This morning at Algonquin College

This morning Steve and I went to speak to students of Graphic Design at Algonquin College. We were invited to speak about interactive design and what they can expect out there in the industry.

We went and did a pretty full talk on our history in building up Teknision, then shared our visions of the future of the Graphic Designer role in the web of the future.

It was a great visit. The class was very interactive and very well educated on topics even way outside the realm of design. I had a side talk with one student about the validity of open source software in business...? I'm serious!

Anyways, many of the students kept speaking to us aside saying that they were having trouble making contact with the design community here in Ottawa. According to them, many firms in the city won't even give them the time of day.

We told them to focus on getting themselves out there with great websites, and focus on the global scene. Get invloved in design/technology communities online, and start blogging. Put your personality and experiences in relation to their future career out there on the net, and get talking with people that are going to be your new peers.

After all the discussion we sat and watched video show reels that all of the students had been working on. I was really really impressed! Most of the work was very well done, and more professional than most student work I have seen in awhile. Some of the Flash work we saw was also awesome.

Algonquin actually picked up James Acres this semester to help teach interactive design in the course. His influence, and experience can really be seen rubbing off on the students in the work they showed us. Very progressive, beautiful stuff.

Anyways, if anyone from the design community in Ottawa is reading this, give these guys an interview. You will be suprised at what they show you.

Looking forward to portfolio review at the end of the year =)