New York recap.

We’re all finally back from New York and settled in. The trip was amazing. It was a lot more eye-opening than I thought it would be. After the 14 hour bus ride up there, we dropped off our bags and rushed over to Crush+Lovely. The focus of their company may not be exactly what I want to do, but their offices were amazing, and they were laid back enough to want to do cool stuff like take us out for a taste test.

Then we went to Smart design, which is where Carla Diana works (worked as an instructor at Tech last year). What struck me most there was the shop, it was pretty comprehensive, and they seem to put a lot of emphasis on model making skills.

Curve, which was right next door, had a different approach to things. They were a much smaller company, but seemed to handle tasks just as large. This is also where we were introduced to the magic of Wacoms. I think we all knew they existed, but I persoanally didn’t know they could emulate hand sketching so well.

That night we were a little burnt out so we just ate and slept, and played princess uno.

The next day got up and headed to Nulux. It’s  a lighting design shop that designs and manufactures their lighting in house. It’s also something I wouldn’t see myself doing, but it was pretty impressive to see all the innovative solutions they had come up with. And the girl who showed us around had graduated from Tech, which gave me a lot more hope for my future.

Next up was Utley’s. They basically make high-end models. Such a shock, to find out that perfume bottles in ads are actually bigger than actual size. Crazy. That place has mad skillz.

Then it was over to Rockwell, the architecture group. They did the design for the Oscars. And Cirque d’Soleil. and a bunch of Broadway shows. Place was ridiculous. I think it’d be a great place to work.

After that we went to Ecco. They reminded me of what I thought I was going to see in a traditional design firm. Their designs were really cool, and it was nice to see that they had a mix of electronics and furniture.

That night we hung out around manhattan and visited Times Square, stopped the bus a couple times.

Next day we woke up and headed to Material Connexion. Huuuge library of materials. My favorites were the translucent concrete, the 3D formed wood, and the skin like one. I would really like to get a membership there via Georgia Tech.

We headed over to frog design. They were a lot more structural than other firms, and even seemed a little secretive. I don’t know if  I agree with all of their designs, but they’ve made such a contribution to the design world, they’re hard to ignore.

After we headed to probably my favorite place on the trip, Core77. They were so personal. And we got on the blog!! It surprised me to know that they all had backgrounds in design, but they were awesome, and Alan gave me a little advice on what to do for grad school.

The last firm we visited was Karim Rashid, we didn’t actually ‘visit’. But we met up with one of his designers, and he took us to a couple art galleries. The best thing he told us was that SolidWorks was actually useful. I really wanted to hear that from someone outside Tech, because it’s still hard to believe that it’s the standard out there.

Saturday we hung out at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum. Not what I expected but still really great. I think my favorite thing there was the room with the television where you could see a Donald Duck cartoon. Just the way the room was laid out was great thinking, the way you have to sit on the floor and tilt your head up like when you were a kid.

That night we went out to dinner, no designers  came to visit 😦 but we still had a great time.

Next day was rise and shine and back to Atlanta. I’m home safe, but I caught something on the way down, so I’m not feeling great. But it was so completely worth it.

-Sarah

---