get educated

designboom is a website concerned with (mostly industrial) design. i know it from a competition they ran for designing kitchen-related things, with categories on several scales, from appliances to fittings to whole kitchens. i thought of an idea i liked, worked on it for a while but didn't end up entering, because i was happy with what i had learnt through the design process. my idea was a whole kitchen based around one island, so when several people are cooking or hanging around in the kitchen, they are facing each other, not the walls. it's also quite space-efficient. the project that won had pretty much the same concept as mine, but the finished product was more refined and much better presented, obviously by someone with more experience than me. they won $5000 and an opportunity to present the idea at the cologne furniture fair. i was actually pretty chuffed that my idea was so similar to the winning entry, it was a nice validation for the work i had done, as well as prompting me to improve my own skills.

anyway, i just checked their site, they're now offering distance-education courses called design-aerobics where you get emailed work, do homework and present a final design at the end, and receive feedback.

there are two "cycles" that are about to start, with three courses each. the first is "things", with courses on cutlery, toys and jewellery, the second is "furniture", with courses on furniture in a box, do-it-yourself and "table". you can do a whole cycle for US$140, or just one course for US$59. the site is quite well-regarded, so just to get your final design published on there would be worth the money. the person who runs it is also quite well respected, judging by the company she keeps and the collaborations she does.

if you're in the design field, it'd be quite worthwhile. i'd like to do one of the furniture courses. i don't have anything to do this semester anyway...