Professor Ron Riksen has been teaching graphic design at Kendall for 40 years, and for 25 of them, his graphic design classes have participated in a rite of spring: Designing the annual picnic poster for law firm Varnum Riddering Schmidt & Howlett. The poster’s requirements are fairly simple. It needs to include the date and location of the picnic, the firm’s name (recently shortened to the single word “Varnum”) and measure 12 inches by 18 inches. “In some years, the poster has reflected the picnic’s theme, in others, the poster mirrors the location,” says Riksen. “I always like to take students up to the second floor hallway near the atrium where all the past posters are displayed, so they can see how the different themes and locations have been graphically represented over the years,” says Riksen. As we toured the gallery together, Ricksen pointed to the first poster, which was composed of torn strips of blue paper. “Many of the early ones were hand-done,” he said. “We didn’t have computers when we first started. In a way, this gallery is a mini-timeline Read More…

If I recall correctly, the last project I made in high school art class was an ugly, mushroom-shaped ashtray. (My dad was a smoker.) But Rick Brunson remembers his high school Read More…

  Our third speaker Tuesday at NeoCon was Justin Ahrens, founder and principal of Rule29. Rule29 is not your typical Chicago advertising agency. For one thing, Read More…

 Our second speaker Tuesday (remember, there were three) was Geoff Gosling, Environmental Designer at DIRTT. The name, DIRTT, can be a little deceptive. DIRTT is an acronym Read More…

On Monday, we crawled the floors of NeoCon (not literally, of course), seeing great design. Tuesday, our brains were as packed as the showrooms as we had the opportunity to hear Read More…

  NeoCon is a show. To paraphrase Ed Sullivan, a really big show. Celebrating its 43rd year in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, NeoCon is the premier design center for the Read More…

  Have you ever heard of CCID? Neither had I until Sunday, June 12, but more about that later. It was our first day in Chicago for NeoCon. Our first order of business was Read More…

Traditions can be good things. Kendall College of Art and Design and NeoCon have a few in common. I’ll elaborate. First, 2011 will be the 16th year that Kendall students Read More…

  Last time I blogged, I wrote about the Kendall “Big D” design class that will be attending NeoCon in Chicago June 12–16. NeoCon is North Read More…

  If you live in Grand Rapids, no doubt you’ve heard of NeoCon. And if you have anything at all to do with the world of design, you’ve been to Read More…