Who is Ed Bartlett? Marine. Football fan. Music lover and social media advocate. He carves pumpkins with a chainsaw and is a guy who described being laid off as “perfect timing.” If you live along the Connecticut shoreline you may know his name because in just over one year, Bartlett has made it his job to pull together the people, artists, bands, and businesses of Connecticut.

Laid off from Linquist Builders Supply in March 2009, Bartlett wasn’t upset about it. His career had been successful and made him a good living, but it wasn’t until he started a Facebook page called Shoreline Out and About that he found his mission.

It had gotten to the point where I was unable to complete a thought or a task. This was so unlike me that I wondered if perhaps there was something physically wrong. Communications poured into my life. Emails on my desktop, laptop, Ipod and cellphone. SMS and voice messages. Phone calls, events, social media and news reports. Before I knew it, my day was done and all I had managed was to keep up with comms. I was getting tense and despite my attempts at giving every project my upmost attention, my day was becoming a patchwork of triage.

Featuring Ann Willoughby at Billings Forge Community Works, Hartford Connecticut

As creatives, we put design thinking into practice every day with clients. But, what happens when we apply that thinking outside of the office to other places and spaces? Inspiration that leads to transformation.

AIGA CT, in coordination with Sappi Fine Paper and Billings Forge Community Works, invites you to spend an evening with nationally respected designer Ann Willoughby of Willoughby Design as she shares stories of unique spaces and how they deepen our work and play, change lives and shape a community. This event includes dinner of handmade pizza that you and other guests will create with the wheat grown and harvested (all by bicycle!) by Billings Forge artist-in-residence Ted Efremoff of Bread Cycle Works.

Next weekend, October 16th, I’ll be taking a blanket, a warm woolen sweater and a picnic basket to The Sanctuary at Shepardfields in East Haddam Connecticut. My plan is to spend twelve hours unplugged (sorta), writing in the sunshine, and listening to the 14 bands which are scheduled for the Sanctuary’s Local Music Tribal Summit. I can not wait. The day should prove a wonderful mix of music and friends.

Hartford, CT:  Hartford artist, Balam Soto, participated in the October 25-26th Maker’s Faire at the NY Museum of Science, bringing home an “Editor’s Choice” award for his project entitled “The Cube v.2.5”.  The Maker Faire brings together scientists, engineers, artists and other lovers of the DIY (“do-it-yourself”) culture into a science-fair-type celebration of innovation and creativity.

Balam is a new media artist who skillfully combines the worlds of art and technology by creating interactive installations that incorporate hardware and software that he develops.  His winning piece, “The Cube v.2.5”, links tangible and digital reality.  The installation focuses on a projected cube that is manipulated by a physical cube that sits in front of the display.  Attendees of the event this weekend were delighted to realize they had become part of the installation when they discovered a realtime video of themselves in the projected cube.

Balam’s Maker exhibit was partially supported by the City of Hartford Arts and Heritage Jobs Grant Program, Pedro E. Segarra, Mayor with funding from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG-R) funds allocated to the City of Hartford through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Like border violators, graphic designers Jan Cummings and Peter Good have crossed the line that separates personal subjective visual art and public objective visual communications that serve the needs of businesses and institutions. Sometimes, for Cummings & Good, the distinctions between art and design become ambiguous. A fortunate condition for us who love creative visual arts.

Join Cummings & Good in their gorgeous new gallery space, Posters & Prints, for AIGA Connecticut’s 3rd Breakfast Epiphany as the design team discuss forty years of “Turning Design into Art and Back Again”.

Together, Cummings & Good can be described as: Design legends, AIGA Fellows, illustrators, painters, entrepreneurs and pillars of the community.

October 13, 2010
7:30am to 9:00am . . . but you know how good conversations can get…
Coffee and light breakfast fare will be served.

Cummings & Good, Chopin Leaf Poster

Cummings & Good
3 North Main Street
Chester, Connecticut
860.526.9597
www.cummings-good.com

This event will be limited to 15 attendees only and we expect tickets to go fast.
Register today at:
www.connecticut.aiga.org

The AIGA Connecticut Breakfast Epiphany Series is an open, intimate conversation with a thought leader and 10 new friends. Topics are designed to traverse the borders of business, creative and nonprofit communities for eye opening and unexpected discussions. With a creative or industry professional leading the way, these mini-events are hosted throughout the state and cap at a maximum of 10 guests. This is not a lecture series. This is an opportunity to start your day with inspiration and good conversation.

This summer, my son Kyler and I created an oasis (what we call the awaysis) in our backyard. It was a spot lovingly chosen under an apple tree and looks back into the woods behind our house. We have a huge variety of birds that visit (hummingbirds, and the Red-Tailed hawk being my favorites). There are flowers, butterflies and dragonflies. Kyler and I hung wind chimes, geraniums, and purchased the best glass top writing table we could find. We set up two chairs for the table and two lounge chairs for relaxed reading. This place is our escape. This place is where we go to do our writing and thinking . . . and a bit of wine drinking.

What Now? In the midst of a general malaise regarding North America’s influence on the world, we are witnessing a return to the best of American popular culture. Optimism. Hope. A quest for truth. A demand for accountability. Yearning for deeper connections with the world, we see the resurgence of creativity and crafts once on the verge of extinction. Social media, the wild west of the internet, is taking root in our lives. So where does design fit? What might it represent in years to come? Dana explores some of the visionaries who have made our profession significant and the content creators who are the harbingers of our new age. Join AIGA Connecticut, as Dana Arnett explores their tenacity, intelligence and power to claim their rightful place at the centre of our collective future.

Though many designers can claim to have done work for Motorola, Harley-Davidson and IBM, Dana Arnett and VSA Partners haven’t just designed for these companies, they’ve built the backbones by which those brands are known. Come hear the designer who set the bar on brand experience share who he believes will be the next creative thinkers to watch and why you should be following them right now.

DANA ARNETT is the “A” of VSA Partners, leading a team in the creation of design programs, film projects, interactive initiatives and brand communication solutions for clients that includeHarley-Davidson, Motorola, School of Rock,IBM, GE, American Express, Sure, Converse, Nike, Wilson, Target, Cole Haan, and Sappi, to name a few. Recognized globally by more than 60 competitions and designations, Dana was an inductee into the Alliance Graphic International and named to the ID40. Former member of the AIGA National Board of Directors and a frequent lecturer and visiting professor, he is active in furthering the role of design in society through contributing publishing endeavours, conference chairmanships and foundation activities.

Friday, September 24, 2010
7:00 PM – 9:30 PM

University of Hartford / Auerbach Auditorium:
200 Bloomfield Avenue
West Hartford, Connecticut 06117

$35 members
$50 non-members
Students are free with student I.D.

Dana is a national headliner. We only have 12 tickets left for this extraordinary event.  Register today at AIGA Connecticut.