the owners of Vessel, a housewares design and distribution company. They are also co-founders, with five other people, of the conceptual design organization Release1. They will join us in Atlanta on November 30th to share their experience in designing and selling their own product ideas.
PRESENTATION SYNOPSIS from the presenters: 'From our heads to your hands' - "It's important for designers to be part of the entire product cycle, from thinking of an idea, to making the product, to showing it to the public. Designers make great entrepreneurs! They are trained in problem solving and coming up with elegant solutions that can be applied to much more than just products. Running a business, making a website, holding an exhibition and communicating your message to the world can all be treated the same way. Our goal is always to connect as closely as possible to the public; this strengthens our design work, and allows us to see immediate results from our experiments via our work in Vessel and Release1."
BIG BANG will host and sponsor the evening's festivities at their studio space located in Decatur. More detailed agenda to follow. RSVP to let us know you'll be there...space is limited!
When: November 30, 6:30 PM
Where: Big Bang, 409 Mead Road, Building 7, Decatur, GA 30030 (click here for directions)
RSVP: rsvp@idsa-atlanta.org

IDSAtlanta Shows BIG in TEXAS

Left: Scott Lehman of Philips Design accepts one of two IDEA awards Philips received this year as Michelle Berryman of Echo Visualization looks on. Right: Formation Design Group accepts an IDEA award on the stage. Speaking of Michelle, Ms. Berryman is the President-Elect of IDSA National (congratulations!), so wish her luck as leads the charge for big changes in 2007-2008.
Other Atlanta IDSA attendees at the 2006 national conference included representatives from Blue Sky Exhibits, Facet Technologies, Lithonia Lighting, Hobbs Architectural Fountains, Auburn University, Georgia Tech, SCAD, The Coca-Cola Company and Morris+Baily Industrial Design.
Finally...Don't forget to VOTE in this year's elections! All IDSA members should have received ballots in their mailboxes for officer elections and by-law changes. Ballots are due October 23, and must be physically mailed to be counted.

Cooper Lighting Fundamentals

Many thanks to Chris Bryant, Chris Laedwig, Greg Lehman and the rest of the team at Cooper Lighting for hosting IDSAtlanta last month. Everyone had a fantastic time while learning lighting fundamentals from the resident expert, taking a tour of Cooper's state of the art lighting facilities and discussing design while catching up with local professionals. We even had a healthy debate when Chris Bryant opened up the event for discussion around marketing your internal design team, and everyone was eager to share their experiences in communicating design to internal client groups. It was a great evening of shared insights from Cooper Lighting and from our design colleagues, so thanks, again, for an enlightening evening!