AIGA Does Minneapolis

AIGA has done it again! We headed to Minneapolis this time to visit design firms for the spring semester's design trip. We visited the following companies and events (I stole the list from Truman's VisCom blog):

• Larsen Design -- Large design firm. One of the region's oldest and most well-respected firms.
• Baker -- Very large firm, almost exclusively focused on designing CPG (consumer packaged goods), mostly for big-brand supermarket labels like Nabisco, Dole, General Mills, etc.
• Duffy & Partners -- Small/medium design firm. They're the gold standard.
• Cocktails with Creatives -- An opportunity to network with professional designers and view the design exhibit "17 Designers" at the American Swedish Institute.
• Target -- Large retail chain. Meet with in-house design team to learn about what goes on behind the scenes at the national headquarters.
• Little & Company -- Large design firm. Been around Minneapolis for 25 years; one of our town's most reputable and well-known design agencies.
• Clockwork -- Large interactive firm, bedrock of the Minneapolis interactive community.
• Periscope -- Large design firm. Largest independently-owned design/ad firm in the midwest. Unique in that they do nearly all of their production in-house (photography, printing, etc.)
• Walker Art Center -- Arts center which features contemporary visual and performing art exhibits and programs.
• Mall of America -- alright, I added that one to the list. It's not exactly a design firm or an attended event, but we did go for about 2.5 hours and visited maybe, oh, 5 stores. A lot going on there!

All of the places were very helpful in forcing me to get my butt in gear for finding an internship. I'm still looking, so if anyone has ideas, send them my way! I started tweeting again; I can't promise it will last long, but I realized that most companies are tweeting about blogs and inspirational things they find for their design needs, so I might be able to find something helpful there. Why not, right?

Oh yeah! And I went snowboarding yesterday for the first time! It was AMAZING, although I am sorer (word?) than I think I've ever been in my life. I will definitely go back sometime!

Currently I'm in the process of making a website to hold, hopefully, my future online portfolio. I'm thinking that shortly I'm going to have to buy some of my own online space so I can maintain my own website. For now, I'm just going to attempt to understand Flash and Dreamweaver...gotta have that web to get an internship it seems like! Back to work...